ARA Review by basl99 of Tears and Trombones

[basl99]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Tears and Trombones.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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Tears and Trombones - by Nanci Lee Wood. Sand Hill Review Press; 1 edition (Sept. 9 2014) Reviewer purchased book from Author as e-book in ebook.

Review by Dr Allen Lycka


Tears and Trombones by Nanci Lee Woody is an emotional growing up story that emphasizes that there are many compromises to make as you seek your dreams. The life story of a talented trombonist is told in this 'based on fact' novel – my favorite type of story

WWWII was still in progress when 9-year-old Joey, an underprivileged kid considered to be ‘fruit picking trash’, when he goes to the symphony for the first time and is immediately mesmerized by the magnificent music that serenades his ears – so much so that he immediately decides to become a classical musician.

With the support of his mother, he timidly approached his music teacher who did not greet him with derision, but rather with the gift of an old, beaten up battered trombone to rehearse on. Can you imagine the site? A giant trombone and a peep squeak of a boy – David and Goliath. To make matters worse, the sound he made was worse than a junk truck discharging its load.

And with all of this – you are swept into the story. You’re are a member of the family living it with Joey. Joey’s mother is the embodiment of love, his father, but his father is something else. He’s belligerent, - an abusive alcoholic. You can feel the hate grow between Joey and his dad – but it doesn’t destroy him, it fuels his dreams.

And the story has all the elements that tease and delight you – a compelling rags to riches story, a severely dysfunctional family, the character transformation, passion for dreams and driven by those, love, friendship, connections with powerful people and support to help fulfil dreams, many twists and turns of events, feeling of satisfaction and realization of price for success. The prose is good and flows well in captivating the reader's attention up until the end. It’s an emotional roller coaster ride with highs and lows but the author adds some humor to lighten it up at times.

It answers – one dynamic, all empowering question: How far would you go to make your dream come true? For Joey, you can only answer that by finishing the entire story. The only problem with this book is you may not be able to put this down before you finish it. But to me, that’s not a disadvantage of a book – it’s a benefit. A book is meant to escape life. But it’s also meant for our lives to be enhanced by living vicariously through the characters.

Told in a tight impressive narrative, Tears and Trombones achieves its goal of tracing Joeys journey in overcoming a nasty, ugly childhood, rising in the music world, and finding a truer love along the way. It reminds me of D.H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.

How do I rate this? 5 out of 5 is the rating I must give it in this review, but in my heart, I easily rate this much higher.

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