'Musical' Novels

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: jon a
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 06:35 PM

More Anne McCaffrey; The crystal singers, Killashandra & Crystal Line are good,

also Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough:- powers that be series, well worth a read IMO.

Jon

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Llanfair
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 03:13 PM

Yes, PeterT, i love Anne McCaffrey's books, and I can't put one down 'till it's finished. o n the musical theme, what about "The Ship Who Sang". I cried at the end!!! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 03:31 PM

BK, the Healer's War is really excellent, but of course, could be too close to home for anyone who might've been in Vietnam. I've never read a Scarborough book I didn't like!

I've heard that the godmother series is really good. Will get them soon and get started. Anybody who likes Scarborough would like Chas. de Lint, whom I mentioned above.

This is a great thread!

kat

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Skivee
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 02:11 PM

CarlZen has started a great thread here. As he said, his Accordion Crimes opinion is his own and he's welcome to it. IMHO Ms. Proulx's use of music has been one of the elements that make the depressing threads that run through her novels bearable. There's a great series of personal stories that run out of the accordion playing of Quoyle's Sig-o in The Shipping News. There's a wonderfully drawn guitar player in Heartsongs. Music is the pulse of her novels. Her stories are grim, but they are funny, ironic uplifting, subtle, obvious, insightful. They work on so many levels at once, that I can't get enough. I just love the way she crafts sentences. The first 100 pages or so of The Shipping News was some of the most difficult reading I've done in many years, but I'm sure glad I pushed through. Skivee

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 11:32 AM

CarlZen, absolutely.
Anyone else here a fan of Anne McCaffrey? I got hooked on the Dragonsinger books, which are so completely out of my usual range of interests. I was given them to read at a cottage one summer by a friend's teenage girl who had just graduated from Black Stallion books! They are complete fantasy trash!!!!!!
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: BK
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 10:48 AM

Kat - I'm a big Scarborough fan & was not aware of these books; In her godmother series she deals a lot w/music (& many other things, sometimes very serious) - even mentions Finbar Fury. I'd highly reccomend those books. I've REALLY liked everything I've read by her so far. (the latest Godmother - forget the name - starts a little slow but winds up great; haven't read "Healer's War" yet - thought it might strike a little too close to home)

Evern noticed? - a lot of phoakies are fond of Sci-Fi; ?any connection?

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Doctor John
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 10:37 AM

Chet, I'd call the two WG books more faction than fiction. Although not novels the biographies of Woody and Lead Belly are worth reading. As is "Woody Cisco and Me" by Jimmy Longhi - gives you insight into the character of these two legends. I've just got the biography of Moe Asch which looks good but I haven't stated it yet. "Adventures of a Ballad Hunter" by John Lomax I read at school: must try a get another copy. Dr John

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: CarlZen
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 12:16 AM

This is turning into a fine booklist. Thanks and keep 'em coming.

And, Peter, - - Isn't Faustus the German version of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads"?

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 07:56 PM

Art, that reminds me...any of Charles de Lint's books, many of which take place in Ottawa where he lives, have fantasy, magic and music as their main elements. One that I esp. like is "Into the Green".

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Art Thieme
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 07:44 PM

Any of science-fiction writer Manley Wade Wellman's novels made up of his various stories about the fellow only called "John" who teavels through the Appalachians with a guitar strung with silver strings to protect him from the evil and supernatural creatures and spirits, ghosts and witches, warlocks and spells from folklore and folksongs---especially the big ballads. Just great!!

