The Blue Piano and Other Stories

By Carol Montparker

Amadeus Press, New York, 2004, hardvover, 30 pages, $24.95, ISBN 1-57467-087-5

Review published in Good Reading, the Magazine for Book Lovers, ABN 38 003 750 150, March 2005

Good Reading Magazine

The Blue Piano describes the experiences and people Carol Montparker encountered as she made her way to the top as a concert pianist and teacher of renown. As she did this on her own terms there is nothing Cinderella-like about this story, and the author’s ability to balance the consequences of human frailty with an erudite if obstinate optimism make this book untiringly readable.

The real horrors of her first marriage are off-set by her second husbband's kindness and generosity; the pomposity of parochial concert organizers is syncopated with the delicious bitchiness with which the author refuses to let them have their own way; the poignant description of the decline and death of a great mentor is enhanced by its treatment as a comedy of manners, and the meretriciousness of the author’s erstwhile country neighbors runs counterpoint to the spontaneous kindness of strangers (a recurring theme).

More about this book

The angst involved in the story about an impossible search for a lifetime’s journal and sketch book (accidentally left in a taxi by her well meaning husband) has one breathless for a happy ending, the elusiveness of which also defines the brutal yet moving story of a prodigiously talented student for whom success remains just beyond reach.

The Blue Piano And Other Stories powerfully conveys the endogenous talent and self discipline required to succeed as a professional artist. Yet the author communicates the positive value of all of her experiences so entertainingly that it’s not so much her success as a concert pianist that the reader admires as her understanding, her talent for witty observation and her enviable peace of mind.