Rating: 
Summary: Sacrificing it All for Art
Review: After reading "Tulip Fever" and "Girl With a Pearl Earring" I was in a Vermeer state of mind. Craving more, I happened upon this little story by Katharine Weber. Not quite what I expected, it nevertheless moves freely after a deliberately murky and introspective opening by narrator art historian, Patricia Dolan. Divorced, Patricia is forever haunted by the death of her only child in an unfortunate school bus accident. Memories of her mother, also deceased, further complicate and plunge her shaky emotions into the subterrean depths of the depressed mind. Enter Mickey, the younger man, a sweet and all-male Irish relation, who charms even Patricia's ex -Boston cop father after reawakening her sexuality with his rough and tumble bedroom savoir faire. Soon Patricia finds herself in Ireland, the sentinel to a tiny priceless Vermeer painting stolen in transit from a museum show back to its owner Queen Elizabeth herself, by Mickey and his band of Irish Republican sympathizers. When Patricia realizes she has been duped, used all along for her art historian's knowledge of the painting and its crating, she must scrounge up all the courage she buried deep within her after the death of her child and her own innocence.
Slow at first as it should be, this tiny novel flounders a little as the voice of Patricia recounts her sadness. Once she establishes her emotional foundation, however, the story picks up a well-appreciated momentum, where the reader feels as if she is moving along with the tide, feeling Patricia's pain firsthand as revelation after revelation clicks into place like the pieces of a sick little jigsaw puzzle. Satisfying ending with delicious descriptions of the fictitious Vermeer and the feelings of beauty, perfection and peace the painter instills within Patricia even after all she has gone through.
Rating:
Summary: Boring
Review: American art historian Patricia Dolan is enlisted by an Irish cousin to help steal a painting from Buckingham Palace. I read it all properly, but I was bored with it. (B)
Rating: 
Summary: An elegant little novel
Review: Art historian Patricia Dolan is biding her time in a rented Irish cottage, waiting for the perilous business she's become involved in to pan out, waiting for her newly discovered distant cousin/lover Mickey to join her. In the meantime she is enjoying the life rural Ireland has to offer in the off-season--solitude and an unprecedented closeness to and awareness of the elements, a barely electrified dwelling that's not "on the phone," stoic donkeys and an abundance of mostly nameless cats, the unspeakable beauty of her surroundings. Contrary to the expectations of her unknown masters, Patricia is writing about her experience in Ireland, an account that turns out to be more personal than art historical, as was her original intent. Her journal, the notebook she hides behind a secret panel in the cottage, is the text of The Music Lesson. From it we learn of the life Patricia has put on hold in New York and of the personal tragedy that has left her numbed for several years, and we are told of the family history and the subtle indoctrination that have culminated in her current situation.
Katharine Weber's The Music Lesson is an elegant little novel about loyalty and loss and disillusionment. Its protagonist is not always empathetic--Patricia crosses a line, foolishly and devastagingly, perhaps not quite believably, when she follows Mickey's lead--but she regains our support in the tense but quiet action of the book's end. As with her first book, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, Weber's sophomore effort proves that she is an author worth watching.
Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful story
Review: Historical art expert Patricia Dolan has never fully recovered from the death of her daughter that subsequently led to her divorce. She throws herself fully into her work at New York's Frick Art Reference Library to forget her inner pain.Her distant cousin, Michael O'Driscoll comes to New York to obtain her help. Soon, the duo becomes lovers. She leaves America to live in a cottage in a remote part of Ireland. As the long winter sets in, Patricia has only a stolen painting by Vermeer, THE MUSIC LESSON, as company. As she keeps a diary, Patricia soon begins to transform herself, guided by the painting that is her sole companion. She now knows that she must choose between the beauty of art and the mundane pragmatic world of politics where love is not part of the equation. THE MUSIC LESSON is a clever, but strange psychological thriller that will elate sub-genre fans. The novel is mostly told through Patricia's diary, but that device does not slow down the tale for even a nanosecond. The story line is crisp though readers will question the naive motivations of Patricia even in her numb state. However, what makes this novel a winner is the characters, especially Patricia and the person in the painting. As with OBJECTS IN MIRRORS ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR, Katherine Weber scribes a taut thrilling tale of self awareness. Harriet Klausner 3/17/99
Rating: 
Summary: waste of time
Review: I guess it was probably the worst book to read after "DaVinci Code" which was non-stop action from start to finish but I was up for another fine novel involving a Vermeer. Unfortunately, there was not much intrigue and little happened. Many pages of pondering this and that building up to a flat climax with our main character in worse shape at the end than at the beginning. A sad slice of life.
Rating:
Summary: waste of time
Review: i write very few reviews, but this book is just silly. i've read some about the IRA - when another reviewer claims to have learned a lot about the IRA i wonder if they read another book - of course, it isn't about the IRA is it? it's about the IRL. whatever. there have been some very good points made already. that a 41 yr old supposedly mature woman has this incestuous relationship with her cousin and abandons all reason and logic is ludicrous. she goes to ireland to wait for him to steal a painting, and her 1/2 hour with the painting is worth potentially throwing her whole life away, let alone anyone who might have gotten hurt in the process??? give me a break. the picture on the front of the book isn't the made up "Music lesson", it's another vemeer painting... why have any painting on the front at all? totally unbelievable... the book clearly needed more research and time. and what did the death of her daughter have to do with anything else in the book? the writer keeps us in suspense about this, but it really has no bearing on the overall plot. this in NO WAY compares to "girl with the pearl earring".
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Review: The journal format provides an interesting framework - we are very gradually introduced to Patricia, and her story, and motivations, as she records her thoughts on the day's happenings, and flashbacks to how she got to where she is. Although I saw one part of the ending coming, the final twist came as a total surprise and was, for me, very believable and satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Spare and Beautiful
Review: The Music Lesson is an amazing exploration of the chasm that can exist between reality and perception. This tiny novel delivers about as much story as can be packed into 178 pages, in prose that is spare and beautiful. The Irish village setting is palpable, the theme timeless, the characters so well drawn you forget this is fiction. More than deserving of all the praise!
Rating:
Summary: Pleasing
Review: There is something I admire about a writer who can say so much with so few words. That stated, this is a well-constructed look at art and politics. Some scenes are more fresh than others but you never feel you know this woman, Patricia. Her surface is fascinating but we never get to know her heart. Perhaps that is the point to this style but it left me cold.
Rating:
Summary: A Modern Masterpiece
Review: This brilliant novel by Katharine Weber is a delightful and refreshing departure from the bevy of Bridget Jones inspired novels and light-hearted beach reads currently crowding bookstores everywhere. The plot of The Music Lesson is inventive and original and the characters are wonderfully complicated and human.
Most of the book is set in Ireland and Weber does an excellent job of portraying both the beauty and charm of the Irish people and the Irish landscape, while at the same time shining some light on the issues surrounding the problematic political relationship between Ireland and England.
The Music Lesson is a truly fantastic book.
|
