Chopsticks

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As Chopsticks opens, Glory Fleming, child prodigy that critics hailed as “the Brecht of the Piano,” has gone missing from the rest home where she was staying and being treated for exhaustion. Only 17 at the time, Glory has already played at top venues in the U.S. and Europe, and she is renowned for her modern innovations on classical pieces. From this beginning, the story of what happened to Glory is slowly revealed through scrapbook cuttings, photos, drawings and more. We see photos of her parents’ marriage, her pregnant mother, and notices of her mother’s death when Glory was only 8. As she grows, her progress is seen through recital programs from Carnegie Hall, articles in “The New Yorker,” and photos of Glory with her piano-teacher dad. In high school a boy from Argentina move next door, and Glory’s life expands a bit. They start to spend time together, sharing playlists, texting each other, and hanging out. But when Glory is scheduled on a European tour and Frank’s grades spiral down, both begin to spin out of control. Jessica Anthony and Rodrigo Corral use innovative storytelling techniques to keep you turning pages looking for clues to what happens to Glory and Frank. Readers can check out links to YouTube videos that highlight performances from the movie “Big” with Tom Hanks, Hoagy Carmichael playing the Chopsticks waltz and more. The combination of words, images and video create a compelling story through to the end. I recommend Chopsticks for readers aged 14 and up.

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This novel's story is told entirely through photographs, which hold the promise of secrets that will unlock the story at second glance. They demand to be returned to: scoured and compared and reveled in as you follow the story and then retrace your steps when the mysterious ending is revealed. At the start, you learn that piano prodigy Gloria "Glory" Fleming has gone missing. Then, you are taken back to the beginning and shown in detail the 18 months prior to her disappearance. Chopsticks is the story of young love. It's the story of a piano prodigy. It's the story of desperation, madness, and a family wound tightly by tragedy, like a piece of piano wire. When you finish this gorgeous, spare novel, you will flip back through it, hunting for clues about the meaning of the ending. To find these clues, you will scour the photos that fill its 300+ pages. Photos of articles with phrases underlined in red, photos of pencil drawings, wine bottles, love notes, and even photos of photos. It is a story unlike any you have ever seen. It will engage your mind and your eye; your sense of mystery and your sense of aesthetics. However, it left my emotions relatively untouched - there is a distance and a coldness that comes when you place the story outside its characters. You, the reader, are an observer. You are flipping through a family album that depicts mystery and tragedy. You are a detective; you are solving a puzzle. You are not, however, a friend and sympathetic listener to the lonely heroine. You cannot comfort her, and your are not invited into her heart or her thoughts. The closest you come to her is by viewing handwritten notes and hand-drawn art, the utterances of a soul. Read it for its beauty and its puzzle, but do not seek a friend in its pages.