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Fiddle Fiction by Susan M. Barbieri You’ve stuffed your music in its bag and packed extra strings. You’ve got your plane ticket and rental car arranged. Music stand? Check. Rosin? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Swimsuit? Check. Summer books? Uh-oh. Never fear. We’ll have you stocked up for your summer trip in no time—but not with ponderous composer biographies or nonfiction tomes by music pedagogues. If your appetite for music extends to novels, I’d like to let you in on a nearly decade-old obsession of mine. I’ve always been on the lookout for high-quality contemporary fiction, and it can take some perseverance to hunt down the best stories by the most talented writers. About eight years ago, when I was reviewing books for the Orlando Sentinel, a review copy of John Hersey’s Antonietta landed on my desk. I read and enjoyed this fictional account of the life and times of a Stradivari violin. A coworker then suggested I check out Frank Conroy’s Body and Soul, the story of a boy who is a piano prodigy. So began my collection of novels featuring music as a theme, or musicians as the main characters. Today, that collection takes up one full bookshelf. Some are great books, others are just OK; a few are simply wretched. Here are reviews of some novels in which music or musicians play a role, whether major or minor. There’s something here for everybody—the themes range from mystery to surrealism to romance. (This is not a comprehensive list, so if you have other music-themed novels to recommend, please let us know.) Except where noted, the books are available in paperback, which should help to keep your suitcase light and your travel budget intact. In Body and Soul, by Frank Conroy (Dell Publishing, $11.95), it’s post–World War II Manhattan. Six-year-old Claude Rawlings sits in the dim light of a basement apartment at a white piano, picking out sounds he has heard on the radio. So begins this sweeping, satisfying novel that traces the development of a prodigy into an artist and takes the reader from the lonely world of a genius working amid squalor to the playgrounds of the rich. Conroy sweeps you along with Claude as the boy discovers the joys of music, and you can’t wait to find out what happens next. One of the best, most compelling music stories around. Once in awhile, a novel comes along that turns me into an evangelist, imploring anyone within earshot to read it. Corelli’s Mandolin, by Louis De Bernieres (Vintage Books, $13), is one of these. This tale, set during World War II on the idyllic Greek island of Cephallonia, follows the lives of the island inhabitants as they try to deal with an occupying force of hapless Italian soldiers led by the irrepressible Captain Corelli. The characters are beautifully drawn and the detail is stunning. I laughed, I cried. This is great movie material, complete with five-star ending. I gave my paperback copy away and bought it in hardcover, because it’s a keeper. In Solo Variations, by Cassandra Garbus (E.P. Dutton, $23.95, hardcover), 26-year-old Gala, a gifted oboist who began her music studies at age six and ultimately graduated from Juilliard, is struggling through a series of failed auditions, crippling performance anxiety, and the crumbling of her parents’ marriage. As if that weren’t enough, she must stand by and watch as her violinist boyfriend wins a choice spot with a famous quartet and her best friend continually surpasses her in auditions. This is a hip look at one Gen-X artist’s search for identity and renewal. There’s some fine writing here, but if you like your heroine to emerge triumphant in the final movements, you might be disappointed. The short-story collection The Music, by James Hamilton-Paterson (Jonathan Cape/Random House, $10), is tough to find but worth a special order. Written by the author of Gerontius, a fictional account of Elgar’s journey to the Amazon, these stories focus on creativity, tradition, and loss. A love of music unites the tales and each has its own musical theme. In one, an escaped lunatic who thinks he is Schumann interrupts a quiet family picnic and introduces a crazy note into a child’s life. Another particularly lovely story serves as a parable of the relationship between innovation and tradition as a Chinese master instructs his pupil in the music of nature. And one hilarious tale mocks censorship and academia, as a composer in a workers’ state must decode hidden subversion in a new national anthem. The saga Antonietta, by John Hersey (Vintage Books, $11), covers 300 years in the life of a bewitching violin, the "Antonietta" Strad. The story opens in the Cremona atelier of Antonio Stradivari, who has fallen in love with a widow who captivates him as she strolls across the stones of the piazza, shawl tassels swaying. The woman inspires Stradivari to create the alluring "Antonietta," whose voice causes anyone within earshot to swoon. Over the years, the violin crosses paths with Mozart, Berlioz, and Stravinsky—as well as less savory characters. As a violinist and a fan of Hersey’s writing, I enjoyed this fanciful, musical novel. Kazuo Ishiguro, the author of The Remains of the Day, has turned in a surrealistic, Kafkaesque tale with his The Unconsoled (Vintage Books, $14). Its main character is a world-renowned pianist named Ryder who has come to an unnamed city to present a major concert. But after arriving, Ryder finds himself in a dreamscape; he remembers little about where he is and how he came to be there. The people seem familiar but he can’t recall meeting them. However, they all know him, which contributes to his bewilderment. This is an intriguing psychological mystery that satirizes the cult of high art, and as Ryder is diverted on a seemingly endless series of pointless errands, one gets the sense of a man whose professional life has spiraled out of control. Definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Terry Kay wrote the best-selling To Dance with the White Dog, and in Shadow Song (Washington Square Press, $14) he spins a beautiful love story about a middle-aged artist named Bobo Murphy. Revisiting the Catskill Mountains for a funeral, Bobo is haunted by memories of a magical summer he spent working there as a waiter, when he had befriended Avrum Feldman, a retired