Music Books

This is the first and the best in a very long series of books concerning recording studio acoustics. Jeff Cooper was one of the pioneers in studying and building recording studios and though this book is very compact, it contains much of his knowledge in a precise and very simple way. This book manages to make a very complicated matter accesible to everyone who has an interest in building either a recording studio or a listening room.

As someone unfamiliar with construction techniques, this book was a god send to me. The writing is clear and straightforward, and it contains a series of easy to understand illustrations showing construction details. From my simplistic laymen's perspective, I can say that after reading this book, I was able to have intelligent and informed conversations with architects and contractors regarding my studio. I'm sure readers who know how to swing a hammer will feel prepared to do a lot more than just talk.

In my opinion this is a good book. Helps you solve some problems of existing acoustical environments and provides great info on building rooms "from the ground" as well.
Now, the author him self says that going deeper on some stuff is beyond the scope of the book, but I think a little bit more wouldn't hurt.
Other aspects are it is really easy to read and have some nice drawings of every detail approached by the text. That helps you with ideas to be developed.
I think that this is a very good book for anyone seeking basic reference to rely on.

Jeff Cooper "nails" every relevent topic on the construction of a modern recording studio. Not for the faint of heart (or wallet) as these construction tecniques are hardly ever followed in today's home studios. But at the least, you'll know how to do it right and why the real built-up studios should get the big bucks!

After reading lots of boring Acoustics books, I had already given up on finding a book with "PRACTICAL" advice on how to build a studio. The only negative point about this one is that maybe it is a bit scarce on contents (only 200 pages)... Once read the book, one wishes it had a sequel!

This book helped my daughter get ready to say "bye bye" to her
pacifier. She still likes to read the book even now that the pacifier is gone.

I bought my daughter this book two weeks ago. She is two months shy of 3 years old. She has always been tremendously comforted by her binky. We have been limiting her binky use to naps and bedtime and extreme distress for quite a while now, but have been anxious for her to get rid of it. After a week of reading this book, she turned to me and said, "I'm not ready, Mommy." I told her she'd be ready one day. One week later, yesterday morning, she woke up saying, "Mommy, I'm ready to say Bye Bye Binky!" I am convinced it's because of this book. I asked her what she wanted to do with the binky and she said "Throw it in the trash." And that she did. She was aware that Baby Miss Piggy doesn't throw hers in the trash, but we kind of glossed over that part. My daughter appreciated that the first time Nanny suggests that Baby Piggy is too old for the pacifier, she said she still wanted it and did get it back. I think it helps, too, that the book has a part where Baby Piggy says she feels kind of silly because her friends don't use a pacifier anymore. I know my daughter gave up her binky on her own two months ago at preschool for that very reason. At first I thought this book would be too babyish for my daughter, but it clearly wasn't.

Baby Piggy loves her pacifier. She uses it every day. Then, one day, her baby-sitter asks her if she can play without it. Piggy tries to play without it for a few minutes, but she gets upset, so her baby-sitter gives it back. Until one day, Piggy realizes that none of her friends use a pacifier. From that day on, Piggy gave up her pacifier and her baby-sitter took it away. I got this book from our old local library and it helped my sister to say bye-bye to her pacifier.

Santa sent this book to my son when he was three and still using his pacifier. When I read this cute book to my son that Santa sent, he imediatly threw away his pacie and never said anything about it again. I believe he made this decission because the book came from Santa. It was signed in the back of the book, " Dear Tony , you are a big boy now and it is time to say Bye Bye to your pacifier, Love, Santa Clause. Thanks Santa, for a wonderful book that helped solve a little problem.

Santa sent this book to my son when he was three and still using his pacifier. When I read this cute book to my son that Santa sent, he imediatly threw away his pacie and never said anything about it again. I believe he made this decission because the book came from Santa. Thanks Santa, for a wonderful book that helped solve a little problem.

