Jill Charles
Jill A. Charles grew up in Spokane, Washington, majored in Creative Writing at Seattle University and wrote articles for Seattle's Tablet: Magazine of Arts and Culture and poems and stories for Poetry Motel, Heliotrope and The Inlander, an independent Spokane newspaper. In 2007, she moved from Seattle to Chicago where she performs poetry at open mics at Kafein and Heartland and writes for Journal of Ordinary Thought.
Marlene's Piano
Summary: Piano prodigy Marlene Piper hopes to go to music school, but her father's death leaves her family broke. Torn between loyalty and her longing for adventure outside her small Pennsylvania town, Marlene marries against her family's wishes. She finds work playing piano in a speakeasy called The Starfish with torch singer Blue Maria and an old flame named Robert Schumann. Marlene records three albums, tours across America and falls in and out of love. Through Prohibition and the Great Depression, she struggles to remain true to herself, support her family, and to keep on creating music.
Marlene's Piano review
By Tina Potterf for The SUN Magazine
“You are not going to music school, Marlene.”
This reality check – the first line of Jill Charles' Marlene's Piano ignites an awakening and sets in motion a string of life-changing events for Marlene, a piano prodigy desperate to pull up her small-town roots to pursue her big-city dreams to become a recording artist.
Marlene's Piano is the debut novel of Chicago-based writer Charles, a 1999 graduate of Seattle University's creative writing program. It's a rich read, with finely drawn characters – particularly Marlene, whose sense of yearning, of love found and lost, and determination to fulfill her calling to play music are palpable and relatable.
Marlene's Piano is set in a bucolic Pennsylvania town during Prohibition and the Great Depression. Marlene is longing to break out while toiling away at her craft and earning a few bucks teaching lessons and playing at the local theater. She feels like a “big fish in a little pond' as she laments, “I know I can't make a living at music in Laurel. I've got to get to New York or Philadelphia.”
While her talents suggest she would excel at a prestigious art school such as Juilliard, her plans are scuttled with the sudden death of her father. With the family broke, she must take a job working on her uncle's farm to help support her mother and siblings. Although she protests, Marlene adapts, passing the time in between farm chores and the prying eyes of relatives with music and the companionship of a farmhand, David, for whom she falls hard.
In no time Marlene goes from being besotted with her enigmatic suitor to being his wife. But what starts out as a fairy tale of newlywed bliss quickly devolves into a nightmare for Marlene, who sees a side of David that at once frightens her and bolsters her drive for a better life. An unforeseen twist rattles Marlene to the core and puts her on a path of fortuitous and meaningful encounters, including one with an old flame who unexpectedly reenters her life. She also reconnects with her music, playing jazz standards, ragtime and blues at a speakeasy called the Starfish. Here she does some growing, both musically and emotionally, as she meets a motley group of musicians and locals.
Seemingly overnight, Marlene goes from a small-time piano player to living her dream when she is taken under the wing of one of the Starfish's most illustrious patrons, Blue Maria, a worldly and provocative chanteuse. Soon the aspiring piano player from Laurel is a bona fine star, touring the country and wowing audiences. Marlene's Piano is also about second chances, which Marlene gets in matters of the heart when she meets up again with her high school crush, Robert.
In Marlene, Charles creates a strong heroine who is sharp, self-possessed, fiercely loyal and hopeful. Marlene's Piano is engaging and entertaining, buoyed by crisp writing and pacing. It's a promising start for Charles, whose first work will leave you wanting more.