furrier from New York who devoted his entire adult life to the unrequited worship of a renowned opera singer. As Bobo buries Avrum, Bobo’s long-lost love reappears—and Bobo relearns the lessons he had learned from Avrum so long ago. A lyrical ode to friendship and true love by one of the South’s finest writers. Garrison Keillor and his wife, Jenny Lind Nilsson, collaborated on The Sandy Bottom Orchestra (Disney Press, $5.95), a novel for young people that takes place in Sandy Bottom, Wisconsin. Rachel, a 14-year-old violinist, is at a crossroads: her best friend is drifting away, her parents are preoccupied, and she herself is on the brink of big things—including her first real boyfriend. Meanwhile the town’s Fourth of July celebration is approaching, and Rachel finds herself part of a hard-working amateur orchestra in which her chain-smoking mother is the pianist and her father the conductor, although his only experience with a baton had been air-conducting CDs at home. For a teenager, a mortifying experience. For the reader, delightful. In Grace Notes, a book by Bernard MacLaverty (W.W. Norton & Company, $13), we meet the troubled composer Catherine McKenna, who has struggled all her life to make her Belfast family understand her and her music, to little avail. This novel explores Irish identity and art, as we get inside the composer’s head while she creates. Catherine’s return to Belfast for her father’s funeral brings back ghosts, such as an influential music professor who spoke of grace notes—"the notes between the notes." MacLaverty sprinkles this novel with wry bits of dialogue and fine detail. The new release Canone Inverso, by Paolo Maurensig (Henry Holt & Company, $21, hardcover), ranks up there with Corelli’s Mandolin as a must-read music novel. As a rare 17th-century violin is offered at auction, a mysterious bidder begins narrating a story of two young men whose friendship slowly descends into obsession, envy, and betrayal. Jeno is the illegitimate son of a sausage maker, Keno is landed gentry. Music is their shared passion; through it they speak the language of order, rhythm, and harmony. But just as something sinister is brewing in the larger setting of pre–World War II Vienna, so something dark and ominous surfaces between the two violinists as they mature. There are stories within stories here, and countless twists and turns on the way to the truth about their relationship. This is exquisite contemporary literary fiction. Using the same premise that John Hersey used to greater effect in Antonietta, E. Annie Proulx also follows the life of an instrument as it passes through time and through players’ hands in Accordion Crimes (Scribner Book Company, $7.50). The accordion of the title was built by a Sicilian in 1890, and it is the thread that holds together this epic, harrowing tale of immigrant life. The accordion’s owners are always dirt-poor and often victims of bizarre misfortune. The instrument travels to several states and is played by people of Italian, African, German, Mexican, French, Polish, and Irish descent. After her earlier novel The Shipping News, Accordion Crimes was somewhat disappointing—though Proulx’s unflinching eye makes for a compelling look at the gritty underbelly of America. In Mark Salzman’s The Soloist (Vintage Books, $12), we meet Renne Sundheimer, a child prodigy who grew into a young man who could make a cello sing like the angels. But gifts are precarious, and suddenly Sundheimer finds that his talent has left him. Barely into his 30s, he has no social life and is dissatisfied with his teaching job. One day, he agrees to take a Korean boy as a student. Kyung-hee is a delightful prodigy who helps Sundheimer begin the healing process. Meantime, Sundheimer is called to jury duty and ends up sitting on a case involving the murder of a Zen master by a young disciple. This morality tale is also a sweet examination of the relationship between teacher and student. The collection Listening to Mozart, by Charles Wyatt (University of Iowa Press, $22.95 hardcover), traces 40 years in the life of flutist James Baxter and almost adds up to a novel, since many of the stories revolve around James’ relationship with an artist named Anna. James’ inner journey begins with the story "Bach Suite," which deals with the split in consciousness that often accompanies musical performance. Sub-sequent stories introduce episodes in James’ life that range from music school to a stint in the U.S. Marine Band during the Vietnam War to a trip to Canada to dabble in Indian music. These stories make for satisfying, and quick, reading. Then there’s Violin, by Anne Rice (Ballantine Books, $14). Necromania! Self-absorption! Idiotic inner dialogue! A handsome, taciturn ghost (think Fabio with dark locks)! Excessive use of exclamation points! Unless you want to go on one of Rice’s interminable death trips, skip this book. Dvorák in Love, by Josef Skvorecky (W.W. Norton & Company, $13), is a delightful reimagining of Antonin Dvorák’s trip to America around 1892, when, at the height of his compositional powers, he left his native Bohemia to come to New York and direct the National Conservatory of Music. Though fictional, this story has the ring of veracity, and it is packed from cover to cover with music. And while unfailingly charming, this tale is no little bagatelle—it is a sweeping New World symphony describing Dvorák’s love for America. A wicked satire of all things Holmesian, the murder mystery A Samba for Sherlock, by Jo Soares (Vintage Books, $13), is definitely not for diehard fans of Conan Doyle’s classic English sleuth. Set in Rio in 1886, this whodunit opens with the theft of a Stradivari violin that the emperor of Brazil had given to his favorite mistress. At the same time, a killer is prowling the city streets, leaving a violin string on the bodies of each of his beautiful victims. Enter a bumbling Holmes and his even more inept partner, Watson. The murders are macabre, but the reworked Holmes is a hoot. Only for those who like dark humor with a twist of absurdity. As I have said, this is not a comprehensive list, so if you have other music-themed novels to recommend, let us know. Meantime, happy reading—and we hope all this good stuff doesn’t make your carry-on bag too heavy.
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