If you're intrigued at all by the work of John Cassavetes, this book is well worth your time. The book itself is a collection of interviews Cassavetes gave through his entire life, edited into chapters that correspond to the movies he talked about. The excerpts themselves are pretty interesting, but it is author Ray Carney's commentary in between quotes that really makes this book worthwhile. Carney gives us the back story, and fills in the missing parts, but he also sets things straight when John rambles into fiction. It's easy to see that Cassavetes liked to talk about his work. There are over 500 pages on roughly a dozen films.

If you are new to Cassavetes and read this book, you'll want to view his films. I have only seen a handful myself, but his total commitment to getting them made is so impressive that I feel ashamed to have not seen more. I saw my first Cassavetes film in college and felt that it was interesting, but a little over the top in places. As I get older, I think that real-life might be more over the top than I first realized.

John Cassavetes passion for making movies shines through in this volume. Ray Carney's insight tells the rest of the story. If you are interested in independent film making, this book is a must.

Absolutely necessary reading for those interested in American alternative cinema and not only. The book gives a brilliant picture of USA's one of the best directors ever.
Highly recommended for everyone. No other book shows Cassavetes in this light. Packed with interesting material, as good as Cassavetas' cinema itself.

Ray Carney's "Cassavetes on Cassavetes" is a wonderful introduction to Cassavetes' work. I found it to be a great read - amazingly free of academic jargon or fancy terminology. It was hard to put down! And with incredible photos of the wild-man at work. A must for every fan of indie film as well as aspiring directors and artists - and also for students of life! If you want to know even more, I'd also recommend Ray Carney's massive web site devoted to Cassavetes and indie film. Any search engine will take you there. It has wonderful behind-the-scenes information about the making of Cassavetes' work. If you want a volume to provide ongoing daily inspiration and encouragement regarding the artistic process, buy this book. It is a book you will go back to again and again and again...

Ray Carney's done a great service to film fans by bringing Cassavetes' scattered talks and interviews together into a coherent statement on art. Carney shows how Cassavetes' whole process of filmmaking was tied to his outlook on life. Combative, spontaneous and deliberately amateur, he aimed for situations where writer, actor and viewer are all left without direction, forced to respond to the story as individuals rather than reach for pre-approved 'social codes'. He savagely edited his films to defy audience expectations, usually rejecting versions that the studios, his collaborators and even his wife liked best. Some of Cassavetes' statements made me wonder if he did this to edit some part of himself--the Greek immigrant son made good, with the blonde wife and kids and Hollywood home. In some ways he was an insider desperate to stay on the outside. Conflict was fun for him, he thought America needed more of it, and the messy collaborative 'families' he built around each film were his alternative to the button-down corporate society he fought against all his life.

As Carney presents him, Cassavetes wasn't out for the money, the glory, the ego or ultimately maybe even the art. He wanted fun, he wanted friends and he wanted people to really live as individuals. Are there folks like this around anymore? We need them more than ever.

My half-hearted browser's interest in Cassavetes needed a kick in the seat of the pants, I now realize, and reading this book shows me how much I failed to appreciate him while we were lucky enough to have him around. The format is eye-opening. Cassavetes speaks, and then the author. The constantly shifting P.O.V., and the frisson between the truth Cassavetes himself presented, and the unvarnished truth as discovered by the author, makes this book constantly stimulating and endlessly arguable.

Cassavetes life and films are worth a serious look-see -- and this book is an EXCELLENT place to begin that-- if only because he is that rare individual who absolutely refused to accept mediocrity in himself and others, both as an artist and a committed liver of life. He went for the burn every time out, and could often be an ornery s.o.b. when he detected that people were simply going through the motions in their life or art. (The book is rife with anecdotes that literally make you wince and leave you wondering "Could I have long tolerated this behavior in a friend or family member?") He seems never to have thought "I'd better not burn my bridges here", or practiced any of the other forms of incremental, over-thought cowardice that most of us do.

