The Weight of a Piano: A Novel by Chris Cander
- 02/18/2019 10:03 AM (update 04/10/2023 11:09 PM)
How much does a piano weigh? In the case of the German Bluthner model, featured prominently in this book, the emotional weight is much more than its actual 600 plus pounds for Katya and Clara whose lives are intertwined with the instrument.
Katya is given the piano when she is 8 years old and living in the Soviet Union. She loves and plays the piano, marries and migrates to the United States with her troubled husband. Tragedy ensues for Katya and her family. The piano eventually is given to Clara just before her father dies though she doesn’t know why he has given her such an unusual gift. She doesn’t play it but is attached because of her father. Then Clara is offered some needed cash for the piano. A road trip through Death Valley with the piano, photographs taken, a mystery uncovered, and life altering decisions are made as the story winds up and the spell of the piano is broken. Finally and forever.
Years ago I bought a book called The Red Couch: A Portrait of America by Kevin Clarke and Horst Wackenbarth. A red couch (velvet as I recall) was hauled all over America and photographed in natural settings. It caught my imagination because I couldn’t help making up stories about the couch and how it landed in the places it did. Even though I knew the pictures were staged. The Weight of a Piano has elements of The Red Couch with the exception that the story is laid out for me. No imagination necessary.
Carol Lloyd is the Churchill County Librarian. She recently traveled to Palm Desert where she was rained in and spent several days reading books that she will review/recommend for us.
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