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THE FLUTE ACROSS THE POND by Frederic Wakeman

THE FLUTE ACROSS THE POND

By

Pub Date: April 27th, 1966
Publisher: World

...provides the gentle theme music for this sententious soap-opera. ""Tape"" Alberg deserted wife and family for the love of a beautiful and mysterious woman. The woman, Sonya, is now his second wife but still mysterious. ""Saint Anne"" he calls her. She becomes frequently depressed. She cries. He comforts-- ""probably just your ovulation day."" He tries to understand. He plays music, the Concord Sonata. That does it. Little has poor Tape known it these past four years but Sonya's one true love was the genius interpreter of that Sonata, pianist Werner Grunwald. ""Flawed Lives"" is her recurrent thought as she remembers Werner's touch; their mutual guilt when his wife found the ultimate revenge in suicide. Meanwhile, Tape can't forget his teenage son and daughter. Episodes pass: DAUGHTER LANEY COMES TO VISIT, SONYA LEARNS OF WERNER'S TRAGIC DEATH, SONYA ABANDONS TAPE TO ATTEND FUNERAL IN NEW YORK, MOURNS, TAPE FOLLOWS, TAPE'S SCENES WITH SON AND WIFE and so on and on into a so-so reconciliation, a trip to Europe, Sonya's decision to leave Tape for good. Tape comes down with Typhoid, Sonya nurses him, and, you guessed it, they end up planning to make beautiful music together. ""Flawed Lives"" is right.