Body and Soul: A Novel - Softcover
As A Boy, Claude Rawlings looks up through the grated window of his basement apartment to watch the world go by. Poor, lonely, supported by a taxi-driver mother whose eccentricities spin more and more out of control, he faces the terrible task of growing up on the margins of life, destined to be a spectator of that great world always hurrying out of reach. But there is an out-of-tune piano in the small apartment, and in unlocking the secrets of its keys, as if by magic, Claude discovers himself. He is a musical prodigy. Body & Soul is the story of a young man whose life is transformed by a gift. The gift is not without price - the work is relentless, the teachers exacting - but the reward is a journey that takes him to the drawing rooms of the rich and powerful, private schools, a gilt-edged marriage, and Carnegie Hall. Claude moves through this life as if he were playing a difficult composition, swept up in its drama and tension, surprised by its grace notes. Music, here, becomes a character in its own right, equaled in strength only by the music of Frank Conroy's own unmistakable and true voice. Bristling with character and invention, Body & Soul is Dickensian in its range and richness. This is a novel with all the emotional appeal and moral gravity of a classic bildungsroman, but with a tone as contemporary as a jazz riff - an unforgettable achievement by one of the great writers of our time.
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[ { By Conroy, Frank ( Author ) BODY & SOUL Jun-08-1998 Paperback } ]
Review:
"Beautifully written, and hypnotically readable...the best story I know of in a long, long time."
--Vanity Fair "Full of enchantment...a precise conjuring of an exceptional child's perceptions and feelings."
--Entertainment Weekly "A big, old-fashioned book as satisfying as a fine evening at the symphony."
--Dallas Morning News "A literary event...a grand saga...Body & Soul was written under the spell of Dickens, not to mention Stendhal, Tolstoy and the other 19th century titans...Conroy bedazzles readers!
--Chicago Tribune
--Vanity Fair "Full of enchantment...a precise conjuring of an exceptional child's perceptions and feelings."
--Entertainment Weekly "A big, old-fashioned book as satisfying as a fine evening at the symphony."
--Dallas Morning News "A literary event...a grand saga...Body & Soul was written under the spell of Dickens, not to mention Stendhal, Tolstoy and the other 19th century titans...Conroy bedazzles readers!
--Chicago Tribune
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- PublisherRandom House USA Inc
- Publication date1998
- ISBN 10 038531986X
- ISBN 13 9780385319867
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages464
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In the dim light of a basement apartment, six-year-old Claude Rawlings sits at an old white piano, picking out the sounds he has heard on the radio and shutting out the reality of his lonely world.The setting is 1940s New York, a city that is "long gone, replaced by another city of the same name." 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 squalor and into the drawing rooms of the rich and a gilt-edged marriage.But the same talent that transforms him also hurtles Claude 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. Claude Rawlings, a poverty-stricken young man, feels stymied by life, until he finds an old piano and embarks on a musical odyssey that takes him into a world of wealth, power, and fame. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780385319867
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Book Description Condition: New. . Seller Inventory # 52GZZZ00AQAJ_ns
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