The Piano Teacher

The writing evokes such a strong sense of place, time and character. The story builds up without rush, layer by layer, befitting the slower-paced Southern atmosphere--while at the same time, the characters' sense of their lives possibly passing them by, is developed. Of course, music plays a part in this story about a piano teacher. Like anticipating a coming crescendo in an exciting new piece of music, the various layers of the story-telling come together beautifully and don't disappoint.

Fifty-something Wilma Mabry lives an ordered life--apron donned when preparing dinner, linen closet just so, and, always, the adoption of a supremely polite, even ostensibly indifferent exterior. This brand of southern gentility and a reliance on the comforts of routine have sustained Wilma--"Miss Wilma," the piano teacher of Lynn York's title--through marriage and motherhood and fifteen years of loneliness after her husband's suicide. But the price of maintaining equanimity has been a failure to communicate fully with the people closest to her. Wilma's relationship with her daughter Sarah, in particular, has suffered for it. During the course of the novel Wilma's ability to move through life seemingly unaffected is tested by a string of dramatic events: the unexpected attentions of a suitor, the murder of one of her Mayberry-sized town's policemen, and the unannounced appearance on her front porch of Wilma's troubled daughter and granddaughter. Although its plot revolves in part around a nasty murder and its solution, Lynn York's The Piano Teacher is a sweet, quiet novel. In it the relationships between Wilma and Sarah, and between Sarah and her husband, are explored and, while we're watching, subtly altered. The characters--particularly that of Wilma--are well drawn, and life in a small community in which non-conformity is checked by the threat of scandal is nicely evoked. The book gets off to a slow start in its initial chapter, but readers who keep with the book will be rewarded. Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece

This book reminded me of a very secular version of Jan Karon's books about the fictional North Carolina town of Mitford. Swan's Knob is a lot like Mitford, a small, friendly town where everyone knows everyone - and everyone's business. The characters are quirky and, well, characters. York's story, like Karon's, focuses on family, the goodness we discover in our parents and children as we grow older, and the possibility of late romance. However, in this book there is also murder, adultery and other kinds of mayhem - as I said, I much more secular version of the South than the Mitford books. But just as enjoyable!

This is a great summer read that tricks you into thinking it is more obvious than it really is. Anyone with an appreciation of southern nuance will love this book. The little details creep up on you and then you suddenly realize it is rich in subliminal character and context. It is interesting to see that the writer really taps into relationships wraped around the concept of a murder mystery. It's fun and the first scene with the dead squirrel totally cracked me up.