There is a huge music festival occurring in town this weekend. Forecastle, now in its 11th year, draws some 30,000 music fans to my fair city. The line up for the three-day event, held at the park by the river, includes over 50 bands that have some really funny names.
I will not be attending. The idea of being jostled by 30,000 people is not my idea of a good time, plus, my music listening hasn't moved much past The Beatles.
Anyway, as the city will be alive with guitars and drummers and singers and listeners, it got me to thinking about books with a musical theme.
I have read La's Orchestra Saves the World, a sweet little book written by Alexander McCall Smith. And I also enjoyed The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart because, really, any book that takes place in Paris is fine by me.
One that has been on my TBR list for quite a while is Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, about an opera singer who is among a group of people held hostage in an embassy in South America.
Another one to read might be Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. That story takes place in Italy during WWII and may be a little too intense. A better one perhaps would be to re-read The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. Or try Amadeus by Peter Shaffer.
Well, it looks like a trip to the library today is in order. I wonder what traffic will be like.
I am right there with you - not attending anything with crowds like that! I'm always moaning that there are too many people! Traffic jams, crowds, lines - too many people! Where did all these people come from in the last 50 years? My husband got stuck in traffic for two hours a few weeks ago because of a similar 3-day concert in Dover, DE.
ReplyDeleteI loved Bel Canto, but not because of the opera singer. I don't think I've read anything else by Ann Patchett. Maybe I'm afraid another book won't be as good as Bel Canto.
Too many people, for sure, Joan. Whatever happened to the Zero Population Movement of the '60s! It doesn't seem as if that caught on...
DeleteThe only thing I have read by Ms. Patchett is 'State of Wonder.' I didn't make it to the library to check out 'Bel Canto' so it is still on my list. I will get to it some day, I hope.
I'm also not fond of big crowds, and find I'm less and less fond of them as I get older. Which makes me feel OLD. Oh, well.
ReplyDeleteI love Anne Patchett's books and I think I've read most of them. I enjoyed both Bel Canto and State of Wonder. Themed reading is kind of fun--I once wrote a post about books and movies that were set in the post office! (http://www.catchinghappiness.com/2012/04/it-happened-at-post-office.html)
Kathy, loved your post on the PO! 'Lark Rise to Candleford' is one of my favorites. I love the handmade stationery, the elegant handwriting, and the little cubbyholes for sorting the mail. All in all, a perfect place to live.
DeleteHave you ever read Eudora Welty's short story "Why I Live at the P.O.?" It's a classic.
Yes, I have (but after I wrote that post)! It introduced me to her writing, and I really like it. I'm reading Delta Wedding right now.
DeleteKathy, you might enjoy checking out my Grand Southern Literary Tour 2012 page. Day Three and Four include my visit to Jackson, Mississippi, and Ms. Welty's home there.
DeleteI have had a Post Office box for years and when I pick up my mail, I often think of the title of her story. It cracks me up!
I was already planning to check out this page--now I'll definitely do so.
DeleteI've been to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' place at Cross Creek, Ernest Hemingway's home in Key West, and Frances Parkinson Keyes home in New Orleans (I wrote about FPK's home here: http://www.catchinghappiness.com/2011/12/general-beauregard-slept-here.html--I really enjoy visiting authors' homes and seeing where they worked and lived.
Oh, I do too, Kathy. One that was really fascinating was Carl Sandburg's home in Flat Rock, NC. It is just as he left it. You feel as if he will come walking in the door from the backyard at any moment. And, so many books!
DeleteYour post on FPK's home is lovely. I have never seen or heard of a 'veileuse' but I agree it is charming. I also have not read any of FPK's books. Or been to New Orleans. Wow! I have some catching up to do.
Ann Patchett's Bel Canto is very good indeed, please read it, I read it a number of years ago and its one of those unusual novels that stays with you. Another in the "music" genre I would recommend is "Music & Silence" by Rose Tremain, its very loosely based on the life of the seventeenth-century English lutenist/composer John Dowland, a bit saucy in spots but not gratuitously.
ReplyDeleteI hope to get to 'Bel Canto' soon. 'Music & Silence' sounds fascinating. Thanks for the recommendation, Tullik.
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