Cassavetes was driven like no one else; he never made a lazy, easy commercial film. He let his life and films commingle, letting the cameras roll for hours, shooting thousands of feet more film than he could use, afterward sculpting it into a shape that could be released. (He said film stock was the one part of his film making on which he would never scrimp.) His films were, probably more than any other director's, explorations of life.

Cassavetes lived life so completely that it might be truthful to say he did something the average person would call foolhardy nearly every day of his life, in some way or other. But in spite of this, or because of it, it's impossible to come away from this book without an awakened admiration for him.

Brian Epstein's magnificence and decency as a person, and secondly as manager of the Fab Four, is what really comes across in this warm, revealing account of the rise of the Beatles. I really think that had Brian lived, the boys would never have split up. Argued yes, but split, no. Not if Brian would have had his way. His integrity (such as not going back on a contract, even though it would have meant the Beatles could have made a ton more money) makes me respect him highly. One such incident was referenced by the Ed Sullivan show, which was contracted at a measly amount, before the mop tops took America by storm and were commanding much larger contract dollars. It's seemingly rare to find this kind of integrity in the entertainment industry, and probably garners the criticism of those who later said Brian was a 'poor' manager, not getting the Beatles their due share. Maybe true...but I don't think anyone around them loved the boys more than Mr. Epstein. There's a very interesting anecdote about Brian's wavering loyalties at one point. He was so tired of the strain and the 24 hours a day work that came with being the Beatles' manager, that he considered selling his contract with them, for a good amount of cash. When confronting the boys with this idea, they thought he was joking, then realizing he was serious, threatened to pack up and quit if Brian left. Brian's quote in this regard speaks to his admiration and loyalty, in return, to the boys. After telling his prospective dealer that the deal was off, Brian remarked:
'And this was the point. The Beatles are not a deal. They are unique human beings and I believe that even if the whole thing peters out I will always be with the Beatles. I would like to look after them in some way throughout their lives, not because I want a percentage but because they are my friends'.
And a true friend they, and we all, lost when Brian passed.
Thank the stars above he brought them, and their joy, to the world with his unflagging, unwavering hope and belief that the Beatles were, and are, a once in a lifetime 'deal'.
A must read for any Beatle lover.

This is an interesting book, though you'll likely have read the story elsewhere in other Beatles books. But it's from the manager's mouth, so worthy in that regard. Some trivia: When (homosexual) Brian asked the other Beatles what he should title the book, John--with his cruel streak--said, "How about `Queer Jew' or `Cellarful of Boys'" Ridiculously, Lennon's cruel streak made Epstein just more infatuated with John!

Just to counter the praise of Brian Epstein's writing in the review below: Epstein didn't write the book; his and the Beatles' press-man Derek Taylor ghost-wrote it (and he himself said he thinks it would have been better if he hadn't written it so quickly).

Brian Epstein, by writing this book in the middle of the Beatles phenomenon, provides us with a great snapshot in time - a time unlike any other before or perhaps since. Without being conceited (in fact, he reveals in his own words many of his own faults) he provides a fascinating insight into what was probably one of the great judges of pop music talent of the last 30 years. Reading this now, knowing how Brian's life was to turn out, leads one to wonder just what might have been. His style of writing, more conversational and "simpler" than one might have gathered from his outward appearance, makes this an easy and entertaining read and a must for Beatle fans.

This book is probably one of the best books I have ever read. I read it constantly and I never can put it down. It is the most beautifully told story of the early beatles from someone who was actually there. A must for ALL Beatles fans.

This is an excellent book covering almost every aspect of not just chanting but understanding what all those lines, dots and wiggles surrounding the text in the chumash mean. There is a complete rundown of every te'am and how it fits into the context of the verses, and there is an example in a later section on how each te'am is chanted, basically in the Ashkenazi tradition. There is also a lot of interesting history of the development of the Torah scrolls and history on Torah and Tanakh traditions and also a section on pronunciation.

