Dissonance

Sensitively and poetically, this story deals with with what is often considered difficult subject matter - the concentration camp at Terezin / Theresienstadt, Los Alamos and the creation of the atomic bomb, as well as the fear of unveiling one's blocked memories and why the mind has shuttered them away.

Through the language of music theory, the primary character describes her understanding of the events of the 20th century which have affected her and her family. Her mother shares in this language called music and her father and husband, both scientists, do not appear to relate to her artistry and sensitivity. So much of her life's memories are a blur or even blocked from her conscience. Fragments come to the fore and her curiosity leads show more her to personal enlightenment.

For such a short story, there is much on which to chew and ponder. show less

One of my favourite books; this short novel explores essential themes of the very nature of humanity. In the divided social landscape of New Mexico, a dissatisfied self-contained piano teacher receives the bequest of a diary and musical scores from a mysterious holocaust survivor. As she explores this strange legacy she learns about herself and her familial relationships in a way that informs us of the human condition. The narrator's deep involvement with musical theory and uncomfortable proximity to physics counterpoint the psychological exploration. The rich conceptual layering is at odds with the sparse language and this weaving of clarity and complexity is just one of the many dissonances to which the title might refer.

The word that best describes "Dissonance" by Lisa Lenard-Cook to me is, perhaps ironically, resonance. Its 149 pages, singularly and together, resonate with me. Perhaps it's in part due to my childhood days as a piano student ....but I believe it has more to do with Ms Lenard-Cook's ability to tell the stories of fascinating, fallible, authentic, disparate, and interconnected human beings - particularly those of Anna and Hana - simultaneously and thoroughly..in only 149 pages!!! On top of this, she also manages to tackle a bit of the Holocaust and the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki without seeming gratuitous about these hefty topics in the process. A quick read, a wonderful read. Ends on a bit of a surprising show more note, as per the novel's title! show less

I received a finished copy from the publisher as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Sometimes a book just hits the spot for the reader. This is a story of suppressed memory, self discovery, forgiveness, and redemption. A piano teacher in New Mexico inherits the musical scores and diaries of a Holocaust survivor an begins a search to find out why these things were left to her. Loved it. This was not the one I hoped to win in the LT July batch, but I think I liked it better than I would have liked the ones I didn't win. I got lucky with this.

I found this a profoundly melancholic book which is no bad thing. The melancholy of the lonely piano teacher was written very well. Interspersed with this is the story of a concentration camp survivor who survived because of her music. Initially there appears to be no connection between the two women and watching the relationship between the alive Anna and the dead Hana was fascinating as it developed.

The only reason this doesn't has five stars is that I found the writing styles and voices of the two woman to be too similar.

This book reads like a real labour of love. It intermingles the story of Anna, a piano teacher haunted by her perceived lack of performing genius, her dead mother and her scientific rationalist father and husband, with that of Hana Weissova, composer and holocaust survivor. The two are brought together after Hana's death by a mysterious bequest of music to Anna, and through this she discovers much about herself and her mother - as well as the terrible events of the holocaust. It's a well plotted and carefully written story, which I think probably has considerable personal meaning to its author. It deals with all of the big issues of love and death; survival, creation and discussion. But for me it felt too controlled and too mannered. show more Music is, as the author writes, not a tidy affair when done properly. Nor is writing. And nuclear war, death and destruction are big, uncontrollable horrors. This book needed to give all of these some more space to breathe - some more messy anger, big love, more tears and less restraint. show less

Lisa Lenard-Cook’s Dissonance is a crafted and finely tuned novel. It is a slow burn, in the best sense: a patient rendering of character and a thoughtfully developed narrative. Lenard-Cook anchors the story using music theory as a device to make links and convey the emotions and motivations of her characters in overarching metaphor. It may be to the reader’s advantage to have some knowledge of music theory but for those who don't, concepts such as polytonality, consonance, dissonance, and cadence are conveyed as landscapes being revealed to the reader for the first time. Throughout the novel, there is an underlying rhythm of question and answer – call and response - the conflict between ‘complete’ and ‘unresolved’ show more cadences in the lives of the characters, the choices they make, and the consequences of those choices. It is conflict that goes to the heart of the human experience, a dialectic that has the potential to find resonance in the experience and emotional life of the reader. Dissonance is a novel that enriches, a love story, a narrative with historical scope and contemporary relevance. show less