Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I wanted to like this more but it was just meh. The underlying story was interesting but some of the characters were shallow and several scenes not needed. I was happy with the ending despite some predictable parts in the middle.
“Maybe that was how it worked: the start of knowing what she did want was realizing what she didn’t.”
“Maybe that was how it worked: the start of knowing what she did want was realizing what she didn’t.”
A tale of fate, love, loss, and a piano. Following the life of a piano through two owners opens the reader to how a precious object can be deeply loved and how art can affect one's heart. The storytelling is rich and and beautiful. The ending, though heartbreaking, is the perfect closure.
This is between a 3 and a 4, so I'm rounding up. I love the way this is written and structured, and appreciate the unfolding of the story of then and now. My only complaint is that some of it was just too predictable, and the characters a little too in their boxes (i.e., commitment-phobic girl, emotionally and physically damaged boy, and the-one-all-along lovestruck friend/future boyfriend.
I loved the possibilities of this book, with a name like that, being raised by a pianist, I had high hopes. Those high hopes may have been the undoing of me reading this. I won this as an Advanced Release Copy through Goodreads Giveaway, which I am very grateful for.
The first few pages were lovely! It felt like things were coming together and that there was going to be something great in the pages. As I continued to read, the more I realized that it was just two worlds that were seemingly colliding over loss, two people who were stuck in grief and in many ways immaturity. I just couldn't connect with the storyline or the characters... and felt that things dramatically drug on.
This one wasn't for me, but I know that it is for others. I'm not saying don't read this book, I just know that I struggled to finish it and found myself at times wishing for more substance and less pity.
The first few pages were lovely! It felt like things were coming together and that there was going to be something great in the pages. As I continued to read, the more I realized that it was just two worlds that were seemingly colliding over loss, two people who were stuck in grief and in many ways immaturity. I just couldn't connect with the storyline or the characters... and felt that things dramatically drug on.
This one wasn't for me, but I know that it is for others. I'm not saying don't read this book, I just know that I struggled to finish it and found myself at times wishing for more substance and less pity.
The first chapter was so beautifully written. It seemed like every single word in that first chapter was so carefully thought out and used with intent describing how Bluthner, the piano maker, selected each tree carefully for the purposes of making a piano. Then the rest of the book followed. What a disappointment. The beautiful flow was lacking in the subsequent chapters. The story was OK, if a little predictable. I might have given it 3 stars by the end except , so I left it at the 2 stars that I originally planned.
Spoiler
the very idea of shoving a Bluthner off a cliff was abhorrent to me
An emotional story about two women from different countries- Russian Katya, bequethed a Blüthner piano by her mysterious German neighbor in the 1960s and present day Clara who is now in possession of the same piano after her parents die when she's young and their emotional attachment to this instrument. I loved this one.
To be fair, I just finished reading all the short listed Booker's from last year so anything else seems formulaic and weak in comparison.
The most beautiful part of The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander is the opening chapter in the forests of Germany. That chapter feels the most real; I wish the rest of the book lived up to that opening. Overall, Too many circumstantial things align to bring this story together in too fitted a way that, for me, it loses its emotional connection and reality.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2019/03/the-weight-of-piano.html
Reviewed for Penguin First to Read program.
Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2019/03/the-weight-of-piano.html
Reviewed for Penguin First to Read program.
Very quick and easy read. The story centers on two women who both own the same piano years apart. Katya is a woman who emigrates to the United States in the early 1980’s from Russia. Clara is a 20 something year old in present day and the current owner of the piano. The story is told in alternating viewpoint where you eventually learn the connection the two women have to the same piano. Predictable wrap up to the story but a book to read spend a cold, dreary Sunday.