Body & Soul
Frank Conroy
(Author)
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.
Product Details
Price
$17.00
$15.81
Publisher
Delta
Publish Date
June 08, 1998
Pages
464
Dimensions
5.23 X 8.01 X 0.96 inches | 0.84 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780385319867
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Frank Conroy was born in 1936 and graduated from Haverford College in 1958. He is currently teaching at the University of Iowa, where he is director of the prestigious Writeer's Workshop. Conroy has written an autobiography Stop-Time, published in 1967, and his collection of stories, Midair, was published in 1985. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Harper's Magazine, and Partisan Review. He divides his time between Iowa City and Nantucket.
Reviews
"Beautifully written, and hypnotically readable...the best story I know of in a long, long time."
--Vanity Fair "Full of enchantment...a precise conjuring of an exceptional child's perceptions and feelings."
--Entertainment Weekly "A big, old-fashioned book as satisfying as a fine evening at the symphony."
--Dallas Morning News "A literary event...a grand saga...Body & Soul was written under the spell of Dickens, not to mention Stendhal, Tolstoy and the other 19th century titans...Conroy bedazzles readers!
--Chicago Tribune
--Vanity Fair "Full of enchantment...a precise conjuring of an exceptional child's perceptions and feelings."
--Entertainment Weekly "A big, old-fashioned book as satisfying as a fine evening at the symphony."
--Dallas Morning News "A literary event...a grand saga...Body & Soul was written under the spell of Dickens, not to mention Stendhal, Tolstoy and the other 19th century titans...Conroy bedazzles readers!
--Chicago Tribune