The Loser by Thomas Bernhard

I usually give a questionable book at least a hundred pages before I give up on it. Not this book - I stopped reading at about page 25. It's a long soliloquy; it's one claim to fame seems to be that it is written in one long paragraph. Not strictly true - there are four paragraphs. I can sum up what I think it is about in one sentence - "If I can't win, I won't play." It's not about music, as you might think. It's about giving up when you can't be the best. I read far enough to learn that the narrator did not pursue a musical career because he loved music, but to spite his family. He abandoned his career because he could not play as good as Glenn Gould. There seems to be no plot, no setting, and very little characterization. It's just the narrator rambling on and on in incoherent sentences. Perhaps that is a problem with the translation. The first thing in this edition is an apology from the translator.

I don't have much sympathy with the narrator, of course. I am an amateur musician and writer. Should I give up playing the piano because I am not Glenn Gould? Should I give up writing because I can't get published? I know one thing - I gave up on reading this book.

Link to Amazon: The Loser: A Novel

An Equal Music by Vikram Seth

A novel of music and obsession. Michael Holme is a violinist, the second violin on the famous Maggiore String Quartet. A decade earlier, instead of pursuing a solo career, he left his teacher in Austria and retreated to London. He also abandoned the love of his life, Julia. Imagine his surprise when he sees her on a London bus. She shows up at one of the quartets concerts, and they begin an affair, since she is now married with a son.

There is a surprising plot twist here, which I will not reveal, since to do so would spoil the surprise and the book for the reader. But the twist does bring up some interesting moral questions. To what lengths would you go to play the music that you love with the person that you love? Would you risk your own career? Would you risk the careers and reputations of your friends and colleagues?

The decisions made by Michael are interesting to question and debate, something that would make this a good book club selection. His character is, for me, too self-centered and indecisive, although the author does an entirely convincing job portraying Michael's character.

The descriptions of the music and the musicians ring true, and musicians of any instrument or style of music should find the book an interesting and enjoyable read.

Link to Amazon: An Equal Music: A Novel

Body and Soul by Frank Conroy

Now this is a good novel. It has everything: fully developed characters, an interesting setting, enough plot to keep the novel moving forward, and music. It's the story of Claude Rawlings, from his earliest memories to the premier of his piano concerto with the London Symphony. Claude grows up in post World War II New York - he is a war baby. His mother is a 300 pound, taxi-driving, army-boot-wearing, communist sympathizer who locks him in their basement apartment while she drives her cab. Hidden in the back room is a small 66 key piano, and Claude teaches himself to pick out the songs he hears on the radio.

In a lucky break (one of many in the novel) Claude befriends a music store owner down the street who recognizes the young boys talent and gives him his first piano lessons. Only later do we find out he music store owner is a Polish refugee who also happens to have been the premier composer of his generation. The lucky breaks continue for Claude throughout his career, as he makes friends with people who can teach and help him.

Readers who have shared the experience of piano lessons as a child or teenager will find much to identify with. Readers who are musicians on any instrument will recognize their own struggles in Claude's journey.

Only after some emotional stress enters Claude's life, and his too-easy road becomes uncertain does his music really soar. Several small mysteries keep the novel moving forward. Who is Claude's unknown father? What will happen to his mother and his old friend, his first piano teacher. Will he find love?

The novel is a complete package, a very satisfying read, and an accurate portrait of a young musician. I highly recommend it.

Link to Amazon: Body and Soul

The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason

The only book I know of that features a piano tuner as the protagonist. It's 1886, and an eccentric British Army surgeon in Burma needs his piano turned. The surgeon is so important to the British Army efforts to colonize Burma that Edgar Drake, a piano tuner in London, is recruited to journey to Burma and tune and repair the surgeon's Erard grand piano.

The novel owes much to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Is the surgeon deep in the jungle of Burma merely an influential doctor, or has he gone native? Is he working in the best interest of the British Empire, or does he have other plans? And why is a piano so important? Drake's journey is eye-opening as he encounters a culture that he never imagined could exist. He falls under the spell of Burma as well as the eccentric surgeon who has brought him to tune his piano. Of course things get out of hand - Drake has to repair damage to the piano from a bullet.

The writing is good, although at times the author abandons traditional dialogue punctuation in favor of a style that is confusing at best - he would have been well-advised to stick to traditional punctuation at all times.

Here is the climatic moment when Drake finally arrives at the location of the piano:

Edgar climbed out of the boat.
The man looked at him without speaking. The piano tuner's clothes were still soaked with mud, his hair matted against his forehead. He could feel the dried mud on his face crack as he smiled. There was a long silence and then he slowly raised his hand.
He had thought about this moment for weeks, and about what he would say. The moment called for words fit for History, to be remembered and recorded once the Shan States were finally won and the Empire secured.
"I am Edgar Drake," he said. "I am here to repair a piano."

Yes, it seems a little overblown and melodramatic when quoted. I admit that I laughed when I read that passage. The plot is, for the most part, predictable. The ending (which I will not reveal) may be disappointing to some.

