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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
medium-paced
Lol I love that the protagonist's mentor is a Black woman with Classical music training, and at no point does he seriously consider how much harder she had it, doing everything he did 30 years earlier and not as a dude. Yet every single chapter centers on how bad he has it as a Black man in the Classical music world. So it's not that he's not aware of how hard it is...it's that he can't seem to imagine how much worse a woman in his position would have experienced it.
I loved it. Though I know nothing about the violin, or music, really, it was well written and interesting. I, of course, loved Ray!! And even though I new the (spoiler alert) guilty party early on, it was still great story!
This is a story of real racism, both blatant and more subtle, and its nefarious effects on families, individuals, and social and human interactions couched in the fictional mystery surrounding a stolen Stradivarius violin and the experiences of Ray McMillian, its owner and genius self-taught player.
In The Violin Conspiracy, Brendan Slocum brings to life the emotions of experiencing racism in its many forms in America: from the heart-pounding and potentially lethal traffic stop by a racist police officer, to the clueless bigotry of folks who run check-the-box diversity events. This by itself makes the book a worthy read. And the thriller elements of the story helped keep me engaged. Another interesting aspect of the story is the lack of support and the greed of Ray's own family—perhaps a reactionary survival response to ingrained racism that surrounds and permeates their lives.
What didn't quite work for me in the book was the unsettled view of what really goes on with racism. Thanks to thinkers and writers such as MLK, the Fields sisters, Carlos Hoyt, and Sheena Mason, I have a new and growing understanding of what's wrong with racism, which I have been testing out as I read and talk with people on the subject. In simple terms, racism is a ritualized ideology that rests on the concept of race itself as a divider of human beings. What is real is ancestry, individual and group histories, cultural and family traditions, skin tone and all sorts of other physical attributes, all shared and mixed among people—but there is no such thing as races of people that are inherently (biologically or socially) different from each other. Racism starts with the "racialization" of people into back, white, etc. and, therefore, the way to stop it is not to maintain race and try to treat people of "different races" equally, but to abolish race itself from our sphere of ideas of what makes people who they are.
Slocum is himself a racialized black musician and teacher, and uses a shifting narration style that evokes a sense of reality in the story and the main character's evolving point of view. Ray works hard in various stages to ignore, tolerate, and succeed in spite of the racism he is subjected to, but he never articulates what is actually wrong with it. We are left, therefore, with flat characters who are easy to label as bigot, racist, victim, etc. but have no real depth to them. Ray is a musician who deeply connects with the classical music he plays and "happens to be Black" but also thinks of it as music written by a bunch of "dead white Europeans". He makes a rightful mockery of the lip service paid to diversity, but constantly observes how no one in the orchestras he plays with "looks like him". I don't know about you, but I think humans look overwhelmingly alike, both physically and especially in what matters the most: their ability to feel and think creatively.
The view on race and racism that emerges from the story is not simplistic. It does reject race as the basis for any sort of aptitude for a certain music. Yet, it still entrenches the idea that it means something to be Black or White, other than ancestry and personal history. On the whole, the constant reminder that Ray is a fish out of water highlights for me a part of the problem presented by the prevailing view of racism. No one should be made to feel out of place where they are or can be a contributing member of the group. The racial view, even when well intended, constantly violates this principle by propping up an imaginary divider called race. I hope one day to read stories that show how we can truly transcend this fiction and what it would look like to live in a raceless human society.
In The Violin Conspiracy, Brendan Slocum brings to life the emotions of experiencing racism in its many forms in America: from the heart-pounding and potentially lethal traffic stop by a racist police officer, to the clueless bigotry of folks who run check-the-box diversity events. This by itself makes the book a worthy read. And the thriller elements of the story helped keep me engaged. Another interesting aspect of the story is the lack of support and the greed of Ray's own family—perhaps a reactionary survival response to ingrained racism that surrounds and permeates their lives.
What didn't quite work for me in the book was the unsettled view of what really goes on with racism. Thanks to thinkers and writers such as MLK, the Fields sisters, Carlos Hoyt, and Sheena Mason, I have a new and growing understanding of what's wrong with racism, which I have been testing out as I read and talk with people on the subject. In simple terms, racism is a ritualized ideology that rests on the concept of race itself as a divider of human beings. What is real is ancestry, individual and group histories, cultural and family traditions, skin tone and all sorts of other physical attributes, all shared and mixed among people—but there is no such thing as races of people that are inherently (biologically or socially) different from each other. Racism starts with the "racialization" of people into back, white, etc. and, therefore, the way to stop it is not to maintain race and try to treat people of "different races" equally, but to abolish race itself from our sphere of ideas of what makes people who they are.
Slocum is himself a racialized black musician and teacher, and uses a shifting narration style that evokes a sense of reality in the story and the main character's evolving point of view. Ray works hard in various stages to ignore, tolerate, and succeed in spite of the racism he is subjected to, but he never articulates what is actually wrong with it. We are left, therefore, with flat characters who are easy to label as bigot, racist, victim, etc. but have no real depth to them. Ray is a musician who deeply connects with the classical music he plays and "happens to be Black" but also thinks of it as music written by a bunch of "dead white Europeans". He makes a rightful mockery of the lip service paid to diversity, but constantly observes how no one in the orchestras he plays with "looks like him". I don't know about you, but I think humans look overwhelmingly alike, both physically and especially in what matters the most: their ability to feel and think creatively.
The view on race and racism that emerges from the story is not simplistic. It does reject race as the basis for any sort of aptitude for a certain music. Yet, it still entrenches the idea that it means something to be Black or White, other than ancestry and personal history. On the whole, the constant reminder that Ray is a fish out of water highlights for me a part of the problem presented by the prevailing view of racism. No one should be made to feel out of place where they are or can be a contributing member of the group. The racial view, even when well intended, constantly violates this principle by propping up an imaginary divider called race. I hope one day to read stories that show how we can truly transcend this fiction and what it would look like to live in a raceless human society.
challenging
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
People say it is a mystery but I don't really agree, there is a mystery element but I think the main focus is the resilience and self-determination of the main character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed the pacing of this book. At times I got so frustrated with rays family and almost couldn’t believe people would treat their children like that. I also found his relationship with Nicole to develop too quickly and like we as the readers were just to fill in the gaps of their relationship. It seemed superficial, but I understand that wasn’t the main plot. I appreciated the details in music and musical composers and pieces
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Wow. This was such a page turner. Yes, it does have the central mystery of the violin's disappearance, but the heart of this book is in Ray's story, his background as an underdog and how he persevered despite it all.
I wish we got a bit more resolution from the conflict with his mooching family and a little more punishment for the Marks, but those are smaller qualms compared to how much this riveted me.
I wish we got a bit more resolution from the conflict with his mooching family and a little more punishment for the Marks, but those are smaller qualms compared to how much this riveted me.
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No