Customer Reviews

The Soloist

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

THE SOLOIST is a fine novel, interweaving three stories that all center on the narrator: the rise and fall of a child prodigy cellist, the sole member of a jury at a murder trial who finds meaning in a defendent's case, and a teacher of a budding, gifted young Korean cellist. Each story has its own cast of characters beautifully realized, but most important - each aspect of this tripartite novel is told with such informed authority that imagining the author in anything but an autobiographical mode is next to impossible. Just as in his previous novel LYING AWAKE which dealt with the inner thoughts of a cloistered nun, Salzman here shows us he has a thorough understanding of music, music making, and the sociology and philosophy of our court system and our education system. Not that he stops at reportage. Hardly! It is simply his depth of knowledge about everything he writes make his novels deeply committed and inspiring. The reason for writing THE SOLOIST is probably one of encouraging his readers to live in the moment. But it is the loving manner of relating his tale that gets us there, almost without knowing we've arrived. A fine book to encourage a whole town (Pasadena) to read and share as is the goal here. Well worth anyone's time.

If Mark Salzman published a shopping list I would read it. His writing is magical. The Soloist is deceptive in its simplicity. It would be easy to underestimate this book because Salzman's straightforward, unpretentious writing belies the complexity of the ideas he is communicating. There are three or four different themes expressed in alternating chapters: A cellist crippled by his need for perfection, a trial, zen theory and practice, the relationship between teacher and student. There are several more subthemes going on as well. Salzman weaves them together so skillfully that you barely realize that each theme slowly permeates the others with exquisite subtlety. The Soloist is a book worth reading slowly and with full attention It is a deeply satisfying read, in the same way that a subtly seasoned meal, savored at leisure, leaves one feeling fully nourished. Thanks once again, Mr. Salzman! Well done!

THE SOLOIST was a book that caught me by surprise. I purchased it on impulse, and like many impulse buys, it sat on my bookcase for quite a while until I had time to read it. I finally had the opportunity to read it while snowed in during a major winter storm, and I believe I read it in one sitting. There are so many elements in this book that make it a compelling read. The main character Renne is lonely and isolated. Readers immediately like him, and probably feel sorry for him since he appears to be a washout both musically and personally. Readers will get a sense that he is sad, but not tragic, and has the potential for a fuller life.

In the book, Renne looks back reflectively at major events in his life. Renne was once a child prodigy, studied with a great master of the cello, but his success was fleeting. By the time he reached adulthood, he lost the promise of his youthful musical career. His life is somewhat empty. When he is not teaching cello at a university, he is alone in his apartment. Three things change this drastically: he is a juror in a murder trail, he meets a love interest, and he encounters a young six year old child who may also be a prodigy. In the murder trail, Renne dares to be the lone voice of conscience. His love affair was doomed from the beginning since the woman was married, but it was an important first step for Renne. His tutoring the young potential prodigy is the most powerful aspect of the book. In this relationship, Renne may be facing his own childhood when he sees the young boy who is pressured by immigrant parents much in the same way he was pressured by his Jewish parents who escaped Nazi Germany. The changes that all three bring about happen rather quickly, but it is entirely believable.

This work is no longer new, but it is likely that readers, who are new to Salzman via the publication of his most recent work TRUE NOTEBOOKS, will be interested in his other works. THE SOLIST will show the gifts he has as a writer and was able to share in with his charges in TRUE NOTEBOOKS.

Few books have touched me like this one. It takes on the hard task of the difficult life shift we must all make at some time or another: when you've gone as far as you can with an art and have to turn to the task of sharing what you know with the next generation. But Salzman never moralizes, he puts you into the mind of a child prodigy -- now as an adult -- who must grow beyond the limited spotlight of the stage. Stalzman has a gift for drawing character, and writing so clearly that it goes into you with the rhythm and life of a well-delivered cello solo. Seems I've rarely been able to stay with a book to its end these days, but this one held me from start to finish. I recommend this to anyone who loves music, loves good literature, and wants to enjoy the beauty and clarity that seems to come straight from the author's heart. Thank you, Mark.

This novel is on a trajectory from Salzman's light and humorous Laughing Sutra to his more profound and masterly Lying Awake. He weaves together here some autobiographical elements with a philosophy of the superiority of ordinary real life over the unrealizable extraordinary. When a cello player's need for perfection chokes his art, and the best becomes the enemy of the good, two events intervene. He begins to mentor a young Korean boy with talent like his own and learns, as one does, from his pupil. And he becomes a juror in a case where a Zen student has solved the koan, "If you meet the Buddha kill him," in an arguably correct but unfortunately homicidal fashion. Both cellist and murderer sought perfection, and in solving his own problem, the cellist effectively kills his Buddha. Salzman is a very gifted author with great insight into human nature.

