The Piano Teacher

Rating:
Summary: blonde wigs, luv hut, and one dead squirrel
Review: This is a great summer read that tricks you into thinking it is more obvious than it really is. Anyone with an appreciation of southern nuance will love this book. The little details creep up on you and then you suddenly realize it is rich in subliminal character and context. It is interesting to see that the writer really taps into relationships wraped around the concept of a murder mystery. It's fun and the first scene with the dead squirrel totally cracked me up.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT WOULD MISS WILMA THINK?
Review: This is an amusing story of life in a small southern town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountain. It is filled with a variety of interesting characters and has a fast paced plot which includes a little of everything.

However, I have lived in Pilot Mountain (Swan's Knob in the book) located at the foot of the mountain of the same name, which rises from the rolling Piedmont of Northwest North Carolina, and found that the "fictional" characters and places were too thinly disguised. In fact, our son was a piano student of Miss Wilma (the same name used in the book) on "the ancient baby grand" piano located in the "old sunroom". We suffered though those annual "three-hour recitals" in the "old school auditorium" with the "tin ceiling". The real Miss Wilma is probably turning over in her grave if she knows about the novel using her name.

In addition, the places mentioned as fictional (Westfield, Dobson, King, Ararat River, Mt. Airy, Fancy Gap, Cook School Road, Key Street, and others) really exist in or around Pilot Mountain as do some of the establishments. She mentions the Coach House, Squeezebox, Ray's Starlight, Belton's Shoe Shop, Surry Drug, the dime store, and others with which I am familiar.

Ms. York has displayed her literary talents, and I look forward to future works. However, I hope her future "fictions" will include fictional characters, places, etc. I wonder if, in her own way, the author is getting revenge on the late Miss Wilma for whacking her fingers with a pencil when she hit a wrong note or for requiring her to participate in one, two, or even three of those dreaded recitals each spring.