Francesco Prokop Prokop itibaren Saint Vith, Bélgica itibaren Saint Vith, Bélgica

Oddly, this is packaged as a collection of stories, although it's quite obviously a novel. I suppose that's because some of the chapters were published separately in various literary journals, and presumably all of them might stand alone as short stories. The main character is Margy, a gifted professional violinist, and I picked up the book largely because of my own interest in the violin and music in general. To my surprise, music has very little to do with the story. Much is made of the politics involved inside orchestras and quartets (where she must associate with some dreadful people), and obligatory schmoozing, but nothing is given to show why Margy is drawn to music or what she gets out of it. (The Soloist is a novel that gets this right, and I guess I was hoping for more of the same.) That was a disappointment for me. By contrast, Webster, who shows up after about the first third of the narrative, is very clear about what motivates him. He's a marine biologist/ecologist and pretty nutty (but in a likeable way). When he meets Margy and hears her play, the music affects him far more than it ever seems to affect her. They marry -- and then troubles begin. The thing that is ultimately important to Margy, it turns out, is having babies. Webster, obsessed with the damage billions of people are doing to the planet, sees no reason to add any more. And out of this disagreement proceed a series of truly terrible events. I grieved to see so many ways in which two high-strung but basically good people could make themselves utterly miserable. I should also mention Margy's friend Calvin, another good soul, who may be the most sympathetically drawn homosexual in literature.