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Bezig met laden... The Pianist in the Dark (2011)door Michele Halberstadt
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. Over the years, I have become more and more frustrated by the apparent death of the editor. Whether it's typos or bad grammar or the use of ten pages to tell the reader what can be told in one (I won't name any names, but surely we all know plenty of examples), it all speaks to the fact that editing seems to have become a victim of profit margins even as successful writers have begun to flex their muscles with their publishing houses. So for that reason alone, this was a wonderful, wonderful book. Not a wasted paragraph. Not a wasted word. Instead, a complete story is told in what is essentially a novelette. And the story is interesting enough: a girl born into privileged circumstances in 18th century Vienna loses her sight at age three, but it doesn't stop her from becoming a musical virtuoso and friend of a guy named Mozart. In fact, the only threat to her skills at the keyboard comes in her seventeenth year, when a certain doctor (viewed by many as a charlatan) treats her condition, which is apparently more psychological than physical in nature. I won't spoil things by saying whether the treatment is successful or by describing what happens afterwards, but it all adds up to the story going in a direction that I didn't anticipate. In terms of content, it is much more about the characters and their thoughts and motivations than it is about plot advancement. Or to put it another way, you won't mistake this one for an action thriller. And while translated stories often suffer when the translator's shortcomings are exposed, that is not a problem here. All in all, a good read, even if the apparent mindset of the author once again reminds me that there really *are* some general differences between a typical European author and my American self. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Prijzen
Maria-Theresa von Paradis, the only daughter of the secretary of the empress of Austria, was an exceptionally gifted child. By the age of seventeen, she was a full-fledged virtuoso, playing for the royal family, acclaimed for her beauty and talent . . . and because she was blind. Her father, unable to accept her condition despite her soaring musical gifts, enlists the help of Franz Anton Mesmer, the forerunner of the modern practice of hypnotism, where Maria-Theresa discovers the passions and emotions from which her blindness had previously protected her. In the tradition of Sleeping with Schubert and The Cellist of Sarajevo, the novel is moving portrait of courage, loss, the elation of first love--and the pain of lost innocence. A stirring novel of love and music inspired by the life of pianist Maria-Theresa von Paradis, a blind virtuoso and contemporary of Mozart. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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It was so good I kept going, and I am glad I did, as it ranks highly with her other two novels. I do not think there are anymore that I can get that have been translated. My French is not good enough to read an entire book in it and that is her native language and any books found here have been professionally translated.
She is excellent ! ( )