One word of warning. In order to understand the significance of the te'amim in the context of the verses, you need to have a fairly good knowledge of biblical Hebrew, both vocabulary and grammar. The context of the words in a verse determines which te'amim is assigned to their accents. This is, of course, separate from the te'amim that are assigned to indicate the vowels and pronunciation.

If you want to know absolutely everything about chanting Torah, Haftarah, or one of the Megillot, this book is for you. Every special circumstance is discussed, every rule of reading is discussed and the history and evolution of how and why we chant the way we do today is discussed. It is a wonderful resource for those who teach trope.

This book is a must for anyone seriously studying the nuances of cantillation. This large tome includes chapters on grammar, punctuation, and epistemology. I recently heard a lecture on the meaning of the trope (musical notation)in relation to the meaning of the Hebrew words; amazingly, they informed each other. Such information fills these pages. My son, who studies old manuscripts elaborating some of these topics, was thrilled to receive this book as a birthday gift. The author, Joshua Jacobson, is also the director of a chorale, specializing in Jewish music and his CDs are well worth the price. He's a master in many areas of music and I was fortunate to attend a conference recently where he was the keynote speaker. He's an outstanding scholar and a mensch.

I know of no book that can even compare to the scope and depth of this one, therefore I cannot give it anything but 5 stars. It is a thorough reference of the history and melodies of the cantillation, including a CD and musical notation of all cantillations used for public reading. It is appropriate for all levels of knowledge--from a beginner to an experienced reader.
The grammar he presents is not quite up-to-date and there are minor problems with the phonetic notation he gives certain letters and vowels. However, all in all it is quite excellent.

It is a great book that finally shows that the cantilation is not arbitrary, how it contributes to the sense of the text, how
it works with grammar. Instead of teaching the Taamim as
a dogma, it actually shows how one can understand a text and
put the Taamim himself. It also reveals the grammar of the texts.
I bought four more for my friends.

Have you ever had the experience of discovering that a great talent resides in your neck of the woods? That is the experience I had upon reading Nathan Singer for the first time with his novel Chasing the Wolf. I picked up this novel because the subject of the blues combined with a visual artist appeals to me (I am a visual artist my ownself). The whole 'connection' involved in this novel was enjoyable to me as I discovered that the author Singer resides (and instructs) in my native city of Cincinnati (He is an instructor of creative writing at the University of Cincinnati). I have now repeatedly kicked myself for 'missing' the performance of this well constructed story on stage. You can be sure it is not a mistake I will make again if I ever have the chance to see any future works by Singer performed on stage. If you enjoy the writings of Joe R. Lansdale and Neal Barrett Jr (to mention just a few of the authors that Singer 'relates' to) then you owe it to yourself to read this novel. I feel that Singer strikes a familiar 'chord' with Lansdale in particular, as Singer's writing 'resonates' with issues of race and social relations. In ending I'd like to extend a note to Mr. Singer, if ya ever need an artist to adorn your book covers, I'd love to take a stab at it!

I was fortunate enough to have Nathan as a guest on a radio show I hosted in Cincinnati many moons ago when Chasing The Wolf was just being written. The other fortunate part was hearing him read passages from it on the show. A prolific artist, in Chasing The Wolf, Nathan has written a fine piece of literature and it also shows that he's been developing his unique voice for some time. A great read (I'm not sure how close the published version will be to the computer-printed copy he presented to me, but I enjoyed it tremendously) and well worth the investment of time & money.

Chasing the Wolf is like the cyclone from The Wizard of Oz--it picks you up and you stare through your window at whirling faces who transform from the ordinary into nightmares. Only in this case the cyclone sets you down someplace much darker than Oz.

Although the plot involves time travel, it doesn't have a have a science fiction feel to it at all. Like Richard Matheson's Bid Time Return and Jack Finney's Time and Again, the focus is on the characters, not the mechanics of a time machine but this is far more dangerous. Octavia Butler's Kindred is the closest thing I've ever encountered: dealing with race relations and devotion beyond time.

