by Kelly Pickerill
I had a great time chatting with Elise Blackwell when she came to Lemuria last night to sign copies of her new book, An Unfinished Score.
I haven’t read the novel yet but I know something of the story, so I was curious to know whether or not she was as immersed in the world of music as her characters are. I found out that she played the viola in middle school, but, she says, she was a smidge atonal, and gave up playing after two years. I love music, but I will readily admit to my own lack of any sort of talent; I played in middle school as well — the trumpet, that brash and sometimes inelegant instrument, qualities which my playing made even more apparent. But to be a writer (and even a reader) is to be given permission to dive into a world that may otherwise be foreign to you. The prose of An Unfinished Score dips and soars like a well-crafted composition, accompanying the character’s struggles with a distinct cadence. Knowing little about musical performance, and even less about composition, while reading the novel one can feel as though they are a part of the world of music.
I have a friend who is getting her masters in the cello; though I don’t know anything about music, hearing her practice the incomprehensible scores she’s challenged to learn is to be given a gift. The same can be said of a good book, one that takes you out of your own, familiar world for a while and lets you run around in one that’s “novel.”
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