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  1. $19.56 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

Body & Soul

by Frank Conroy

Body & Soul Cover

ISBN13: 9780385319867
ISBN10: 038531986x
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $5.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In the dim light of a basement apartment, six-year-old Claude Rawlings sits at an old white piano, picking out the sounds he has heard on the radio and shutting out the reality of his lonely world.

The setting is 1940s New York, a city that is "long gone, replaced by another city of the same name." Against a backdrop that pulses with sound and rhythm, Body & Soul brilliantly evokes the life of a child prodigy whose musical genius pulls him out of squalor and into the drawing rooms of the rich and a gilt-edged marriage.

But the same talent that transforms him also hurtles Claude into a lonely world of obsession and relentless ambition. From Carnegie Hall to the smoky jazz clubs of London, Body & Soul burns with passion and truth--at once a riveting, compulsive read and a breathtaking glimpse into a boy's heart and an artist's soul.

Review:

“A literary event…a grand saga…Body & Soul was written under the spell of Dickens, not to mention Stendhal, Tolstoy and the other 19th century titans…Conroy bedazzles readers!

-Chicago Tribune

Review:

“Full of enchantment…a precise conjuring of an exceptional child’s perceptions and feelings.”

-Entertainment Weekly

Review:

“A big, old-fashioned book as satisfying as a fine evening at the symphony.”

-Dallas Morning News

About the Author

Frank Conroy was born in 1936 and graduated from Haverford College in 1958. He is currently teaching at the University of Iowa, where he is director of the prestigious Writeer’s Workshop. Conroy has written an autobiography Stop-Time, published in 1967, and his collection of stories, Midair, was published in 1985. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, GQ, Harper’s Magazine, and Partisan Review. He divides his time between Iowa City and Nantucket.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Mick, August 24, 2006 (view all comments by Mick)
This is, qute simply, a great book. It's a coming of age that lives in the music that the protagonist, a piano prodigy, makes. Conroy takes you into the city, into the music and into the soul of Claude Rawlings. I have recommended this book to many and all have enjoyed it. I wish that Conroy had written more novels.
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(4 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9780385319867
Author:
Conroy, Frank
Publisher:
Delta
Location:
New York, N.Y.
Subject:
General
Subject:
Fiction
Subject:
Men
Subject:
Pianists
Subject:
Musical fiction.
Subject:
Bildungsromane.
Series Volume:
199
Publication Date:
June 1998
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
464
Dimensions:
8.01x5.23x.96 in. .84 lbs.

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