I'm not normally the type who wants to read a happy-ending version of King Lear or hope for Lear II: Regan's Revenge but in this case I would love to see more of these characters and the world of this novel. Just the theories of Time-walking that one Walker develops are better than any hard-pseudo-science explanation. We get a glimpse of something incredibly intriguing and it ends before I was ready to let go. It's like watching a beautiful woman begin to undress but then she sees you and yanks shut the blinds.

I highly recommend Chasing the Wolf but don't start it at night if you have to wake up early in the morning.

Chasing the Wolf reads like a chase, with a writing style, and page layout that forces a reader to keep turning, keep looking, keep chasing, as our main character first stumbles, then chases through time. A love story, an artist's story, a fantasy, an ode to Robert Johnson, and oh yeah, there's time travel too, all crafted together with bits and pieces of everyday sarcastic goodness. The highlight of the storytelling is the dialogue. Writing conversations realistically, to the point where the conversations are believeable is a difficult thing....but Nathan makes me feel like I'm eavesdropping.

I'm not sure if Nathan was on speed, or heavily caffeinated when he wrote this book, but the story moves at a pace that leads me to believe that must have been true. And, as the story jumps from NYC to little towns in Mississippi, from present day, to Depression-era, the reader just goes along for the ride. Nathan writes with the flavor and color and humor of Vonnegut, and the images fall into place without overly excessive detail.

Hot shot, hipster, high-art-society New York City....to rural, small town, dirt roads....and this is just the first ten pages. "Everyone in New York is "neo" something" - well Nathan Singer is a neo-literary-genius.

A modern-day Billy Pilgrim (Eli Cooper from twenty-first century New York City) meets 1930's Mississippi blues heroes, friends, and eventually foes while searching for answers in pre-modern times. Similarites between past and present cultural issues surface in surprising ways to make this book an important read for people from all ages and walks of life.

Electrifying images with intense feeling. Fine photography by Raeburn Flerlage and superb editing by Lisa Day. What a moving adventure to turn each page. I felt like I was in the audience and part of each photograph.

The blues are not just notes and lyrics, instruments and people, but, more a frame, a view of the world, and of life, from inside and under.

Raeburn Flerage's evocative photographs and commentary, partnered with Lisa Day's luminous editing, have given us all a rare opportunity - a chance to take that view through Flerage's camera lens and rembrances.

Black and white - could the pictures be anything but black and white and all the muted tones of grey inbetween? And could the comments be more laconic and straight to the heart of the Blues?

I do not think so. I cannot reproduce the sensation in this review, but Flerlage's description of a 1964 performance of Sam House, tells the tale and paints the picture: "After a brief ingratiating smile, his face change dramatically, first slowly but then swiflty as the lyrics changed he projected those terrible moments that haunted his memory. When he sang "Death Letter Blues," he saw his dead girlfriend, "lying on the cooling board" and it made your own blood run cold. The scene was reflected in his face, sounded in the violent guitar strokes and his painfully forced voice. Unforgetable!" Unforgetable indeed when those lines are coupled to the stark photos of that performance by Lisa Day's skillful use of words and pictures, white and black and grey.

We weren't there. We can't really know the feelings. Like Sam House's comments on hearing his lyrics sung by an up-and-coming, young White blues pretender - "Those are my words all right, but it sure ain't my music." - we can't know it unless we are inside, down and under. "Chicago Blues: as Seen from the Inside" takes us about as close as we can get visually. Turn the pages with real blues in the background - "Unforgetable!"

This is the best photo documentary of a music culture I have ever seen, the photos are so alive you feel you are there, you remember when you were there, even if you never were. The text is as beautiful and intimate and truthful as the photos. The scope is big and very complete. I spend hours, looking and looking again, reading and re-reading. I close the book and the music stops.

