Body and Soul

Description

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.

First Sentence

HIS FIRST VIEW of the outside was through the small, fan-shaped window of the basement apartment.

Subjects

Other Editions

• Body and SoulAudio CassetteRandom House Audio1993-09-14
• Body and soul.Viking1993-01-01
• Body & soulHoughton Mifflin/Seymour Lawrence1993-01-01
• Body and SoulHoughton Mifflin (T)1993-10-01
• Body & soulEagle Large Print1994-01-01
• Body & soulH. Hamilton1994-01-01