Sight Reading: A Novel
*Starred Review* What might have been simply the story of a man leaving his marriage for a younger woman blossoms into much more. Composer-conductor Nicholas Elko, a rising star in the world of music when he joins the Boston Conservatory, falls in love with student second violinist Remy and leaves his wife, Hazel, and five-year-old daughter, Jessie. Remy feels guilty about breaking up a family, Jessie is angry about what her father did to her mother, and Hazel fears being a lonely divorced woman. Yet as almost two decades pass and these characters struggle with pain and loss, spirits of understanding, reconciliation, and generosity, especially on Hazel&#x2019;s part, emerge and increase. The narrative&#x2019;s chronology, looping back and forth, is set against a vibrant background of music made up of passages of Nicholas&#x2019; composing and conducting and Remy&#x2019;s playing, with a glossary of musical terms appended. Kalotay (Russian Winter, 2010) celebrates art in general, even considering what it is and isn&#x2019;t, in prose that is brisk and concise as well as sensuous and sumptuous, from Remy&#x2019;s desire to touch Nicholas&#x2019; skin at his collarbone to Hazel&#x2019;s brilliant use of color and texture in the shop she opens. A fictive musical and familial feast. --Michele Leber