Helpful Score: 1
This book really surprised me. I was expecting a summer fluff piece and instead I was drawn into the world of music. I have had 10 years of classical piano but this book showed me that to have musical genius is a world apart from the average person taking music lessons. I was enthralled as to the mindset of how geniuses feel and "see" music . I could not put this down.
Helpful Score: 1
an excellent novel
Read by my book club with all"thumbs up" reviews.
A minor classic, vastly underrated.
This is a beautifully written story of a boy growing into manhood. I agree with THE BOSTON GLOBE that this is "A tour de Force."
I really enjoyed this book.
The setting is 1940s New York, a city that is "long gone, replaced by another city of the same mane." Against a backdrop that pulses with sound and rhythm, BODY & SOUL brilliantly evokes the life of a child prodigy whose musical genius pulls him out of a squalor and into the drawing rooms of the rich and a gilt-edged marriage. But the same talent that transforms him also hurtles him into a lonely world of obsession and relentless ambition. From Carnegie Hall to the smoky jazz clubs of London, BODY & SOUL burns with passion and truth -- at once a riveting, compulsive read and a breathtaking glimpse into a boy's heart and an artist's soul.