This book came highly recommended to me, and at first I admit I was skeptical being that I have no musical background and I thought there would be a lot of musical terms where I would have no idea what the author was talking about. As it turns out, the author did discuss music in great detail but did it in such a way that even somebody who knows nothing about music can understand. Additionally, I really enjoyed the two main stories (the jury duty sequence and his dealings with a young pupil) and watching the two come together. I found the characters to be very realistic, as well as the situations, and that made it very easy to relate to.

Renne was a childhood prodigy. Prodded by his stage-manager mother, by age 18 he toured the world, playing cello with top orchestras and studying with a German master who is able to relate everything in the world around him to the making of music. At age 18, however, Renne's gift suddenly deserts him, as a new obsession with intonation makes him unable to play for audiences. He accepts a job teaching in a California University, and continues to practice for hours daily, but doesn't progress.

Two events, however, conspire to change Renne's outlook and life. A young Korean prodigy seeks him out as a cello teacher, and Renne must look back on his instruction to realize what in his past has meant the most to him. At the same time, he is summoned to jury duty, where he sits on the trial of a young Zen student accused of killing his master while seeking enlightenment who is pursing an insanity defense. The trial forces Renne to confront an outside world, which is vastly different than that environment he has spent most of his life; and to put into place his ethical understandings.

Salzman's book does a profound job at revealing what touches each of us spiritually. For Renne, it is his music. For his teacher, it was politics and his garden. For the Zen student, it is enlightenment.

The Soloist is tightly woven, and constantly enjoyable. The book is well recommended for any reader.

I came to this book from a recommendation in Book Lust, a book that challenges me to break the mold of my typical reading list. I priorly enjoyed the Brothers K by Duncan, and I found this book to be another fine read off my beaten path.

I dig music, but I have a hard time finding books that deal with musical themes in a way that feels true to my experiences as a musician. Reading Salzman's biographical sketch on the back cover, I see that he is both an author and a cellist. Soloist seems to be written from a perspective that is equally comfortable with the techniques of classical performance and writing craft.

The novel describes a cellist who struggles to overcome perfectionism birthed in his prodigy past and a sheltered childhood completely consumed with nurturing his musical gift. When he is called to serve jury duty for a case in which a young Buddhist murders his master, he is forced to think deeply about his experiences with his own master teacher and the sources of the perfectionism which has injured his love of music. On top of this, he is offered to privately teach a prodigy whose gifts equal his own. As the novel shifts between describing both the trial and the narrator's personal struggles from a first person perspective, readers are properly allowed to arrive at their own conclusions about the trial and the narrator before the novel skillfully resolves its conflicts.

I dug the book a lot. It hits home for me because Buddhism informs my philosophy and spiritual practice and music is a deep passion for me. For those passionate about faith and music, this book will serve you well.

4.5 stars

--SD

The Soloist -- stated simply, a story of a child prodidy cellist who "loses" his ability to perform when he reaches adulthood and spends years in search of a way to recover his lost sense of identity -- is such a beautiful piece of writing that I am unable to do it justice, but I will try. The descriptive prose is like nothing I have ever seen. It astounds me. I find myself rereading passages just to savor the experience. Yet it is not the sort of writerly writing that gets in the way of a story. It is never showy or "outside" of the novel. Being a writer myself, I am naturally aware of "the writer", but only in the most positive sense. This author's storytelling ability is just amazing. There is never a moment when the reader isn't anxious to know what will happen next. One of my favorite aspects of the book is the main character's soul-searching -- his constant quest for meaning, for "the answers", and even "the questions". The underlying themes and messages of this novel apply to anyone, musician or not. It is, in part, a story of losing and searching to recover one's sense of identity, in this particular case by a boy whose original sense of identity was tied to his vision of himself as a concert cellist. There is so much to this book that it deserves more than one reading!

While I read Salzman's beautiful novel I listened to my CD of Casals' unaccompanied cello suites. I'm not a professional musician but I think I know enough about music to say many of the emotions described ring true.
The story of getting Smokey the cat was just perfect. Anyone who loves cats will relate to the description and see how pupil and teacher and pupil again come full circle.
As for the many reviewers who feel Buddhism was misrepresented, I think that Salzman was describing much more than a religion. He was writing about how people view and misconstrue life events.
Another Salzman novel, Lying Awake, also deals with emotion, illness and religion (this time Catholicism). His writing talent is considerable.