Disturbance of the Inner Ear

by Joyce Hackett

Haunted by Holocaust memories, former cello prodigy Isabel Masurovsky takes a job teaching a millionaire's son to play, while gigolo Giulio works to seduce Isabel away from her past so that she can perform again. A first novel. Reprint.

Genres: Music, Fiction

277 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2002

Reviews

[Venuskitten · Rating 2 out of 5]

Set in Milan, this is the surreal and bizarre story of a young woman (formerly a gifted cellist) who is employed by a millionaire as a music teacher to his son Clayton following the death of her (much) older lover in their hotel room. She meets Guilio, a plastic surgeon, and embarks on a strange relationship with him, eventually fleeing from him and from her employer and his son, to Theriesenstadt, where her father had been held until the end of the war. Guilio is however never far behind, although it is hard to fathom his relationships with other women and with the central character.

The novel is written is a strangely clumsy style, so that it reads like a second or third generation translation. It moves from a cellist's inability to play to Jewish grief, and was not the novel that I expected.

[L. W. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why did I love this book so much? Was it because I understand her rapt attention when playing her instrument? Sympathized with her unusual and almost abusive childhood? Her desire to hide away to avoid more tragic losses? YES. YES. YES.

This book almost scared me off via the first page, a scene that hints at further darkness, but as I kept reading, the author weaves a mystery that unfolds and reveals the damages the main character carries around with her at the hands of a now-dead neglectful mother and holocaust-survivor father.

All is redeemed in the end, an instrument is saved, wounds are healed, love is found. I loved the characters, all of them, even the petty ones. THAT is art.

This book reminded me somewhat of To The Wedding (without the HIV), but I'm not sure why.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book really fast to find out what happens. After it finishes the trajectory of the book and where it ends feels like the reader should have guessed, but I think that is the art of the author, and that like life, there are many ways it could have taken and each one could have been just as convincing. As the book progressed I felt more sure of what had happened in the past and less sure of the present - and that was a part of the attraction for me. Thank goodness I didn't read the Goodreads bullshit about the healing power of erotic love - or I would never have started it.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by a Wellesley alum, it's a well-written story about a struggling cellist abroad, but it's implausible ending is distracting.

[Marita · Rating 2 out of 5]

quite bizzare book about music and Jewish grief.

[zydecope♥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Survivors recognize each other, as if by the scent of their own."

[Cairo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the way the author wrote - not using quotations ("...") around spoken phrases but instead using - (dashes). I also really enjoyed the way she punctuated Isabel's speech with musical phrases, such as - (forte, con sentimento profondo, etc.)

Good read.

Borrowed from library.

[Beth Hartnett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one may very well make my top 10...I should really get around to making an actual top ten list. Our librarians have each created one and it is great to see what people have enjoyed reading and how it matches up to my taste.

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like books--and reading them--you should check this out.

[Lu]

Didn't like or get

[Sally Kenney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found it hard to follow what was happening and who was who. The sex was disturbing, as were relationships. Couldn't connect with music.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

A former childhood cello prodigy stranded in Italy ends up at Thierienstadt -- Does anyone ever act that way????