Art

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 07:00 PM

In Point Counterpoint by Aldous Huxley, music: particularly fugue, is ever-present and an organizing principle. My wife is reading An Equal Music by Vikram Seth: I'm waiting for her to finish it before I start. She says classical music is a dominating presence in it. --seed

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Peter T.
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 05:47 PM

Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann, is all about music, and is wonderful, but it is HEAVY!!!!!
Non-fiction, but Maynard Solomon's psychobiography of Beethoven is compelling -- and the final unravelling of the "Immortal Beloved" mystery is worthy of a good detective story.
H.C. Robbbins-Landon's, 1789, Mozart's Last Year, is heartbreaking, but beautifully written.
Any of Peter Guralnick's books, including the 2 volume biography of Elvis, especially volume 1, Last Train to Memphis, are well worth reading. I couldn't put them down (the ultimate accolade).
yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 05:29 PM

Henrik: I found the Busker at bookfinder.com for $3.30 here

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Alice
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 05:23 PM

"Under the Greenwood Tree, or The Mellstock Quire" by Thomas Hardy

I quoted parts of this in a discussion regarding The Mason's Apron, but I couldn't find it in a forum search. I'm sure it was part of thread creep, so it didn't relate to the thread title.

From the introduction:"The village musicians of the 'Mellstock Quire', whose fortunes are central to the book, are prototypes of the Wessex rustics characterized in the later novels..."

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 03:52 PM

I'd say that's a good assessment of Angela's Ashes, Henrik. I think the book takes you through the whole spectrum of emotions. Some parts are uproariously funny, but there is an underlying current of misery through the whole book. I'm hoping for a happy ending. Don't tell me...
It's nonfiction, but it reads like a novel.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Henrik W.
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 03:44 PM

Joe,

I agree that "Angela's Ashes" does have very funny
passages (especially the parts where Frank describes the
world as seen from his young boy perspective - all the
things that seem so strange, when you're a kid), but
on the whole I would say it's not really a "funny" book
but rather a hard hitting account of a brutal, miserable
childhood, don't you agree? It hit me in the stomach
for sure - great book.

On the subject of 'Musical' Novels, ex-Battlefield Band
member and songwriter extraordinaire Brian McNeill has
written a book called "The Busker" about... a busker!
I have not been able to find this book however, so if
anyone has a copy that they'd like to sell (or lend me
even) - let me know! I also believe Brian has recently
completed a sequel to "The Busker" - I think it's called
"To answer the Peacock", but I'm not sure.

Cheers

Henrik

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Chet W.
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 03:28 PM

These also are not exactly about music, but I think Woody Guthrie's two novels, Bound for Glory and Seeds of Man, are two of the best works of fiction I've read. Read them.

Chet

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: Joe Offer
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 02:07 PM

I'm reading Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. Don't know if you could say music is central to the theme, but the book is filled with references to great songs. I've been reading it in restaurants on the road this week. People kinda look at me funny when I start laughing out loud when I hit a good passage in this book about growing up in Ireland.
With my Catholic upbringing, I get a real kick out of things like the description of Saint Christina the Astonishing.
-Joe Offer-

---

And now, five years later, I find I'm married to a saintly and astonishing woman named Christina. who woulda thunk it?
-Joe Offer, January, 2004-

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:37 PM

Yes, the plot basically of all three is the devil trying to eradicate all folk music, with the colussion of the big, mainstream records companies and teh folkies who battle them. BUT IT IS A LOT DEEPER, MEANINGFUL AND ENGAGING THAT QUICK SYNOPSIS!

kat

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: campfire
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:31 PM

Kat - I think I read that too - did it have a wee bit of magic thown in, too? If its what I'm thinking, I thoroughly enjoyed it, too. Had forgotten about it til you reminded me.

campfire

Subject: RE: 'Musical' Novels
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:15 PM

Elizabeth Scarborough wrote the Songkiller Saga, light and dark, fun with an underlying message about society & what the loss of folk music would bring about.

Phantom Banjo, Songkiller Saga Vol. 1

Picking the Ballad's Bones, SS Vol 2

Strum Again?, Vol. 3

Can't recommend them enough!

Subject: 'Musical' Novels
From: CarlZen
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 12:29 PM

I recently reread the novel "Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernieres. While it was not directly about music, the mandolin was an important aspect of the book and music was central to the themes in the story.

Any suggestions for other good reading which features music as a central character.

BTW - just my personal opinion, but Annie Proulx' "Accordion Crimes" was a little too bleak a view of humanity for my tastes.