Rating: 
Summary: Coming to Terms with Life
Review: As a writer, Mark Salzman is always pushing his limits, and The Soloist is no exception. The story revolves around a music professor, Reinhart Sundheimer, who as a child was an acclaimed cellist. He has been unable to play professionally ever since he became overly focused on pitch. Despite his best efforts, he can never produce a note that is absolutely perfect (no one can), and his playing has lost its spontaneity and fluidity. Clearly depressed by his perceived failure, he has led an extraordinarily isolated and lonely life for years, without even a pet to keep him company. Then two things happen to propel him out of his rut - he is chosen to be a juror in a murder trial, and is asked to give cello lessons to a young Korean boy who is clearly exceptionally gifted. The murder trial exposes him to a whole new group of people whose lives do not revolve around classical music. It also forces him to question and re-question his beliefs about motivation as he struggles to decide whether the defendant in the trial was insane when he committed the crime. Likewise his cello student, whose parents would prefer he acquire a skill that would be useful in the family's laundry business, helps him get beyond his narrow focus and see his own childhood in a fresh light. This is a complex story, and Salzman does a good job of weaving the past and present, and amusingly contradictory scenes of Reinhart's life into a comprehensive whole. The one problem I had was with Reinhart's sudden and rather unbelievable catharsis at the top of a mountain (Mt. Wilson in Southern California's San Gabriel Mountains to be exact). While the sudden insights into the nature of his failure as a cellist, his inability to form lasting and intimate relationships with women and the importance of his work are well prepared for, up until this point Salzman's character has shown very little self-insight. He has related the events in his life, and talked about the unhappiness and confusion they have caused him, but he seems clueless when it comes to the cause. Even granted the compelling circumstances that have forced him to see his life in a different light, it's hard to believe that Reinhart would hike to the top of a mountain and put all the pieces of his psychological dilemma together in one evening. Moreover, there were many times in the story when I expected Reinhart to put two and two together, but he doesn't. As a result, there is a clear break in the book between life before the mountain and life after. Life before is all about "showing," and life after is all about "telling." Since the mountain scene occurs near the end, the book seems to fade away as Salzman sums up how Reinhart's life is changed by his revelation. I found this very unsatisfying and couldn't help but suspect that some higher up in the publishing world told Salzman his story was getting a little long and he should wrap things up. As all writer's know, telling is never as satisfying as showing, and it's a shame that Salzman didn't take the time and space to give us an ending that lived up to the promise of the rest of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Teacher's pick
Review: Don't hesitate to pick up Mark Salzman's The Soloist. As an English teacher I enjoyed the allusions and thought-provoking passages. It was a mesmerizing experience to follow Renne's journey through alienation. My students found the book enjoyable and easy to read. They seemed to be eager to go on to each new chapter to solve the mysteries of Renne's problems in his personal life and with the trial. One thing of particular to note: Mr. Salzman does a great job as "teacher" when he artfully uses and defines musical language. Much of this may seem to be digression, but perhaps he thinks, as his main character does, that one "shouldn't think about how it would sound to anyone else." Overall, the book is a symphony. My class found that there are numerous messages for us in The Soloist and it is a joy to discover them.
Rating:
Summary: A good lesson on moving on.
Review: In Mark Salzman's "The Soloist," I think he shows the joys of being a child prodigy and the unhappiness it can bring. This book also shows something about the criminal courtroom. The main character, Reinehart, is a child prodigy that plays the cello. He played till his late teens and then lost his gift. This story tells about his anguish in becoming a great cello player again. I think this book is written well. It isn't a very difficult reading, in terms of vocabulary. But it goes deep into the main characters feelings. A lot of the books you read show a little into every character. But this showed a lot into just one. This book also makes you think about things and throw things around in your mind. It's a great book to show you about being different, but not feeling like an outsider. Is shows how to be happy in the end and not always think about the past and future, but the present. I would recommend this book to any high school student.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: Mark Salzman is a very intelligent, mindful writer. He's also incredibly curious about the world around him. This shines through in "Iron and Silk," an autobiographical account of his time in China as a teacher. As someone who embraces this alien culture, he learns to write caligraphy and takes up martial arts. (He plays himself in the film version.)
"The Soloist" also demonstrates the author's total absorption in a subject - this time playing the cello and Zen Buddhism. As both subjects are favorites of mine, reading this book was an absolute delight.
If you know nothing about the cello, you'll come away wiser. If you are ignorant of koans and Zen practice, you'll be more enlightened when you're finished with this book.
After I read this book, about a decade ago, I couldn't wait to share it. Subsequently I'm in desperate need of another copy.
Reading Salzman is a wonderful experience and his "Lose in Place" is hilarious!
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: Mark Salzman is a very intelligent, mindful writer. He's also incredibly curious about the world around him. This shines through in "Iron and Silk," an autobiographical account of his time in China as a teacher. As someone who embraces this alien culture, he learns to write caligraphy and takes up martial arts. (He plays himself in the film version.)
"The Soloist" also demonstrates the author's total absorption in a subject - this time playing the cello and Zen Buddhism. As both subjects are favorites of mine, reading this book was an absolute delight.
If you know nothing about the cello, you'll come away wiser. If you are ignorant of koans and Zen practice, you'll be more enlightened when you're finished with this book.
After I read this book, about a decade ago, I couldn't wait to share it. Subsequently I'm in desperate need of another copy.
Reading Salzman is a wonderful experience and his "Lose in Place" is hilarious!
