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Mar 29, Betsy Robinson rated it it was amazing. Reading this evolution of a music prodigy pianist and eventually a composer who was born into a seemingly hopeless family situation was an ecstatic experience.
The reasons for that are beyond my ability or desire to articulate. This is not to negate the problems of this child-turned-man living two almost opposite experiences of non-nurturance and nurturance. I have never played piano. I was probably the worst second violin player in the history of my high school orchestra because I never practiced.
But every detail of this story felt personal to me and mine. How can that be? It just is. Like great music. View all 12 comments. Aug 13, Marvin rated it it was amazing. It's actually a double story of redemption, and--in a rare occurrence in contemporary fiction--a story of redemption that actually focuses on the redemption rather than on what the lives are redeemed FROM.
The boy who is the main character is redeemed by music--and by a mentor--from a life of neglect by his single mother, who is herself a very troubled soul. Meanwhile, the mentor--a Holocaust survivor--is himself redeemed by his care for the boy.
Despite the negative elements evident in this summary of the story, they actually play a relatively minor role in the development of the plot compared to the uplifting developments that constantly unfolded without leaving one with the feeling that this was a melodramatic rags-to-riches story as, in fact, it was, in some ways. I was so enchanted with the expressive content of the book that I reread it more than once.
With no encouragement from his mother, music mentors discovered him and tutored him without charge. As a boy, Claude Rawlings looks up through the grated window of his basement apartment to watch the world go by.
Poor, lonely, supported by a taxi-driver mother whose eccentricities spin more and more out of control, he faces the terrible task of growing up on the margins of life, destined to be a spectator of that great world always hurrying out of reach.
But there is an out-of-tune piano in the small apartment, and in unlocking the secrets of its keys, as if by magic, Claude discovers himself. He is a musical prodigy. The gift is not without price—the work is relentless, the teachers exacting—but the reward is a journey that takes him to the drawing rooms of the rich and powerful, private schools, a gilt-edged marriage, and Carnegie Hall.
Claude moves through this life as if he were playing a difficult composition, swept up in its drama and tension, surprised by its grace notes. This is a novel with all the emotional appeal and moral gravity of a classic bildungsroman, but with a tone as contemporary as a jazz riff—an unforgettable achievement by one of the great writers of our time.
Claude's musical abilities and ambition lead to him playing piano at a very young age, mastering multiple piano techniques and composing. His talent was presumably passed down from a birth father he never knew.
He spent hours each day engrossed in practicing with intent in order to achieve all his goals. This novel is a clean, historical coming-of-age saga based on a extraordinary musician. This compelling drama was a most entertaining narrative.
I was enthralled with this book and would recommend it! Oct 07, Kate rated it it was amazing Shelves: fiction. I guess I can't get enough of beautifully written bildungsromans. I loved the journey this book took me on. It's an old fashioned great read, a big novel with quirky characters, requisite and wonderful coincidences, and a sweep of decades. It's a book that takes you through one person's life--a creative genius, a musician.
Anyone with a creative fire will appreciate the inner workings of the protagonist's mind. Favorite quotes: "It was nothing less than the infinite story of life, and he attende I guess I can't get enough of beautifully written bildungsromans.
Favorite quotes: "It was nothing less than the infinite story of life, and he attended. That's the great secret. When it comes to writing music, all you can do is sign on for a way of life, and do the work. Do the work for its own sake. View 1 comment. Nov 02, Jennifer Landrigan rated it it was amazing. This should be required reading. It became a very emotional read once I became fully immersed around halfway. Amazing character development, and the relationship between Claude and his teacher was just touching beyond words.
This book will stay with me a long time. Here's how it starts: "His first view of the outside was through the small, fan-shaped window of the basement apartment. He would climb up on the table and spend hours peering through the bars at the legs and feet of people passing by on the sidewalk, his child's mind falling still in contemplation of the ever-changing rhythms and tempos of legs and feet moving across his field of vision.
An old woman with thin calves, a kid in sneakers, men in wingtips, women in high heels, the shiny brown shoes of soldiers. If anyone paused he could see detail -- straps, eyelets, a worn heel, or cracked leather with the sock showing through -- but it was the movement that he liked, the passing parade of color and motion. No thoughts in his head as he stood or knelt at the window, but rather, from the images of motion, a pure impression of purposefulness.
Something was going on outside. People were going places. Often, as he turned away from the window, he would muse on dimly sensed concepts of direction, volition, change, and the existence of the unseen. He was six years old, and much of his thinking, especially when he was alone, went on without words, went on beneath level of language.