And how is the depiction of the actual piano tuning? Spotty. I have had some experience in this area, in the moving, tuning, and repair of pianos. It seems that the Erard grand was transported across Burma without removing the legs - not likely. The piano tuner is called on to perform, and is able to play multiple preludes and fugues from Bach's Well Tempered Clavier without much, if any, preparation. I find that hard to believe for even a professional pianist. The descriptions of the actual tuning of the piano are also not technically accurate, at least not consistent with modern practice. But this is fiction, and we should give the author, whose training is in medicine, the benefit of the doubt.

Overall I give it two and a half stars out of five. It's a good effort, and where else can you read a book where a piano tuner is the principal character?

Link to Amazon: The Piano Tuner: A Novel

Clara by Janice Galloway

subtitle: A Novel of Clara Schumann

A fictional account of the real-life character Clara Wieck Schumann, her father Friedrich Wieck, and her husband Robert Schumann. Clara's life is told from her earliest memories, through her training by her father as a concert pianist, her forbidden courtship with Robert, her troubled marriage, and Robert's confinement and death. This is not a happy story, something that is obvious from the very beginning. Clara's father is strict and overbearing, and treats her as property to be exploited. She is a gifted pianist, and begins touring (with her father) in her early teenage years. Clara's skill makes her father famous as a teacher, and Robert Schumann (nine years older than Clara) becomes a student. The inevitable happens when Clara and Robert fall in love.

Even at this early stage, Robert's instability is made obvious by the author. The marriage is forbidden by Friedrich, and Robert and Clara have to resort to appealing to the courts for permission to marry, which happens once Clara comes of age. The marriage is troubled from the start. The author portrays Robert as suffering from alternating periods of manic and melancholic states. Clara is perpetually pregnant, and forced to tour to support the family. She compares the difficulty of living with Robert to walking on eggshells.

This is fiction, of course, but based largely on fact. The edition I read (ISBN: 0743238532) includes an interview with the author in which she states that she was as accurate as she could be without being slavish. The tone throughout, in my opinion, is one of quiet desperation. We are always waiting for the next crisis in Robert's life. The author's style heightens the feeling of anxiety.

Clara suffers terribly from her father and from Robert, but there are moments when she is happy, although there is always the threat of disaster looming. All the famous musicians of the time make an appearance in the novel: Paganini, Liszt, Mendelsohn, and the young Brahms. The author is not a musician, but I could not tell it from the writing - she does an excellent job.

Here is the young Friendrich, describing his fascination for the piano:

... God wanted Friedrich for the piano. What else explained his fascination, his feeling of kinship for the instrument? Something about its hamstrung innards, its rickle of ivory slats, kept drawing him almost against his will. Dependent and tyrannical, willing and resistant, the piano soothed and irritated in equal measure. You could spend your life trying to tame the brute, coaxing it, pursuing its relentless demand for mastery. What music it could make: and orchestra in a box! It was peerless. Yet it was nothing, no more than a stranded whale, without a human operative. Without him.

And here is Clara, thinking about the manuscript for Schumann's piano concerto:

... Even the look of it thrilled her: the bar lines looped over and skirted and duped for melody's sake, effects that could be seen only on the page, not heard in their full subtlety at all. It was clever and beautiful, but it was more that that. It was proof. Proof that sheer effort of will could construct a wholeness where none existed. Proof that music and those who made it could confront chaos, and find in it what was tender and fantastical and clear and true. And this was her purpose: to play such music; music that made everything, everything, come through.

Reading the novel put me in my own melancholic state for days. Isn't that what we desire from good literature? That it is so convincing and real that we are lost in the story? Thankfully we have Clara's legacy as a concert pianist and Robert's music to keep their memories alive - and this excellent novel.

Link to Amazon: Clara: A Novel

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I would almost rather discuss the author's portrait on the inside back cover of my edition than the novel. Don't get me wrong, the novel is good. A college student finds himself caught up in a murder and it's cover up. His clique of friends are strange. It's almost a tribute to "Crime and Punishment", as the friends each react differently to guilt over what has happened.

But the author's portrait is intriguing. She looks serious and defiant, her arms crossed in front of her, her head tilted slightly to the side, an slight, enigmatic smile on her face. Penetrating dark eyes, dark hair, and a very pale face. I can imagine her seeing through all deceptions to the truth within. Very much like her writing.

Link to Amazon: The Secret History

Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

The first detective mystery novel? Yes, and still one of the best. Wilkie Collins was a contemporary of Charles Dickens. This novel has all the aspects of a good mystery. Interesting plot (the moonstone is a stolen diamond), a series of interesting characters, blind alleys, red herrings, unexpected twists and turns, and so on and so forth.

It's told in an interesting way - first person serial. Each character tells their part of the story from the first person perspective. This is a seldom-used method of writing the novel, later to be made famous by William Faulkner in As I Lay Dying.

The only thing that is a little dated is the presence of opium in the plot - understandable since Collins was an addict. I suppose he was writing from personal experience. The treatment of opium seems naive, but what can you expect from the nineteenth century.

Highly recommended, and much more readable than some of the Dickens' novels.

Link to Amazon: The Moonstone (Modern Library Classics)