18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bravo!!!!, July 4, 2004
By A Customer
SLEEPING WITH SCHUBERT is easily a five-star effort and I was going to write a glowing review until I picked up the paper this morning and read Ms. Eugenia Zuckerman's review of SCHUBERT in the Washington Post Book Work. Since it is so much more elegant than anything I would have written, I suggest that you read her beautiful words which are a direct reflection of how I feel about Ms. Marson's wonderful novel:
Reviewed by Eugenia Zukerman
Sunday, July 4, 2004; Page BW08
SLEEPING WITH SCHUBERT
By Bonnie Marson. Random House. 382 pp. $21.95
Someone said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture, so wouldn't it be ironic if a visual artist, attempting her first novel, could not only skillfully describe creating and playing music, but also fashion characters and a story about it that are utterly enchanting? Well, say Hat's Off! to Bonnie Marson. Sleeping with Schubert is a dazzling, touching, funny and original tale. Marson's tone is pitch perfect, her storytelling is both polished and surprising, and her ability to make her characters as zany as they are lovable is alchemic.
While visiting her parents in California, Marson's heroine, a lawyer named Liza Durbin, suddenly feels an overwhelming urge to play the baby grand she spots near the shoe department at a local Nordstrom's. Having had only a few lessons in grade school, she gives a performance that is nothing short of miraculous. "I watched my fingers hurling, twisting, and dancing wildly, amazed they didn't pretzel up on me," Liza recalls. "Then came a light and lilting part pulling on strands of melody remembered from the beginning. The ending left me tear-drenched." Luckily her father witnesses the astonishing event, at the end of which his daughter passes out and a doctor is summoned. Back at their home, her father shares the news with his wife, and Liza attempts another performance for both parents. The miracle, like lightning, strikes again. Her father says he's shocked, to which her mother replies, "Our daughter does something brilliant and you're shocked? What's wrong with you?"
Back in Brooklyn, Liza hopes for normalcy, but she is aware that "something was inside me that didn't belong, phasing in and out unpredictably." That something turns out to be Franz Schubert, who can't communicate with words, but whose panic is palpable to his host, confronted as he is by a new century and new technology, not to mention having to share a body with another being. Liza struggles to stay in control, but soon she is turning up at work in bedroom slippers. Liza tells us that Franz's "thoughts were colliding with mine, and my attempts at solid thinking crumbled like cake." She takes a leave of absence from her law firm and retreats to the bosom of her quirky family, all of whom by now know of Schubert's invasion and not only believe it, but completely embrace it. Liza's parents begin to think of themselves as Joseph and Mary. Her sister Cassie, who once worked in PR, sees her as a media event yearning to happen. As Cassie puts it, "Liza is the genius from nowhere, a late-blooming wonder. She represents hope for millions of people who believe they've got great stuff inside them."
Marson's portrayal of the relationship between inhabiter and host is both hilarious and moving. Franz is no passive phantom. He gets his own postscript at the end of each chapter, such as "ein fantasticher Traum! . . . A fantastic dream!. . . . When I reached for the keyboard -- Dear Lord! -- my hands had sprouted red fingernails. I am mired within this frightened creature. Can she even hear when I scream my name?"
It seems that Schubert has returned because he has unfinished work to do. And when he begins to write a new sonata, Liza, his moving hand, rebels. "One stack of pages filled up with new music," she reports. "Franz soared on, energized and ecstatic. Exhaustion crept into my bones, but he ignored it. The experience was too seductive. We could get lost in it. I suddenly realized that I had to make it end. . . . I screamed in our head to drown out the music. No response. I tried to put down the pen . . . . Franz showed no mercy." Neither, once the word leaks out, do TV and newspaper journalists, but there are family, friends and fans to support Liza during a debut concert and over the bumps of the ensuing joy ride.
Marson's writing is delectable, with endless original descriptions such as, "Ilsa Shales resembled a mother in the way topiary might remind you of an animal." And this redolent image of a rainy New York: "The city resembled a flushing toilet." Her plot takes many twists and turns, weaving triumphs and betrayals, surprises and suspicions through concerts, recordings and travels. There is much high comedy and even a satisfying soupçon of gravitas. But to write too much about a delicious book is to risk compromising its flavor. Suffice it to say that Sleeping with Schubert is a complete delight. *
Eugenia Zukerman is a flutist, writer, arts correspondent for CBS TV's "Sunday Morning" and the artistic director of the Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colo.
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this fantastic novel!!!
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Irresistible, November 17, 2004
I hesitate to use too many superlatives for fear of not being credible, but here goes anyway: This book is the funniest, most entertaining, gripping, exciting, and pleasurable story I've read in ions. My only criticism is that it wasn't longer as I didn't want the pleasure to end. While at first the story might seem somewhat contrived, Marson's creative brillance brings it off seamlessly. I didn't find any great spiritual lessons or philosophical insights here; rather, enjoyment was what I gained. I can't remember anything I've ever read that made me laugh out loud as much, somewhat embassingly when I was reading the book in public. The protagonist's sister is a stitch, as are all other members of her family. I was thinking how the novel would end, and I was expecting some humdrum denourement, but even there I was rewarded with a surprisingly touching and emotional close. Here's my hope: I hope that Bonnie Marson is not a one-time wonder. I'll buy whatever she writes next, but this book is a tough act to follow.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Delightful Fantasy about Life, Love, Music and Possession!, September 15, 2004
Sleeping with Schubert is one of those rare books that takes you to a new place in your thinking . . . and helps you see potential where you didn't know it exists. Every time I would start to feel like the book was about to fail me, Ms. Marson would kick in with just what I was looking for. I suspect that Sleeping with Schubert is just the beginning of a very successful career for someone of such original talents.
On the surface, the book may not sound special. A woman suddenly finds herself sharing her body and mind with Franz Schubert, and able to write music and play the piano like him. Naturally, there are complications. How is she to explain this to others? How should she run her own life? How does she share more intimate and embarrassing moments with a man who has been dead for many years? Those complications are treated in as humorous a way as you can imagine. I find myself often reminded of the better moments in the Stephanie Plum novels, except with the setting being among the upper crust in the world's great concert halls and conservatories.
The book evolves naturally into how Schubert would see today's world, and what he would think of our music since then. Also, what musical tasks would he want to pursue? As a music fan, I found this part of the book to be especially delightful.
The book is both goofy and endearing. That's a hard combination to achieve, and I was most impressed by the results.
At the end I was left with the thought that I probably have unfinished business in my life. Why don't I just get on with it and finish that business? After all, one never knows what tomorrow will bring!
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