For Safeties Sake     The Violin Diary is a tragic romance novel by American author Eric M Norcross   The novel chronicles the story of Ezzie his obsession with a woman and the city in which he lives   The novel is told in the first person with a proselike narrative and a seemingly honest attention to detail  Summary  The story begins on New Years Eve in Times Square New York City   Ezzie introduces himself as a New York City transplant and talks a bit his feelings towards the city  The story quickly progresses when Ezzie meets Carmen a Colombian national working in New York as she researches her options for attending art school  The two quickly forge an awkward and often intriguing relationship  The tension thickens when Carmen ultimately decides to attend a school in Europe and possibly leave Ezzie in the city alone once again httpnorcrossmediacomblogcategorytheviolindiary  The publishers description is actually an excerpt from a previously published review by Shane Pitkin Barden  The excerpt of the review  description reads  The Violin Diary relates two love affairs  one with a woman one with New York Both seem to mirror the authors perception of The City that Life in New York always seemed to be moving back and forth up and down  up and down back and forth like violin notes notes that are impressively changing and always dramatic Perhaps what is most memorable about this story are the thoughts Norcross poses and then ponders And there are myriad statements that gave me pause when I read them some because they are concise gems others because they document simple gestures that hint of epic proportion when I tilted my perception ever so slightly While The Violin Diary on the surface is a compilation of memories it is really about ones heart where it starts where it ends and everything in between Its the journey  the everything in between  that matters most because it is what truly defines us httpmultimediareviewsblogspotcomviolindiarybyericnorcrossreviewbyhtml  Characters Major characters  Ezzie  A young midtwenties artist and the narrator of the story Ezzie fancies himself a New England native and a true New Yorker Carmen  A young midtwenties artist from Colombia whom is in New York City as she looks into different schools to attend  Minor characters    Carmens Brother  A character that never gets an actual name in the story Ezzie discusses him with very little detail Jao  A Spanish native attending school in Munich Germany and one of Carmens closest allies Max  A German native attending school in Munich whom has an obsession with Carmen Ezzie jokingly marks him as his archenemy in the narrative of the story Everton  An African American Security Guard at the Crossroads establishment that coaches Ezzie on what to do about his love life Everton is also considered the comic relief character and manages to see the world from outside the box  Setting  Locations  The Violin Diary includes many well known locations including the Virgin Megastore in Times Square which the author has renamed the Crossroads Megastore  Other locations are  New York City Locations   Battery Park  St George Terminal  BedfordStuyvesant  Central Park  Lincoln Center  Munich Germany Locations   Berchtesgadener  Marienplatz  Isar  BavariaFilmPlatz  Bavaria Film Studios  Wettersteinplatz  Artwork  Imagery  The center of the publication includes photographs taken by the author during the period when many of the experiences he wrote about actually occurred The photographs depict New York Scenery and images taken of Munich  The cover is a compilation of two images a watercolor painting the author created while in Munich in July  and a black and white photograph he took of Manhattan from the George Washington Bridge   The rear cover is also two separate images a photograph of Munich taken from Peterskirche in Munich and a picture of the sun rising over the Atlantic which the author took from an airplane on his way to Europe httpwwwnorcrossmediacomviolindiaryreviewhtml   Notes   Most references extracted from book reviews the publishers website and the authors website  See References section for details   References      External links     Sources Authors Official Site  Authors IMDB Listing A Review of The Violin Diary A Review of The Violin Diary Authors Commentary on the publication Authors First Novel Authors Listing on the Internet Book Database of Fiction   Category novels CategoryNovels by Eric M Norcross CategoryNew York City in fiction