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A review by katykelly
Every Note Played by Lisa Genova
5.0
Another emotional through-the-wringer story, full of information but also an awful lot of humanity.
In the same vein as Still Alice, Genova gives another dehumanising condition a human face, and takes the reader on a journey from the early days when disbelief won't allow the reality to be accepted, to the full-on nightmare of a person becoming crushed and taken away a piece at a time.
You may not like Richard very much as a person - a world-famous pianist, divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter, but as you see him being slowly debilitated by motor neurone disease, losing first his fingers... it's hard not to see our common ground rather than what marks us all as different.
In a slightly inexplicable move, Richard's ex-wife Karina, comes back into his life after she hears the news. Karina is the more sympathetic of the two initially, but Genova allows the two to tell us the story of Richard's degeneration.
I had trouble pausing and putting the book down. I felt totally engrossed and caught up in Richard's life, and the marriage of Karina and the pianist who favoured his instrument and career over his family.
Hard-hitting, upsetting but impossible to forget. It takes you every step of the way, with a few scenes and doesn't skimp on the indignities of Richard's condition.
Very moving, well worth reading.
In the same vein as Still Alice, Genova gives another dehumanising condition a human face, and takes the reader on a journey from the early days when disbelief won't allow the reality to be accepted, to the full-on nightmare of a person becoming crushed and taken away a piece at a time.
You may not like Richard very much as a person - a world-famous pianist, divorced from his wife and estranged from his daughter, but as you see him being slowly debilitated by motor neurone disease, losing first his fingers... it's hard not to see our common ground rather than what marks us all as different.
In a slightly inexplicable move, Richard's ex-wife Karina, comes back into his life after she hears the news. Karina is the more sympathetic of the two initially, but Genova allows the two to tell us the story of Richard's degeneration.
I had trouble pausing and putting the book down. I felt totally engrossed and caught up in Richard's life, and the marriage of Karina and the pianist who favoured his instrument and career over his family.
Hard-hitting, upsetting but impossible to forget. It takes you every step of the way, with a few scenes and doesn't skimp on the indignities of Richard's condition.
Very moving, well worth reading.