I met Flerlage a few years ago in Chicago when I was doing some research for a now-forgotten project and I went through his collection of fantastic photos with him in his apartment and loved every second of it. The composition and lighting in these pictures is beautiful, and he catches something of the energy of the performances that is pretty amazing. Flerlage isn't one of these precious blues prigs (e.g., Steve Calt) who spends all of his time trying to protect some pet thesis and trashing everyone else's work relentlessly, but is a real dude who lived jazz and blues on the South Side in a way that few other writers or photographers have. The result is what you see -- great photographs, on the ground, in the clubs with the people who made the scene as wild and energetic as it was. If you want to see pictures that give you a real taste of the power of jazz and blues in teh 50s and 60s, get this book and linger over these fantastic photographs. You won't regret it.

Someone sent me a copy of this book...what a find. Whether you're into Blues greats of the 50's and 60's, or just into good photography, this is worthwhile. Some of the greatest black and white photographs I have seen. Puts your right in the smokey clubs of South Chicago, and in the artists' face. Sensitively accomplished and carefully assembled after 40 years. Photographer Raeburn Flerlage had a remarkable feel for the soul of the music, and a love of these peformers, and was granted unusual access to their lives. It shows in the photos, both candid and peformance, if there is a difference here. A lovingly crafted collection, and a time capsule of a age fled, a city now changed, that gave us an American art form. Done by a photographer with the soul of a poet. Excellent notes by Flerlage, now in his eighties. For music lovers, a must have. Ditto fans of Chicago.

This is a wonder book & CD. I would recommend it to anyone.
It is great for that busy Dad.

Shortly after hearing that the composer's five year old daughter died, I heard this song on the radio. It touched my heart in a very special way. This book/CD was purchased as a gift to my son on his 1st Father's Day. My son had tears in his eyes when he danced around the room with his 5 month old baby girl. Everyone else loved it too!

Bought this for my husband and father of 3 kids for Father's Day 2008. He told me it made him cry and that he looks at things differently with the kids. Great Book & Song. So Sorry for the loss of Little Maria Chapman.

I awoke on May 22nd to hear the terrible news that little 5 year old Maria Chapman (youngest daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman) was struck and killed in the driveway of the Chapman home. They were gathered to celebrate the engagement of their eldest daughter Emily, and preparing to go to their youngest sons graduation from high school when the accident happened.

I went online to read what I could about the accident and heard for the first time the song Cinderella that Steven wrote for his daughters. I cried when I heard the line "the clock will strike midnight and she'll be gone." I thought of the irony that he wrote that song thinking she would one day walk out of his life to begin one with her future husband...her prince...yet she left all too soon, in a tragic way for Steven and his family.

I thought of my own son with his own three year daughter Malia, and when I found out about the book I rushed to buy it to present to him on Fathers Day, so that he can dance with his own Cinderella and never take for granted one minute of their relationship. Because we are not promised tomorrow with our loved ones, we can only hope and pray for them to be safe and for time to share precious memories in the various stages of their lives.

God bless the Chapman family...little Maria now dances with Jesus!

By the way, this book comes with the CD Cindrella, so daddies can dance to it with their little girls.

Darlene

This is a beautiful gift for fathers with daughters of any age. The CD included in the back of the book is a nice bonus even if you've never heard it before. It is also a nice gift because some books for fathers are lengthy and will not be read. This is short, sweet, poignant, and is a gentle reminder that children grow up and leave the nest so quickly.

This is an excellent edition of the collected poems of Octavio Paz, with English translations facing the Spanish originals. I purchased this as a gift for my Spanish teacher and she was delighted! My favorites are his poems written when he served as a Mexican diplomat in India and Japan. His sensitive mind absorbed the nuances of place and religion, which are recreated for us in the poems. His efforts at haiku en espagnol are enlightening, pun intended.

