The Blue Piano and Other Stories

Rating:
Summary: Represents very real insights into the music world
Review: The Blue Piano is the third book by musician Carol Montparker, providing thirty-one short stories covering musicianship and adventures in the music world. It's hard to easily categorize Blue Piano: the stories represent very real insights into the music world and sensibility, yet contain the passion and vivid descriptions of fiction. Suffice it to say that musicians in general and pianists in particular will relish these lyrical first-person insights.

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Interesting
Review: There are so many people who write about themselves, and so few who tell a good story while doing so. In the grip of a good story, I will forgive self absorption, indulge even smugness - to a point. But the episodes in this book are simply not good enough as stories, and they display an unappealing self involvement on the part of the author. Her writing is craftsmanly, but these vignettes probably should have been limited to an appreciative circle of family and close friends; they are not intriguing enough to hold the attention of a general audience. I am sure the author is a lovely person with a talent for friendship, but her tone of self congratulation (and self justification) is ultimately off-putting, especially when the narrative payoff is so slim. What is the point?