ARA Review by mtnlvr71 of Tears and Trombones

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mtnlvr71
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Joined: 03 Dec 2015, 16:23
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ARA Review by mtnlvr71 of Tears and Trombones

Post by mtnlvr71 »

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Tears and Trombones.]
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tears and Trombones by Nanci Lee Woody, Review

Awesome First Novel

It is a rare novel that will keep me up past my bedtime. Tears and Trombones, a first novel by Nanci Lee Woody was one of those books.

Tears and Trombones is a roller-coaster of highs and lows” states the cover blurb, and that was so for me, as the story drew me in. The highs occurred when the young musician achieved yet another career goal, or when he received accolades for his magnificent playing. Unfortunately the musical achievements were also an escape from the sadness, guilt and failures in his personal life.

So much has been written about this book, already, that it is difficult to say something new. I will discuss two of the main themes that stuck out to me--music and alcoholism--as well as one mystery.

The most intriguing mystery to me was wondering who or what “true story” was behind this book. In preparing for this review, I read the author’s Amazon bio, and her personal web site. Nothing in there pointed to the answer. I was left to wonder why the book is listed as based on a true story. Did I miss something? If so, I could easily use my own life as a model for certain aspects of this story.

As a musician, myself, with a degree in performance, I have spent my life in teaching private lessons, performing and directing. Trombone was not my primary instrument, although I did play it in the high school band. My trombone was as beat-up as Joey's first one. And so, I understood the terminology and challenges of the trombone as well as empathizing completely with the extensive musical elements in Joey’s story. This was especially true for I was born during the same time period as was Joey, and remember the same musical idols.

Joe “Joey” Woodman was destined to lead a lonely life, a gifted musician in a family with no talent. Joey was consumed with ambition, so driven that he defied his family and later his wife to spend the thousands of hours required to develop his gift to perfection and maintain it at the top of his profession. In his words, he "...became a cold, ... inconsiderate husband," who admitted "All I had was my music." The author describes perfectly how it feels to escape from reality by getting lost in one's music.

Not only did author Nanci Lee Woody grasp the heady world of music, she wrote about it in such amazing detail--with names, dates, performers, composers, and compositions--that I thought she must have been a musician during that time. But her bio did not show that. How did she know so much about it? Nothing I found in her bio suggested she had any higher education in music. And so, the accuracy could only have been achieved with a huge amount of research and a lot of help from her musician friends, whom she acknowledges at the end of the book.

The tragedy of Joey’s personal life was the direct result of alcohol. Vernon, Joey’s father was so addicted to alcohol, we do not see him in a sober moment. It turned him into an abusive beast towards his second son. His incessant bad-mouthing and put-downs had a crippling psychological effect that prevented Joey from feeling worthy of the one woman he wanted. Instead, Joey settled for a loveless marriage, as sick in its own way as was his parents’.

Joey’s mother was the stereo-typical enabler, too weak to confront Vernon, except for two sad and brief episodes, both of which Joey witnessed. For the most part she accepted her role in life without complaint, as one who performed the housework, cooking and domestic duties, all the while fearing Vernon’s acid tongue, attending to his slightest request, instantly obeying his whims and commands and behaving in such a way as to avoid annoying him. Furthermore, she taught Joey to do the same. She loved Joey and was nurturing in her own way but did very little to support his ambition and nothing to protect him from his father.

Five stars out of five.

***
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