Customer Reviews

Tenderwire

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When first we meet classical violinist Eva Tyne, she is about to play in an important concert. Eva is as finely strung as her violin. Given to flashes of genius and despair, drinking too much, too often, emotionally battered by her own random choices. One night after a performance, she meets Daniel, an investment banker, in a bar, thinking never to see him again. But when she is introduced to an enigmatic Russian, Alexander, in another bar on another night, she learns of a lifetime opportunity to purchase what he believes is a Stradivarius violin for half the market price. Eva plunges into her destiny, enraptured by the pure notes of the violin. Cobbling together the required cash for the instrument, over half a million dollars, Eva asks Daniel to invest, assigning him one-quarter ownership of the violin. In her urgency to have this rare piece of history, the lack of provenance and certificate of ownership fails to deter Eva and soon she is caught up in dramatic events both of her own making and outside her control, wracked with doubts, yet set upon a path that can only include what she calls her "Magdalena".

Once Eva makes the purchase with the suspicious dealer, her days acquire an eerie quality, her thoughts chased with paranoia, her career rising but threatened by a lack of provenance for the violin, her relationships rife with jealousy and self-doubt. In taking possession of this magnificent, if disputed, instrument, Eva has opened the door to chaos, adding more layers of complications to her already disordered life. Eva suffers for her art, her sense of self already damaged by her past in Ireland. In a rarified life of orchestras and genius performances, Eva is accomplished, her erratic increasing exponentially, tethered to a demanding career. Plagued by an inability to gauge appropriate behavior, many of Eva's choices are triggered by emotion and instinct; consequently, the constant drama, confusion and paranoia make it difficult to assess Eva's grasp of reality, lending a mysterious cast to the story.

In the midst of fright and flight, Eva embraces her sudden insights into the foundations of her discontent, achieving a clarity that has previously eluded her; but it is a treacherous journey, one fraught with vague threats and the ill-intentions of others. The author cleverly saves the secrets for last, shocking revelations that shake this confusing puzzle into a recognizable shape, rearranging the events that were once so baffling, in a surprising and deft ending: "Such an ugly bite to it, the taste of my own medicine." Sorting through fact and fantasy, Eva acknowledges her mistakes, finally fending for herself, releasing the small comforts of the past to own the future. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

Irish novelist Claire Kilroy makes her American debut with Tenderwire, a taut tale about music, desire, and possession. Concert violinist and narrator Eva suffers a mysterious collapse following her much celebrated soloist debut in New York. After her release, Eva cannot bring herself to return to the apartment she shares with longtime boyfriend Krystof, and so finds herself drinking alone in a bar, combining her powerful pain medication with alcohol. There, she meets Daniel, an investment banker with whom she spends a platonic night. Unable to tell Krysof the truth about that night, Eva precipitates a series of events that lands her the opportunity to buy a special violin that its seller, a coarse but charismatic Russian named Alexander, claims is a smuggled Stradivarius. Eva cannot resist the Magdalena's pure, resonant sound, and thus risks everything to possess it.

Although suspenseful, this novel cannot be rightly called a thriller since the psychological make-up of Eva, with her passion for music and her yearning for her presumed dead father, drives this novel toward its conclusion. Eva is a young woman who wants to possess and conquer, whether it be a Shostakovich concerto or a lover. Like the famous Paganini, whom she reveres and who himself played a violin not unlike the Magdalena, Eva plays like a woman possessed herself. As Kilroy writes, "There were rumors that Pagnini was in league with satanic forces. That's how he played the violin so well." Although it's a stretch for the reader to believe that Eva sold her soul to obtain -- and keep -- the Magdalena, her obsession with it is wholly believable.

Kilroy's writing is neither provocative nor awkward, and instead it carries along her story without drawing attention to itself. This flatness of style keeps this novel from reaching its full potential, but, even so, Kilroy's storytelling ability entices one to continue reading, page by page, chapter by chapter. The author expertly weaves elements of Eva's past into the present, so that her willingness to break the rules of both her profession and her personal relationships becomes integral to who she is. A solid debut, this novel should gain some American fans for its Irish author.

Tenderwire by Claire Kilroy is an enchanting and mesmerizing book about a young, Irish violinist in an orchestra in New York. To make a long story short, she mets a Russian guy in a bar and he convinces her to come to his apartment to see a great violin. There he shows her the magnificent "Magdelena Stradivarius" which in the long run actually turns out to be a Del Gesu, which is also a very old and exspensive violin. Eva tells of the hardships of her breakup and her fight for the "Magdelena," which a family believes was stolen from them by the Nazis. This novel was unbelievably great. I couldn't put it down and when I did I came back to it shortly. Claire Kilroy is definitely one of the best writers of our time. This story will not only be interesting to music lovers, but to anybody who reads it. This probably one of the best books I've read lately! Enjoy!