Rating:
Summary: A muted performance
Review: Quite unlike his other two books, The Soloist is a quiet novel of introspection about ethics, mental health, and music. I would never have bought this book if it had been by another author--in fact, I ordered it sight unseen based solely on my enjoyment of Salzman's other books. And, having read it, I wonder if I would have picked it up now that I know the subject and style. It's not that it is uninteresting. Salzman has a wonderfully transparent style that suffers only from a marked tendency to tell rather than show (not constantly, but enough to be irritating). There's just nothing special about The Soloist. Unless, that is, you go for novels about cello players. Renne was a child prodigy who lost his gift in his late teens, and now teaches music in Los Angeles. The combination of his thirty-fourth birthday, jury duty, an unexpected student, and a possible love interest arrive at the same time, making for a remarkable frisson in his life. That's it. A simple tale of one man and the events that changed him. Okay, so it's nothing earth-shattering. I need a book every now and then to bring me back to the ground. At least Salzman is an engaging writer--I finished this book in two sittings.
Rating: 
Summary: Cellist rates novel
Review: Renne was a childhood prodigy. Prodded by his stage-manager mother, by age 18 he toured the world, playing cello with top orchestras and studying with a German master who is able to relate everything in the world around him to the making of music. At age 18, however, Renne's gift suddenly deserts him, as a new obsession with intonation makes him unable to play for audiences. He accepts a job teaching in a California University, and continues to practice for hours daily, but doesn't progress. Two events, however, conspire to change Renne's outlook and life. A young Korean prodigy seeks him out as a cello teacher, and Renne must look back on his instruction to realize what in his past has meant the most to him. At the same time, he is summoned to jury duty, where he sits on the trial of a young Zen student accused of killing his master while seeking enlightenment who is pursing an insanity defense. The trial forces Renne to confront an outside world, which is vastly different than that environment he has spent most of his life; and to put into place his ethical understandings. Salzman's book does a profound job at revealing what touches each of us spiritually. For Renne, it is his music. For his teacher, it was politics and his garden. For the Zen student, it is enlightenment. The Soloist is tightly woven, and constantly enjoyable. The book is well recommended for any reader.
Rating:
Summary: A Book I Will Read Over and Over Again
Review: The Soloist -- stated simply, a story of a child prodidy cellist who "loses" his ability to perform when he reaches adulthood and spends years in search of a way to recover his lost sense of identity -- is such a beautiful piece of writing that I am unable to do it justice, but I will try. The descriptive prose is like nothing I have ever seen. It astounds me. I find myself rereading passages just to savor the experience. Yet it is not the sort of writerly writing that gets in the way of a story. It is never showy or "outside" of the novel. Being a writer myself, I am naturally aware of "the writer", but only in the most positive sense. This author's storytelling ability is just amazing. There is never a moment when the reader isn't anxious to know what will happen next. One of my favorite aspects of the book is the main character's soul-searching -- his constant quest for meaning, for "the answers", and even "the questions". The underlying themes and messages of this novel apply to anyone, musician or not. It is, in part, a story of losing and searching to recover one's sense of identity, in this particular case by a boy whose original sense of identity was tied to his vision of himself as a concert cellist. There is so much to this book that it deserves more than one reading!
Rating:
Summary: How many lives does Mark Salzman have?
Review: THE SOLOIST is a fine novel, interweaving three stories that all center on the narrator: the rise and fall of a child prodigy cellist, the sole member of a jury at a murder trial who finds meaning in a defendent's case, and a teacher of a budding, gifted young Korean cellist. Each story has its own cast of characters beautifully realized, but most important - each aspect of this tripartite novel is told with such informed authority that imagining the author in anything but an autobiographical mode is next to impossible. Just as in his previous novel LYING AWAKE which dealt with the inner thoughts of a cloistered nun, Salzman here shows us he has a thorough understanding of music, music making, and the sociology and philosophy of our court system and our education system. Not that he stops at reportage. Hardly! It is simply his depth of knowledge about everything he writes make his novels deeply committed and inspiring. The reason for writing THE SOLOIST is probably one of encouraging his readers to live in the moment. But it is the loving manner of relating his tale that gets us there, almost without knowing we've arrived. A fine book to encourage a whole town (Pasadena) to read and share as is the goal here. Well worth anyone's time.
Rating:
Summary: A Musician Begins to Live Again
Review: THE SOLOIST was a book that caught me by surprise. I purchased it on impulse, and like many impulse buys, it sat on my bookcase for quite a while until I had time to read it. I finally had the opportunity to read it while snowed in during a major winter storm, and I believe I read it in one sitting. There are so many elements in this book that make it a compelling read. The main character Renne is lonely and isolated. Readers immediately like him, and probably feel sorry for him since he appears to be a washout both musically and personally. Readers will get a sense that he is sad, but not tragic, and has the potential for a fuller life. In the book, Renne looks back reflectively at major events in his life. Renne was once a child prodigy, studied with a great master of the cello, but his success was fleeting. By the time he reached adulthood, he lost the promise of his youthful musical career. His life is somewhat empty. When he is not teaching cello at a university, he is alone in his apartment. Three things change this drastically: he is a juror in a murder trail, he meets a love interest, and he encounters a young six year old child who may also be a prodigy. In the murder trail, Renne dares to be the lone voice of conscience. His love affair was doomed from the beginning since the woman was married, but it was an important first step for Renne. His tutoring the young potential prodigy is the most powerful aspect of the book. In this relationship, Renne may be facing his own childhood when he sees the young boy who is pressured by immigrant parents much in the same way he was pressured by his Jewish parents who escaped Nazi Germany. The changes that all three bring about happen rather quickly, but it is entirely believable. This work is no longer new, but it is likely that readers, who are new to Salzman via the publication of his most recent work TRUE NOTEBOOKS, will be interested in his other works. THE SOLIST will show the gifts he has as a writer and was able to share in with his charges in TRUE NOTEBOOKS.
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