A beautifully written, strikingly accomplished debut novel about love, music, and the complex relationship between mothers and daughters —at once a captivating glimpse into lives lived passionately and a subtle exploration of the nature of genius, it is the perfect book for fans of Bel Canto and Amy and Isabelle.
Natasha Darsky is "the most famous violinist since Paganini." Bow in hand, she lights an erotic fire under every piece of music she plays, telling each composer’s story in a singularly sensuous way. The daughter of a world-renowned art dealer in New York City, Natasha grows up in a world where artistic achievement is accorded the highest value, and her father’s opinion determines the rise and the fall of many an artist. Her prodigious musical talent, discovered when she is a little girl, blossoms at Harvard, where she begins to pursue composition as well as performing. She is soon involved in a passionate love affair with Jean Paul, a young composer whose innovative music is hailed as revolutionary. Under Jean Paul's shadow, Natasha abandons her dream of writing music of her own and turns toward performance. Channeling the frustration and muted fury of this choice into her playing, she creates a sexually charged sound that packs concert halls around the world year after year. Her young daughter, Alex, follows in her celebrated footsteps, but it is Alex’s talent as a composer that brings mother and daughter together—and tears them apart in ways Natasha could hardly have anticipated.
Overture draws readers into the glamorous and competitive world of classical music, capturing its harsh demands and its magical power to move performers and audiences alike. With a mastery rare in a first-time novelist, Yael Goldstein offers a fascinating meditation on the nature of creative brilliance and on the love that binds a mother and daughter even when their personal desires clash.
Overture: A Novel
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
A coming-of-age effort by debut novelist Goldstein imagines the fraught relationship between a world-famous violinist and her high-strung daughter. Natasha ("Tasha") Darsky is the daughter of art gallery owners in New York City, riding high the vanguard of modern art. Her remarkable gift at playing the violin provides the crux for her schooling, and once dispatched to Harvard, she comes under the tutelage of imperious music professor Robert Masterson, who encourages Tasha to experiment in composition. She falls in love with Jean Paul Boumedienne, Masterson's brilliant, aristocratic star pupil, whose theory of Sublimated Tonality (that is, to "spin chaos into control") is revolutionary and sexy. Stifled by his brilliance after two years together, Tasha leaves him to launch her performance career, and her fling with Polish filmmaker Aleksander Pasek yields her daughter, Alex, whom Aleksander wants nothing to do with. Alex grows into a talented musician, and her experiences at an Indiana conservatory provide a too-pat sense of closure. Goldstein's novel is packed with the authentic detail of a musician's life; however, her workaday prose does little to bring life to her characters. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Jolted into reflecting on her life by a fledgling journalist's impertinent question, Natasha Darsky muses on the events, decisions, and motivations that brought her from a privileged childhood in Greenwich Village to violin virtuosity and motherhood. Threads from a current crisis in Tasha's complicated relationship with her daughter introduce each of the book's five sections and provide plot continuity. Overture's complex structure, in which flashbacks are interwoven with a reflective narration, make for a slow start that leads to real tension in the second section--the one in which Tasha begins to fight for individuality and excellence in her chosen field. We see the music world (in academia and the commercial arena) through Tasha's eyes, which gives us an acute appreciation of the most important people in her life--her parents, lovers, child--but a hazier picture of some of the secondary characters. The narrator's voice is strong and convincing; the style is largely controlled, marred only by an occasional false note or overheated description. The author presents readers with a not-quite-bravura performance--but nevertheless a finely wrought, promising debut. Ellen Loughran
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a gorgeous page-turner!,
By Lynn Woo (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Overture: A Novel (Hardcover)
I bought this book after hearing it compared to Bel Canto, which I personally think is one of the best books of the past ten years. How did Overture compare? Well, put it this way: I took it home from the bookstore at roughly 11 am Monday, and here I am writing a review on Thursday. The story of Tasha and Alex is so moving (the ending makes you cry, but in a good way -- this is the most satisfying ending of a book I've read in a while) and so wise that it's almost impossible to believe it's a first novel. The writing is also gorgeous -- some truly brilliant descriptions that make you stop and sigh with pleasure. If you have a mother, a daughter, a love for music, or just a taste for great literature run out buy this book!!!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I highly recommend it...,
By L. Slavin (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Overture: A Novel (Hardcover)
I loved this book. It's very smart and well-written, AND never boring. What I think makes it so special is that intellectual, artistic/aesthetic and "everday" emotional themes are so tightly interwoven that it affects you as the reader on all levels simultaneously. Most people will relate to the love stories and the parent-child relationships, and even if you're not that interested in music or artistic creation, the characters in the book are very compelling and make the topics interesting. I agree with the comparison to Bel Canto; the book also reminded me at times of A Widow for One Year (John Irving) and The Time Traveler's Wife. I'm very much looking forward to the author's next book!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing in a number of ways,
By
This review is from: Overture: A Novel (Hardcover)
After reading the great reviews of this book, I checked it out of the library. I read a *lot* of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and I would have to say I was very disappointed in this novel. The story is about bonds between men and women, and mothers and daughters, but it is very clear that Yael Goldstein only knows about being a daughter, and has very little insight into what it means to be a mother, and has yet to experience real love for another person -- lust yes, infatuation -- clearly, but love, not so much. OK, she's young -- but why write a book where both of the major themes are something you have no experience with? This was painfully obvious when she describes the character Natasha giving birth to Alexandrea and refusing to breastfeed her. "I had tried in the hospital to breastfeed her, but she'd gagged on my milk (the nurses blamed "hyperlactation") . . . my breasts disgusted me in particular, painfully filled with milk, and leaking, as if I were a barnyard animal." (p. 203). It isn't possible to have hyperlactation while still in the hospital after giving birth, unless you stay for several weeks, and the overproduction of milk is easily fixed by appropriate management. To take the most meaningful and beautiful relationship between a mother and child and denigrate it in this way is appalling. Breastfeeding mothers are not barnyard animals, they are mammals. Our breasts are there to make milk for our children, and breastfeeding is wonderful. I was also distressed by Natasha's willingness to hop into bed with her professor -- each time she "fell in love" it was described in exactly the same terms. And poor Jean Paul, who is never given a chance to explain what he meant in his letter to his mother -- the comment that caused Tasha to reject him and broke his heart, supposedly leading to exquisite music composition? Corny and trite. You don't have to suffer to be a great composer or a great violinist. There are so many books to read, and so little time -- don't waste your time on this one.
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