I bought this book after reading an excerpt of one of Paz's poems at a camp. I didn't know what poem it was from, so I bought the book and scoured it until I found the poem. It was Brotherhood. The poetry is beautiful and moving. It is the type of poetry you can read and enjoy no matter if you understand what it is saying, the writing is that beautiful

Octavio Paz has since passed through this world leaving behind a beautiful web of words with the tapestry of things seen and unseen. Paz does an ambidextrous job of mixing in elements of surrealism with the bone of natural objects and that which is very real. His, and the translator Eliot Weinberger ... along with the help of other poet translators to include Bishop, Levertov, Tomlinson--all of their words come alive with beautiful language. The translation seems true to the intent.

What is essential about this book is that each poem comes with the bilingual translation in English and accompanied by the original works in Spanish. Two years of high school Spanish, as well as two years in college, has rendered me with a woefully inadequate ineptitude of all words and understanding of that language. But I don't think that the translation can ever capture the sound, the alliteration, the true tongue/la lingua and fluid language that Paz meant in his original Spanish. Even if I don't understand a lick of what's on the left side of the page in Spanish at least it can be read for it's beautiful sound. Listen to this, "Through the conduits of bone I night I water I forest that moves forward I tongue I body I sun-bone Through the conduits of night" and then on the even-numbered page, "Por el arcaduz de hueso yo noche yo agua yo bosque que avanza yo lengua yo cuerpo yo hueso de sol Por el arcaduz de noche."

What are you doing still sitting here reading my crappy writing when you could be reading Ocatavio Paz? Go get the book...you'll see.

Example 1: "Un cuerpo, un cuerpo solo, sólo un cuerpo,/un cuerpo como día derramado/y noche devorada". Example 2: "Lates entre la sombra/blanca y desnuda: río." Octavio Paz is one of the first voices of the xxth century mexican poetry. He is the most important blend between clasicism and the modern trends in poetical expresion. He lived in France and thus, he experienced surrealism and mingled with the likes of Breton, Éluard, et al. In México he estimulated the literary critic and reviews to new standars of excelence. Read O. Paz.

Paz' poetry is sublime, and elegant. The words and ideas simply slip off the page. Its like taking a bath in chocolate.

Paz consistently suprises the reader with new ideas, form, language. Paz creates an atmosphere that is soothing, and enchanting. I would highly recommend this work.

Only Dawn Powell could create such an intimate, sorrowful portrayal of two thwarted artists in a smug little town that doesn't recognize their intelligence. Very sad, yet gently funny as well. Dawn Powell apparently didn't think this was one of her more successful books. It always amazes me how poorly some artists judge their work for this is one of her best novels. Read it and weep.

Dawn Powell's "Come Back to Sorrento", was published in 1932 under the title "The Tenth Moon" to little notice from critics or from the public. But this poignant, mostly understated novel set in a drab midwestern town called Dell River is a gem.

The two main characters in the book are Connie Benjamin and Blaine Decker. When we meet Connie as a housewife in her mid-thirties, she is leading a life she finds sterile and barren with her husband Gus, a cobbler, and her two adolescent daughters. As a young woman, Connie had visions of a career as an opera singer, even though this ambition seemed to be based on little more than a commendation of her voice by a famous teacher. Connie also has a past in which she ran off with a young man named Tony who did acrobatics with a circus. Tony aboandoned her, and Connie lives with dreams of a singing career that perhaps could have been and with faded memories of Tony.

Blaine Decker comes to Dell River as the high school music teacher. He rents a small apartment above Gus Decker's shoe repair shop. Decker is a pianist by training (with small hands) who likewise has never had the artistic success of which he dreams. He spent his early years in Europe during which time he was a friend of a writer, Starr Donnell, who had written, as far as Decker knows, one novel. Powell hints throughout the novel at Decker's repressed homosexuality.

The novel explores the relationship that develops between Connie and Blaine. With their shared love of music and their broken, and probably illusory dreams, they feel stifled by the small town of Dell River. They share confidences with each other and at the same time quarrel severely with each other over their respective failures to pursue their dreams. The relationship is at bottom frustrating and unconsummated. It never becomes sexual.

