Bow Grip

Starred review from March 15, 2007
When Joey Cooper, a small-town mechanic, trades a beat-up old car for a brand new cello, he thinks he's in the market for a new hobby; for a man trying to pull himself back together after his wife left him (for another woman), music might be just what he needs. What he finds, though, is a lot more than he counted on, and a search for a cello instructor becomes, in a laid-back sort of way, a quest for personal fulfillment. Coyote's first novel--she has published three short-story collections to considerable acclaim in Canada--is gently written, with a leisurely pace that allows us plenty of time to get to know Joey like a friend. His journey, to come to terms with his past and to find something worthwhile in his future, becomes our journey. In this story of an Everyman rediscovering that life is special, Coyote is telling all our stories, and it's impossible to read the novel without feeling like the author has been sneaking around behind us, observing the way we live and the way we think. Not too many novels make a reader feel like that--almost invaded but in a good kind of way. Keep your eyes on this Canadian writer; with a little luck and some word of mouth, she could make quite a splash sometime soon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)