Love is Blind: The Rapture of Brodie Moncur by William Boyd

Love is Blind: The Rapture of Brodie Moncur. William Boyd. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.  October 2019. pb, 384 pp.; ISBN: 9780525655268.

Falling in love is so much more than just physical lust.  Brodie Moncur becomes a highly killed and popular piano tuner.  His past is fraught with the unexplained hatred by his father who considers Brodie a blackguard and many other curse words.  But due to the financial support of a beloved neighbor, Brodie is able to get a decent education and a successful job with a company that produces Channon pianos. 

For now, Brodie is tuning the piano of a performer Kilbarron and accompanying him on his tour of performances.  Kilbarron is known as “the Irish Liszt.”  His partner is Lida or Lika Blum and Brodie falls completely in love with her on their first meeting.  This is a passion that is beyond words and it’s not long before she responds in the same way.  So grows Brodie’s reliance on the family for employment and on his soaring passion for Lika. 

Brodie in the middle of his soaring success suffers a frightening consumption attack which will haunt him for the rest of his life and force him to take convalescent breaks to restore his health to a semblance of normalcy.  Eventually he is forced out of the Channon company but finds another concert pianist to accompany on tours.  During these years Brodie and Lika meet in secret at hotels and elsewhere throughout Europe.  So proceeds the path of “the cuckold, the lover and the mistress” although there is a surprise later added about these relationships.

The title of the novel refers to Lika’s statement that Brodie’s idea of love is blind, that he only sees the good in her and not the negative.  But isn’t that frequently so in all love relationships?  They will eventually be separated because of a secret fact unknown to Brodie but his reflections and descriptions of their love and union are so realistic and the European scenes so beautifully described that the reader feels a part of the whole story, including the evils trying to destroy Brodie’s success. 

The life of Brodie Moncur is indeed a rapture despite all the conflicts that beset him.  This is a lovely historical work of fiction that truly reveals the beauty of the late 19^th and early 20^th Century Europe and two of its characters who parallel that beauty and passion! Remarkable and realistic story!

From Nothing: A Novel of Technology, Bar Music and Redemption by Ken Goldstein

From Nothing: A Novel of Technology, Bar Music and Redemption. Ken Goldstein. Story Plant. Copyright May 2018. pb. 352 pp.; ISBN: 9781611882544.

Victor Selo’s life has bombed out and recovered twice.  After the first time when he’s at rock bottom, he turns to playing lead and support guitar in bar bands.  It’s popular music, especially “oldies but goodies” that most baby boomers loved and still love.  Now after multiple years working in the tech business in Silicon Valley, in which he and his buddies devise a way to create apps for people to buy individual song hits.  Technology develops so rapidly that he knows the company has to expand and move up several notches to stay on top of the music tech game. Rapidly he realizes that due to the narrow-minded attitudes and thinking of the “bosses,” the company is about to go bust. 

Victor Selo, however, has a great deal of anger built up inside and when his bosses are unresponsive to his suggestions and he discovers a competitor wants to buy them out just to destroy them, all hell breaks loose.  After a totally engaged, violent scene, Victor Selo is fired.  Not only is he canned but several days later he is “taught a lesson” with a brutal beating that almost kills him.  He plans to run away but instead follows his gut.

Returning to the job of guitar performer in a cover band, Vic meets several band members with sensitive and controlling ideas of how to climb the ladder to success.  The lead singer who owns the group also sings an Elvis “wedding” gig in Los Angeles and a female singer who has some very creative ideas is stifled until Vic comes alone.

The conflict continues until finally Vic, who seems destined to lead wherever he is, gets them to a critical breaking point where they must change or separate. At the same time, the opponents from his earlier techie life keep appearing making him unbelievable, flush offers of which he wants no part.  The end is sheer stunning fiction.

From Nothing… will remain in your mind long after you’re done reading.  It’s got great ideas, mind-blowing tension, and adventure in every scene.  It also contains music lyrics from an amazing playlist almost everyone up to the 21^st Century can appreciate and rock along with.  Some people are born leaders and Victor Selo is a fine heroic character who never falters in leading other men and women upward and onward!  Nice job, Ken Goldstein!

Windy City Blues: A Novel by Renee Rosen

Windy City Blues: A Novel by Renee Rosen; Penguin Publishing Group. Copyright 2017. pb, 480 pp. ISBN: 9781101991121.  

Leeba Groski, daughter of immigrant Polish Jews, becomes a filer and receptionist for a new record company in Chicago, Illinois, in the post-WWII years.  She’s working for Leonard and Evelyn, mismatched partners who are spotlighting new talent in music specifically catering to colored (word used appropriately for that time) folks.  

