Overture

October 23, 2006
A coming-of-age effort by debut novelist Goldstein imagines the fraught relationship between a world-famous violinist and her high-strung daughter. Natasha ("Tasha") Darsky is the daughter of art gallery owners in New York City, riding high the vanguard of modern art. Her remarkable gift at playing the violin provides the crux for her schooling, and once dispatched to Harvard, she comes under the tutelage of imperious music professor Robert Masterson, who encourages Tasha to experiment in composition. She falls in love with Jean Paul Boumedienne, Masterson's brilliant, aristocratic star pupil, whose theory of Sublimated Tonality (that is, to "spin chaos into control") is revolutionary and sexy. Stifled by his brilliance after two years together, Tasha leaves him to launch her performance career, and her fling with Polish filmmaker Aleksander Pasek yields her daughter, Alex, whom Aleksander wants nothing to do with. Alex grows into a talented musician, and her experiences at an Indiana conservatory provide a too-pat sense of closure. Goldstein's novel is packed with the authentic detail of a musician's life; however, her workaday prose does little to bring life to her characters.

Starred review from November 15, 2006
Grappling with the limitations of human perfection, a violinist uses her musical genius and the alluring power of her body to express her deepest emotions, facing the anguish of having to settle for greatness when one is capable of so much more. This is the import of Goldstein's impressive debut, which features violin virtuoso Natasha Darsky as the centerpiece of three generations of artistic genius, with each woman compelled to live with the tormenting notion that the idealized perfection of her art remains just beyond her grasp. All three women bring this torment into their relationshipswith one another and, for Natasha, with lovers whose creative angst is even greater than her own. Natasha's mother watches as her talented daughter grows up and struggles with artistic demons, knowing exactly what lies ahead. Then it becomes Natasha's turn to watch as her own child follows the same path through the thickets of love and self-expression, seeking some kind of balance between the need for a mentor/father figure/lover and the need for creative independence. Goldstein paints a vivid picture of the world of the arts from behind the scenes: the studying, composing, selling, and performing and the people who are driven by the need to create. Recommended for all literary fiction collections.Susanne Wells, P.L. of Cincinnati & Hamilton Cty.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2006
Jolted into reflecting on her life by a fledgling journalist's impertinent question, Natasha Darsky muses on the events, decisions, and motivations that brought her from a privileged childhood in Greenwich Village to violin virtuosity and motherhood. Threads from a current crisis in Tasha's complicated relationship with her daughter introduce each of the book's five sections and provide plot continuity. " Overture"(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)