A pianist must deal with her son’s severe illness and her failing marriage, with the help of Beethoven’s Appassionata.
Marcia Kleinman is an accomplished and gifted pianist, but has mostly put her career on hold to raise her little son, Max. Her husband, Michael, is loving, but also a workaholic lawyer with a controlling streak – a trait he shares with her mother, Barbara, a concert pianist herself. Then Max is diagnosed with a dangerous liver disease, and they must choose between waiting for a cadaver donor, or using a piece of Marcia’s liver. When Michael opposes the living donor procedure, which Marcia sees as the best hope for saving Max’s life, their marriage starts to crumble. When he gets a promotion that would require them to move back from Los Angeles to New York, and refuses to consider Marcia’s objections to the move, things get worse. And meanwhile, Max’s health is deteriorating. Soon, Marcia’s only solace lies in her music, especially in her struggle to fully master Beethoven’s Appassionata. Can Marcia save her little boy? Should she save her marriage? And will her struggle to find herself amidst the pain fuel her connection to the power and intensity of her music?
A LITTLE PIECE OF ME is a beautifully painful book. Max’s illness is deftly portrayed, without melodrama but with a straightforward agony that is far more heartbreaking. Geller’s gift for sensory detail and descriptive ability bring the story to life with painful force. On occasion, the book feels almost dreamlike, focusing on little things with an intensity that does not let go. All of the characters in the book are fully human and well-developed – Geller shows clearly, for example, the fear of loss that drives Michael’s need for control, and the shared devotion to music that draws Barbara and Marcia together even while sometimes setting them at odds. Even those with a limited appreciation for music can pick up on Marcia’s passion for her playing, and the comfort she finds in it. And while the struggle strips Marcia to the bone emotionally, it also lets her core self shine through, letting her find a new path through her own personal darkness.
The story does skip back and forth in time a bit, sometimes without a sufficiently clear indication that it is doing so, as when Marcia flashes back to telling her mother about her impending marriage. At times, the flashbacks can feel distracting, even unnecessary, but that may be a matter of personal taste.
A LITTLE PIECE OF ME is a book to read with multiple handkerchiefs within easy reach, a tenderly passionate heartache in novel form.
Reviewed by Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader