Marcia C. reviewed on + 671 more book reviews
An excellent plot, lousy execution.
This is the story of a Stradivarius violin handed down from a talented slave in the US South to a young Black kid who loves music and manages to make a career of it against the odds. The descendants of the original slave holder claim the violin belongs to them, as do the kid's own family members. The violin gets stolen and held for ransom, and that leads to suspense. Who stole it and will Ray get the violin back?
Although there are some lovely passages describing Ray's relationship with music and with his instrument, much of the writing is clumsy and some of the characterizations extremely exaggerated. For example, Ray's mother keeps calling music "noise" even when Ray is playing beautiful melodies that anyone would appreciate. Supposedly all she cares about is money, and she has no redeeming qualities.
What bothered me most were the pileups of racist incident after racist incident. Of course, some of those injustices do happen, and they are completely reprehensible, but as with the mother, the author has no subtlety, and unremitting evil of a stereotypical sort rains down on Ray at the worst times just as it would in a comic book.
Overall, not recommended.
This is the story of a Stradivarius violin handed down from a talented slave in the US South to a young Black kid who loves music and manages to make a career of it against the odds. The descendants of the original slave holder claim the violin belongs to them, as do the kid's own family members. The violin gets stolen and held for ransom, and that leads to suspense. Who stole it and will Ray get the violin back?
Although there are some lovely passages describing Ray's relationship with music and with his instrument, much of the writing is clumsy and some of the characterizations extremely exaggerated. For example, Ray's mother keeps calling music "noise" even when Ray is playing beautiful melodies that anyone would appreciate. Supposedly all she cares about is money, and she has no redeeming qualities.
What bothered me most were the pileups of racist incident after racist incident. Of course, some of those injustices do happen, and they are completely reprehensible, but as with the mother, the author has no subtlety, and unremitting evil of a stereotypical sort rains down on Ray at the worst times just as it would in a comic book.
Overall, not recommended.
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