- Paperback: 242 pages
- Publisher: Goose Lane Editions; No edition edition (Mar 17 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 086492433X
- ISBN-13: 978-0864924339
- Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.3 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 363 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #511,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Poet Susan Glickman fashions this engaging tale around the true story of a black sheep great-great-uncle who lost his medical licence in 1930s London for performing an abortion on his mistress. Glickman pulls no punches when she introduces the fictional Dr. Ned Abraham, her eponymous violin lover. Observing the body of an old Jewish man washing up on the River Thames, he passes by, allowing others to attend to it. His head in his music, he eschews responsibility.
Then he meets a gifted child pianist, Jacob Weiss, who plays Schumann as if he’s on horseback: “the wind whistled by and he was riding the piano in the bliss of it, entirely alone.” Ned reluctantly assumes the role of mentor to the fatherless Jacob, only to discover he rather enjoys it. Equally enjoyable is his passionate affair with the boy’s widowed mother, Clara. When her bourgeois sister discovers he has terminated Clara’s pregnancy, she insists her sister report him and exact her reluctant revenge.
Not only does Glickman meet the challenge of making this not-entirely-likeable man come to complex life, her language expertly mirrors the rhythms of life and music. This is Clara, the elemental mother bathing her small children: “they were seals, they were otters, hers and not hers, not entirely human yet.” In contrast, Ned’s love is for “the current that sings” between himself and his instrument, the violin that “sounds like a voice . . . its belly made of spruce, soft and yielding, its back of hard maple.” Their mutual sensuality makes for a heady affair, but afterward, when Clara is cast aside, it is her maturing son who develops a complexity similar to the doctor’s. Glickman’s backdrop shows us the texture of Jewish life in London: the music, the politics, the growing Blackshirt menace, the realities of children and home. These endure after the love affair has faded to silence.
Nancy Wigston (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada
Glickman is a confident writer, and the metaphoric leaps she makes can give us wonderful insights into the complexities of the ordinary. -- Event
Then he meets a gifted child pianist, Jacob Weiss, who plays Schumann as if he’s on horseback: “the wind whistled by and he was riding the piano in the bliss of it, entirely alone.” Ned reluctantly assumes the role of mentor to the fatherless Jacob, only to discover he rather enjoys it. Equally enjoyable is his passionate affair with the boy’s widowed mother, Clara. When her bourgeois sister discovers he has terminated Clara’s pregnancy, she insists her sister report him and exact her reluctant revenge.
Not only does Glickman meet the challenge of making this not-entirely-likeable man come to complex life, her language expertly mirrors the rhythms of life and music. This is Clara, the elemental mother bathing her small children: “they were seals, they were otters, hers and not hers, not entirely human yet.” In contrast, Ned’s love is for “the current that sings” between himself and his instrument, the violin that “sounds like a voice . . . its belly made of spruce, soft and yielding, its back of hard maple.” Their mutual sensuality makes for a heady affair, but afterward, when Clara is cast aside, it is her maturing son who develops a complexity similar to the doctor’s. Glickman’s backdrop shows us the texture of Jewish life in London: the music, the politics, the growing Blackshirt menace, the realities of children and home. These endure after the love affair has faded to silence.
Nancy Wigston (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada
Glickman is a confident writer, and the metaphoric leaps she makes can give us wonderful insights into the complexities of the ordinary. -- Event
Book Description
Set in Jewish London in the 1930s, Susan Glickman’s The Violin Lover is written against the backdrop of Hitler’s escalating campaign against the Jews. This beautifully written novel tells the story of Clara Weiss and Ned Abraham, “the violin lover,” brought together by Clara’s 11-year-old son, Jacob. A successful doctor and amateur violinist, Ned is pressured to practice a duet with Jacob by the boy’s piano teacher. Though reluctant at first, Ned is charmed by the young prodigy and surprised by Jacob’s dedication and passion for music. In him Ned sees his younger self, so young and full of promise. A friendship is soon built on a mutual love for music. A dinner invitation to spend Passover with the Weiss family seals Ned’s fate and a clandestine love affair begins. Although they both agree that no one must ever know — especially not Clara’s family — their affair inevitably comes to a crashing end, with disastrous, life-altering consequences. Unfolding like a melody, The Violin Lover is infused with music and told in three voices. It is a powerful novel about the love one feels for family, friends, culture, faith and music, and the passion that comes with it — regardless of the outcome.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Music and love, Mar 25 2006
By Laurence Glickman "laurence" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Violin Lover (Paperback)
This is a wonderful book, full of images and rhythms of music and love. It reads easily, and flows like a symphony. Read it, and have anyone you love read it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing book, really gets you thinking about life., April 8 2006
By Harry Steeves - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Violin Lover (Paperback)
I was hooked after the first page. I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it. It's a MUST READ book. Susan Glickman has an amazing style of writing. I can't wait to read her next book...
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