I loved this book -- it is so tightly written, so well-paced, so interesting and exciting. I could barely put it down. I passed it along to friends to share but now I wish I had it again to re-read certain passages. It really stayed with me. GREAT book!

I love books that can draw you into them and then you disappear into another world until you come out again. They are rare reads. The novel Tenderwire is one of those. The author makes you care about the characters in it, and takes you for a ride on a thinkers thriller. Not until you hit the last few pages does she slow it down so you can pull out and land on your feet. All through it you are asking yourself, 'would I do the things the main character does in the story?' I highly recommend this one to those of us who might just follow in her foot steps. joe patrissi, moretown, vt

This book was almost impossible to put down, very fast paced and exciting. It is about a twenty something violinist who is on the brink of disaster, and mostly self inflicted disaster, when she comes across an extremely rare and most likely illegally obtained violin. She is overwhelmed with the desire to have it, to the point of giving up everything. Sinking every ounce of money she has inherited from her missing father, as well as making more then one dubious deal to scrape up the cash. Once she has it, it is a struggle to hang onto which never stops. One painful disaster after another keeps the pages flipping, as the author uses great techniques to conceal and reveal information at the right moments. A highly reccommended read.

Every time the heroine did something, alarm bells went off in my head asking "why on earth would she do that?"
Nothing made sense.

I did not especially enjoy this book. None of the characters are likable or sympathetic, and the writing style is disjointed, chaotic, and sometimes confusing. It reads more like a mental patient's journal at some points than a novel of fiction. I was hoping for a book more focused on the musical aspects of the story, but this seems to be written by a non-musician hoping to come across as very musically informed. I would overall give it 2.5 stars. If you're a musician looking for a mystery about violins or even just music in general, do yourself a favor and buy "Paganini's Ghost" by Paul Adam instead.

In Claire Kilroy's "Tenderwire," protagonist Eva Tyne, an aspiring solo violinist, is confronted with her deepest desire: to possess a newly-discovered Strad offered at a fraction of its market value. As the novel opens, Eva, who relocated from Ireland to pursue her musical dreams, has a painful debut which results in a rush to the hospital (the full impact of this isn't revealed until the end of the novel). Afterwards, dulled by painkillers, she sets out into the night and meets Daniel in a hotel bar. Daniel, a handsome Latino investment banker, seems destined to be a one-night stand, but will play a significant role in Eva's life. Soon after, Eva runs into Alexander, a sketchy "antiques" dealer from Chechnya, who shows her what he says is an undiscovered Stradivarius. Every fiber of Eva's being is burning to possess the marvelous instrument, leading her into a web of deception that grows ever larger until the novel's climax. She resorts to lying to gather up the huge sum of six hundred thousand dollars that Alexander is asking. There's even a bit of globetrotting as Eva flies to concerts in Cologne and back home to Ireland. I didn't get as much of a feel for New York City as a leading role, though; most of the action takes place in Eva's apartment or in concert halls, with few recognizable landmarks.

The cast of characters, including Eva's parents, her love interests, her nosy New York neighbor, and her rival / roommate Valentina, really brings the story to vivid life. Eva is dealing with her own personal demons, including a breakup, insecurity, and the fallout from her late father's disappearance. The purchase of the "Magdalena," as Eva dubbed it, marks the rapid unraveling of her previous life. And Ventolin plays the role of guest star: Eva's frequent severe asthma attacks serve as an effective metaphor for Eva's growing panic and anxiety (much like Zach's character in C.R.A.Z.Y.).

Claire Kilroy has done a marvelous job at capturing the violin on paper, its nuances of tone and its expresiveness, set against a backdrop of intrigue (Eva constantly feels like some of Alexander's "friends" are tailing her and the violin, she has to avoid certain musical organizations due to the sketchy provenance of her violin, and she thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her). The blend of musicianship and suspense is an enchanting one, and I look forward to reading more of Ms. Kilroy's work in the future.

A young Irish woman, Eva, has left Ireland to pursue a career as a classic violinist in New York. And we can't forget her cat, Ming, apparently a New York cat, not an Irish one, who figures prominently in Eva's life and appears on most pages of the book.

The story begins with Eva's getting sick. She goes to a hospital and leaves it. We aren't told what occurred in between the going and the leaving or even what the sickness was all about.

For the next 60 pages or so, Eva is a character I could not sympathize with. I couldn't like her. She bar hops, picks up men, drinks more than I would think a body can stand, and vomits for 60 pages. Why, I wondered, was this book a best seller in the United Kingdom?

But I was curious enough to stick with it because one of Eva's apparently poor decisions while she was drunk was to fall in love with a violin, which she subsequently goes to great lengths to possess. Then the book gets interesting, and all other characters (except dear little Ming) seem suspicious.

It's not until about 7/8 of the way through TENDERWIRE that Kilroy gives a plausible explanation for Eva's behavior in the first 60 pages of the book. But all in all I liked TENDERWIRE and am glad I read beyond page 60.