Title: Sonata for Miriam
Author: Linda Olsson
Published: February 24, 2009
# of Pages: 273
ISBN: 978-0143114703
My Rating: 3.5/5
On a midsummer day in Auckland, New Zealand, two events occur that will change composer Adam Ankar’s life forever. As a result, Adam embarks on a journey to uncover his family’s past that takes him from New Zealand to Krakow, Poland, where he learns of his parents’ fate during World War II, and finally to Sweden. There he meets the mother of his child for the first time in over twenty years and must face the impossible choice she once forced him to make.
Sonata for Miriam was … different. On the one hand, the writing was undeniably gorgeous. I mean, it just flowed – I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the beautiful words splayed across the page. They fit perfectly together, and even more, the style of the writing lent very well to the content of the story. It was a morose, dreamy type of story, and that’s exactly what the writing portrayed.
I was interested in the story from the beginning, but I have to admit that I was quite confused in several places. At first, I found it difficult to separate Adam’s quest to find out more about his parents with his quest to get in touch with the mother of Miriam – in the beginning of the story, I had a hard time deciding which journey he was speaking of when he was describing something or someone he encountered. Once I got the stories straight, I became very invested in both storylines – I was curious about his roots, and I also couldn’t wait until he finally spoke with Cecilia. Both stories were equally interesting, and I enjoyed that they were woven together in a seamless way (once I got the hang of what was going on).
About three-fourths through the book, the narration switches to Cecilia from Adam, and I’ve seen several bloggers express their frustration with this, but I personally thought it was the right thing for Olsson to do. Cecilia’s story was so personal, so intertwined with her sense of self and every decision she made in her life, that it would have felt awkward to hear Adam tell us about her past. She needed to explain to the reader where she was coming from – for me, it made her more real. Up until that point, she was someone that Adam spoke about (or spoke TO, which was actually kind of strange), but the reader really didn’t know a lot about her. I actually really enjoyed the portions that were narrated by Cecilia.
Here’s where I was most disappointed: the ending. I just didn’t feel like I got the conclusion that I needed. And that’s all I’ll say about that because it’s not fair to go more in depth to those who haven’t read the book.
Sonata for Miriam is a beautiful book that has a lot going on in its 273 pages. I think that were I to read the book a second time, knowing what I know having read the entire thing, I would get a lot more out of it. The confusing parts would be less so and I could just relax and enjoy the lyrical writing and intriguing story. I am pretty sure that I could rate it higher if I read it another time, but even so I liked the book and would recommend it – just read slowly, and you may have to work to “get” everything that’s going on.
More reviews –
Heather, that is an excellent review. You summed up my feelings about the book so much better than I did!! LOL
Wow, thanks Lisa! Although I personally found your review to be excellent as well. 🙂
This sounds interesting. You’ve intrigued me enough to add it to my list 🙂
This one looks interesting to me – I’m bummed to see the ending is disappointing. Great review!
Well, it was disappointing for me at least. Others may or may not agree.
Sounds interesting, but like you said, a bit confusing.
Heather-
Loved your review and I agree with you on Cecilia’s role in the end..to me it seemed a perfection addition.
oopss…forgot to say thanks for adding my review to your list! 🙂
No problem!! Lately it feels like I’m always linking to you – we read so many of the same books! 🙂
a good and honest review–i love when book bloggers tell it like it is! personally, i like when the narrative line of books change perspective…this way i get different points of view.
Thanks, Nat. I try to be as honest as possible, but it is definitely difficult when you don’t want to hurt an author’s feelings! I just try to always highlight both positives and negatives – almost always, there’s a little of both in each book I read.
I had this one in my hand the other day to buy, but have heard mixed review on it, so I ended up putting it back. Thanks for the review.
I definitely think it’s a worthwhile read despite the negative aspects of my review. The book is worth reading for the gorgeous prose alone, but the story is also very interesting.
I’m so intrigued by this novel, and your description makes me even more so. Thanks for a lovely review.
I have this in my pile of books to read – it seems to move up and down the stack based my mood. =)
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