He understood about the cab. There were passengers. She picked them up in the street and took them from one place to another as the people walking outside were going from one place to another , but she herself had no destination. She went where the passengers told her to go, and remained, in a sense, a witness, like himself. The cab started out in front of the apartment in the morning and returned at night. It appeared to him to be going around in circles.
She was big, and moved slowly, the entire iron structure clanging with each step. Then a moment's silence, the sound of the key opening the locks, and the door would swing open. In the dimness he could see her shift her six-foot-tall, three-hundred-pound body to come through. He could hear the sound of her breathing, a steady, laborious sighing, as she entered the room. He was attentive to her mood, to its direction, in case escape was necessary.
Sometimes when he ran around the couch or slipped under her arm she would lose interest. He knew that almost always when she hit him, she held back. He'd seen her open the door once to find a drunk pissing in the small area at the foot of the iron stairs.
She'd felled the man with one blow to his chest, methodically kicking his ass and then his head until he lost consciousness, and then pulled him slowly up the stairs by his collar, step by step, to the street. There had been blood on the stairs, red spots on the black. When his mother came home she told him that, pretty soon, he'd be going to school.
The matron would flash her light over the section when things got too noisy and the kids would immediately quiet down. Claude watched them with a certain detachment. He was no longer afraid of them, as he had been when he'd started school. They were, he realized, just kids, but there was something about them -- their easy spontaneity, their recklessness, their almost manic self-absorption, the way in which they seemed completely taken up in the present moment -- that made him uneasy.
He did not for an instant think of himself as one of them. He sat with them only because the rules forced him to. In an odd way he felt like an imposter. On the theater curtains a highly distorted image of the American flag appeared -- pulled, rolled, squashed, smeared, ballooned, and edgeless in the thick folds. As the curtains parted the image grew from the center out, crisp, bright, and perfectly focused.
Old Glory against the sky. Everyone stood and sang the national anthem, following the bouncing ball at the foot of the screen. Claude found a peculiar fascination in the bouncing ball. It seemed a persona, jumping deftly from syllable to syllable. The music was loud and satisfying. Followed by a newsreel, the narrator's voice both urgent and important, sounding over the flash of images. And then the first feature, about a tough sailor who marries a librarian but doesn't take life seriously until they have a baby.
The second feature described the adventures of a boy who could talk to horses. Claude watched them all with total attention, so captivated that it was a shock when the movies ended, as if his soul had been flying around in the dark and had now slammed back into his body. Outside, the unnaturally still street and the implacable heat seemed to claim him, to smother the quicksilver emotions of the films and flatten him in his contemplation of the meaningless, eternal, disinterested reality of the street, of its enduring drabness and familiarity.
To come out of the RKO was to come down, and he rushed home to the safety and company of the piano. View 2 comments. Aug 07, Rachael rated it it was amazing Shelves: on-a-desert-island , read What a wonderful read!
This book was reccomended to me by a bookseller from Wellesley Booksmith, a local indi bookstore I am so grateful. If you enjoy broad sweeping storytelling, Manhattan in the 40s,50s and early 60s, and music this is absolutely the book for you. The story follows the growth and emergence of Claude into a world renowned composer and pianist. His beginning life is fraught with much difficulty and abandonment but through the kindness of others, particularly the ever so kind a What a wonderful read!
His beginning life is fraught with much difficulty and abandonment but through the kindness of others, particularly the ever so kind and loving Mr.
Weisel, his talent is recognized and so begins his journey. As a reader you are completely immersed in Claude's love of music-the passages when he plays piano are amazing. The story flows effortlessly, and surrounds itself with wonderful loving characters that recognize his gift and nourish Claude in some way. Even the characters that are flawed themselves bring a needed depth and richness to the story.
May 10, Christopher Litsinger rated it really liked it Shelves: read-in , read-in , favorites , read-in This book remains one of my favorite books. Conroy's ability to describe childhood is dead on, his descriptions of period New York City bring it to life, and the book has a reputation as being one of the finest descriptions of what it is like to be a musician.
I love very nearly everything about the book. Even after reading it many times, I still have to pause and put it down periodically after a particular phrase or passage strikes me.
If the book has a weakness for me, it is in Conroy's inabilit This book remains one of my favorite books. Read more. Already subscribed? Click here. Find the right plan for you. BrightSummaries Standard. BrightSummaries Premium. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Great book, Body and Soul pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy.
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