Sight Reading: A Novel
*Starred Review* What might have been simply the story of a man leaving his marriage for a younger woman blossoms into much more. Composer-conductor Nicholas Elko, a rising star in the world of music when he joins the Boston Conservatory, falls in love with student second violinist Remy and leaves his wife, Hazel, and five-year-old daughter, Jessie. Remy feels guilty about breaking up a family, Jessie is angry about what her father did to her mother, and Hazel fears being a lonely divorced woman. Yet as almost two decades pass and these characters struggle with pain and loss, spirits of understanding, reconciliation, and generosity, especially on Hazel’s part, emerge and increase. The narrative’s chronology, looping back and forth, is set against a vibrant background of music made up of passages of Nicholas’ composing and conducting and Remy’s playing, with a glossary of musical terms appended. Kalotay (Russian Winter, 2010) celebrates art in general, even considering what it is and isn’t, in prose that is brisk and concise as well as sensuous and sumptuous, from Remy’s desire to touch Nicholas’ skin at his collarbone to Hazel’s brilliant use of color and texture in the shop she opens. A fictive musical and familial feast. --Michele Leber