Discord
-
- £7.99
-
- £7.99
Publisher Description
Jeremy Cooper, the author of Brian, returns with Discord, a subjective journey through the world of classical music. On a night in August, an audience at the Royal Albert Hall attends the first ever concert of Distant Voices. The Proms performance is the culmination of a year's work between the middle-aged composer Rebekah Rosen and the young star-saxophonist Evie Bennet. Alternating between both perspectives, Discord charts the course of their intense and at times fractious relationship, the resonances and dissonances both women find within one another, as well as the struggles and satisfactions that accompany an artistic life. At the heart of the novel is an inquiry into the generative force behind creative collaboration. In what ways does the inexpressible – that amorphous space of friction and unity between musicians – become indelible? And by what process do flawed individuals create works of transcendence? Deeply insightful, at turns poignant and wry, Discord affirms Jeremy Cooper's status as one of the most interesting fiction writers at work today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Cooper (Brian) delivers the plodding story of a fraught collaboration between a composer and a saxophonist. Nearing 50, Rebekah Rosen is "at once both innovative and indecisive," feeling inspired one minute and sensing the "death throes of a failed composer" the next. Her agent sets up a meeting with Evie Bennet, a "star-to-be" who plays her saxophone in flashy designer sneakers and eventually agrees to perform Rebekah's composition in progress at a prestigious classical music festival in London. Rebekah is possessive and resentful of Evie, attracted to her "glistening youth" and intimidated by her talent and confidence. The novel follows their relationship as the two very different women get a feel for each other and the evolving piece and discuss architecture, another of Rebekah's interests. In third-person narration, Cooper dutifully describes the buildings and music Rebekah and Evie like and dislike, and he supplies potted biographies of numerous composers and architects as well as a parade of minor characters, like a shoe retailer, who enter the protagonists' lives. As the concert approaches, there's less of a crescendo than a steady drone of meetings and outings. Despite the formidable intelligence behind it, this novel never sings.