The business collapses and a fluke accident enables Leonard and his brother to open a new music production company (the Chess brothers).  Leeba or Leah as she renames herself very slowly evolves into a fine writer for blues musicians.  Red Dupree (Jimmy Rogers in real life), a young black man, has come to Chicago to make his mark as an electric guitarist initially and then to write and have his music produced.   Acknowledged as a superb guitarist, he fails to get a contract for his own compositions.  However, after tremendous struggles, he gets hired as a band member for the notable “Muddy Waters,” and their music takes off.  Leah, Leonard and Phil make new friends and business contacts whom they will sign on as future “blues” stars.  

However, the equally dominant story behind the music concerns the virulent storm created by the fiery love, romance and marriage of Red Dupree and Leah.  They become part of the Freedom Riders movement and ultimately the Civil Rights Movement created by Dr. Martin Luther King.  

The majority of this fine novel contains a constant tension lowered at just the right moments with the magic of creating and playing music, as well as the passionate love and troubles of Red and Leah. 

Out of the suffering of racial prejudice arises a vibrant “sound” that changed the course of American history! Finely crafted historical fiction, Renee Rosen!

The Song of Hartgrove Hall: A Novel by Natasha Solomons

The Song of Hartgrove Hall: A Novel.  Natasha Solomons. Penguin Random House, LLC. December 2015. 400 pp.  ISBN#: 9780147517593.

Harry Fox-Talbot spends most of his time reliving the years since 1946 when he first met the love of his life, the love who has died a year ago and whom Fox finds it extraordinarily difficult to live without.  Fox’s passion is music but since Edie died he has no incentive to compose, play or even poorly sing anything.  In fact Fox is obviously deeply depressed and stuck in his grieving.

This looming melancholy for the reader ends as Fox shares his memories.  In 1946 their home at Hartgrove Hall, was falling apart and was in such deep financial straits that initially the family decided it must be sold.  However, Fox and his brothers decide they will unite to restore Hartgrove Hall and the accompanying farm to its original splendor.  Into this almost impossibly challenging situation comes Edie, a famous wartime singer.  Fox instantly falls in love with her but her romance seems to grow for Jack.  But Fox is quite oblivious for whom Edie’s attentions are really pining.  Thus he escapes Hartgrove Hall, abandoning his brothers’ project and telling himself that sending money is an equivalent way of helping them to restore their home.  While away he pursues his passion of composing and having orchestras perform the folk tradition oral stories common to the English countryside. For loving your brother’s fiancé is definitely forbidden. Later that reality will change to a need for forgiveness, but the real question is who was responsible for breaking Jack’s heart?

As a mourning widower, Fox has a new project when he discovers that his grandson, Robin, is a four year-old prodigy musical genius.  He can sit down and play absolutely anything on a piano without looking at musical notation.  As the narrator describes these astonishing scenes, the reader can almost hear the music to the point where one is mesmerized by the talent and personality of this young boy and how Fox nurtures it, albeit through many challenging and dire situations.  For Fox is helping Robin to become a decent human being and not just a spoiled brat prodigy.

Fox also takes us back to the intricacies of his development as a composer and the genius behind those who conduct and present those works of beautiful musical art.

The Song of Hartgrove Hall is one of the best novels this reviewer has read.  It highlights both the greatness and smallness of human beings, also introducing the reader to the difficult and glorious moments of composers and musicians, as well as singers.

Highly recommended historical fiction that is absolutely delightful reading!

In The Pleasure Groove by John Taylor

In The Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran. John Taylor. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. October 2012. 304 pages, hardback. ISBN #: 978052598000.

John Taylor covers a large span of music evolution in this autobiography of his life and that of Duran Duran, the rock group in which he still performs.  It is that diverse, evolving story that speaks volumes for the success he has achieved.  Yes, the audience may change, but the "real" audience has evolved with his talent and musical styles over the years.

Taylor knows how to grab an audience. Right from the beginning, the reader is charged from the opening account of a concert performance in which the song "Tel Aviv" was played and Taylor confesses to being scared out of his mind at the almost animal atmosphere of the screaming, violent crowd.  How does one play and what is it about the music that creates such a wild response to the group's music?

We are then led back even further to the very start of his life, through his education, interest in music at first without any thought about actually becoming a rock star, and more.  The terrific part of this next section is that he chronicles how the music evolved from simple chord music on acoustic guitar through the time of the Beatles through to rock music...to punk rock...., etc. For those who are older, it will bring back some great memories; for those who are younger, it might make them curious to check out the "older" music.

Then comes the beginning Duran, Duran, playing as introductory music for other more famous singers and bands....then comes evolving success.  Plenty of unknown and fascinating details follow about different and better instruments that were used, as well as how the other band members adapted, left, and joined, leading up to the present band members.  There's a very riveting section on how drugs and booze almost blew the whole success chance out the window and a very painful part of how it broke him down. Fortunately, it didn't end there...

Absolutely great biography about a singer, composer, producer and band leader who clearly is "passionate" beyond belief about his art.  Read it and enjoy the music you will hear and the interesting guy you will come to know so much better as you read!