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Beethoven, Then and Now

Name: Beethoven, Then and Now
Author: Fred Gaertner
ISBN: 978-1499068191

by Fred Gaertner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 2014

As a portrait of the great composer and a foray into sci-fi, the book is ambitious, informative and meandering.

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A part biographical, part sci-fi novel from author Gaertner (Preacher Sean, Antiterrorist, 2009).

The first portion of the book follows Ludwig van Beethoven from his childhood in the 1770s through his turbulent adulthood. Though Beethoven would leave behind an immense body of work, the reader learns that it wasn’t without great difficulty. With hearing issues arising as early as his 30s (“My ‘touch and go’ hearing continued as usual with its alternating ‘good spells’ and ‘bad spells’ ”) and getting only worse as he aged, irritability, public outrages and family disputes were all part of the Beethoven legacy. Of course, through all the physical and mental anguish, there remained a man dedicated to his art: “[Y]ou must wonder what a deaf old musician can possibly hear in your playing….I have learned to hear with my eyes!” Following Beethoven’s death in 1827, the novel takes a sharp turn. The idea of the “Second-Order Life,” a complex system of reincarnation that allows one to continue with the journey of the soul, is introduced. A young man named Paul Rezler ends up carrying on the soul (or “spiritual subelectron”) of Beethoven, and so the process of creativity continues well into fantastic worlds: “One solid year is spent visiting a hundred musical capitals on eighty-three different cultural planets” and Earth alike. Muddled by periods of heavy explanation, the book often takes on more of a dreamlike quality than a vigorous narrative: “Of the 600 planets comprising the system proper, there are 351 located within the Aaronian galaxy. These include one Administrative Planet (Aaron AP) that houses the seat of government, the College of Counselors, Population Records and Control, the Cultural Archives, etc., plus 350 planets supporting Aaronian life.” Readers unperturbed by lingering over Beethoven’s creations (both real and imagined) will find the pace suitable, particularly as elbows are rubbed with other masters ranging from Mozart to Handel. Readers without much patience for highly expository discussions of detailed concepts—such as “Any day now, a pair of Earthlings will die out of their First-Order existence….All that is ‘eternal’ about them is faithfully recorded in their spiritual subelectrons, which are death-freed from their First-Order brains, and which have sufficient spiritual momentum to place them in orbit within the third subelectronic ring, setting the spherical boundary of our own Second-Order-MAJOR universe”—may find themselves lost in the vast, albeit highly structured, world of changing souls and bodies.

As a portrait of the great composer and a foray into sci-fi, the book is ambitious, informative and meandering.

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014

ISBN: 978-1499068191

Page Count: 658

Publisher: Xlibris

Review Posted Online: Jan. 15, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.