Summary: Ray McMillian loves playing the violin more than anything, and nothing will stop him from pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician. Not his mother, who thinks he should get a real job, not the fact that he can’t afford a high-caliber violin, not the racism inherent in the classical music world. And when he makes the startling discovery that his great-grandfather’s fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, his star begins to rise. Then with the international Tchaikovsky Competition—the Olympics of classical music—fast approaching, his prized family heirloom is stolen. Ray is determined to get it back. But now his family and the descendants of the man who once enslaved Ray’s great-grandfather are each claiming that the violin belongs to them. With the odds stacked against him and the pressure mounting, will Ray ever see his beloved violin again? (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
My Review: It is highly likely that if you haven’t read this book, you’ve at least heard of it. It was a “Good Morning America” Book Club pick, as well as a Goodreads winner. However, I enjoyed it so much I feel like I had to write a little review and spread the good word so that if you haven’t read it yet, you can run out and do that ASAP!
There were many, many great things about this book. First of all, I really enjoyed the writing. Brendan Slocumb has an excellent writing style that is able to straddle the line of helping us understand what a young adult Black man thinks and talks like, but also to tell the story of his music in a most evocative fashion. I am an instrumentalist, and so reading this brought up a lot of emotions for me. I don’t play the violin, nor do I play my instruments on a world class level like the main character Ray does, but as a musician myself I could appreciate the descriptions of the music, the playing, and the feeling of playing an instrument. Even if I am not able to play my instruments to the level at which he plays his, I could understand every emotion and description Slocumb was writing about, and I think that all readers will feel this. It was powerful. He talks about so many pieces in the book, too, and I would love to go through and listen to them all with my new knowledge and descriptors given to me by reading Slocumb’s book. I did look on Spotify, and it seems that there are many playlists on there about this exact thing so it’s good to know that I’m not the only one who wanted to hear what this beautiful book was about.
This book has some great character development. There are definitely some hard things to read about, as Ray, a young black man trying to make it in a predominantly wealthy white world, faces a lot of hard situations. Many of these come from his own family whose access to his success makes them greedy and pretty horrible, really. There are other characters who come out of the woodwork as well, who are horrible. It’s just a really honest story. I liked that the characters felt real in both their goodness and their weaknesses, and I think that this is very real—most people aren’t all good or all bad but fall somewhere in between.
This is a really great story. It is, at its heart, a story of a young man who faces incredible odds to become the best in his field, but it is also a mystery story, a story of resilience, and a story of hope and brightness in a world where much of the deck is stacked against our young prodigy. I loved that Slocumb pulled no punches, and I think issues of race and the inherent biases and unfairnesses in our society are always important to address. How can we ever overcome them or ever learn if we don’t hear from others what their experience is like? I really appreciated the honesty in this story.
I think this is an excellent book. If you’re musical at all, I think you will love this book. If you’re looking for a good heist mystery, this is also a great book. If you love reading about race relations in this country, this is an excellent book. Really, overall, I think it’s a book that has deserved every accolade it has received. If you haven’t read it yet, you should.
My Rating: 5 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There is some language.
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