There are wonderful pictures in this book of music and its capacity to bring meaning to life. The seriousness with which Powell discusses the pursuit of classical music in this work contrasts markedly with her picture of frivolous people and activities in her subsequent satirical New York novels. Powell also shows how music can be a means by which people evade their own selves and their own reality. There are also good depictions in the book of life in a small town, particularly those people who teach in High Schools, and of many secondary characters.

As do Powell's latter works, this book contrasts life in a small town with life in the cosmopolitian city, here represented by Paris more than by New York. But there is a certain inward focus to this book which is not shared by her latter satirical pictures of New York. The characters here are limited by Dell River and its environs, but their problems and discontents lie within themselves, in their lack of self-knowledge, and in their failed dreams. The book lacks the sharp cynicism of the latter novels but features instead reflectiveness and sadness.

Powell's writing style in this novel is rather flatter than in her subsequent works but it fits the atmosphere of Dell River that she conveys. There are several moments in the novel or lyricism and intensity.

This probably is not a novel that will ever enjoy wide readership. But it is rare and a treasure.

This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

What a haiku evokes beyond the language, a few words summon a large panorama, Dawn Powell did in this novella. With artful simplicity, the author relates a somewhat comic and somewhat cosmic fable of two lost souls that blend unrealized dreams into reality. Powell writes with the sensitivity of an empath. In the bearly visible twitch, the eye that cannot contact, the unconscious hesitations belie the character's pretense so that the secret is just between Powell and her reader. In the far less precise language of psychiatry, this is termed the "as if" self. This deceptively simple story succeeds as myth for within the doubling up of solitary dreams, their souls sweep the cosmos.

Shards of memories, are picked from the realities that defeated them and together they build a palace of dignity that not only holds at bay, their individual sufferings, but becomes wide enough to bring a muted sort of redemption to others, afflicted with similar destinies.
Through music and desire, (platonic, alone) a middle aged housewife, and a odd and tattered music teacher shake off fate and taste, if briefly, what they had been denied. Woven in the tale, is the past of childhood trauma and rejection, abandonment and 'making do,' that the odd duo become nothing less than extraordinary people who choose happiness and get it. In this it is a morality tale, par excellance.
Anyone who has ever reached out of despair with a rebound of delight, who has taken an old piece of cloth and thrown it in some transforming wrap over their head, or around their waist, as Connie does, remembers that triumph, so rare, but perfect brilliant touch. Suddenly, an old dress, has color and shape, bohemians, they are beyond the ordinary in fashion and finance.

There are no authorial statements here, Powell has her own transformative power, whereby sentences do indeed show, voluminously what she composed sparingly. Her genious for showing human instincts is beyond any of her peers. Perhaps the most stunning is her instinct for understanding that ancient animal survival rule whereby we must hide our wounds and primal sufferings or risk in discovery- annihilation. There is none of the confessional self-absorption that was the legacy of the psychoanalytic fever, that was in its American childhood at the time she wrote the novel.


Anyone who has suffered and not hurt others, is rare indeed. The sublime experience between the two does not rely on inflicting pain upon others, a far more common means of elevating conditions of esteem.
The message, if I may, is in the true artistic gift that they benefitted from, but if spoken, would have broken the spell. They saw the Touilleries in an unweeded garden, the Volga in a brown shallow river, and in the unattractive, uncultured, midwestern town, they found a quaint village to delight in.

The physical conditions of life bore down upon their paradise and yet Connie and Blaine, prevailed, looking we are told through colored pains of glass, bringing the grey, unsympathetic world into prismmatic shimmering color.

It is a love poem to the artistic process that is a gift for life as much as technique with a brush or an instrument or a sentence. This contrasts effectively with her more cynical tales of the corrupted artist and the exploited audience.

A glorious book.