Book Reviews With Jenny Dowell
Jenny is an avid reader and vocal supporter of libraries. Her reviews are always thought-provoking and well constructed. A link to reserve each book appears at the end of her review. You can receive Jenny's reviews and other exciting news every month in our library eNewsletter by subscribing at the following link www.rtrl.nsw.gov.au/subscribe.
February 2024
Symphony of Secrets
by Brendan Slocumb
This is a wonderful novel for musicians and those of us who know nothing about music except that we enjoy it. An historical novel set in New York in both the early decades of the 1900s and present day, Symphony of Secrets is a musical mystery. Like his main character, Bern Hendricks, author Brendan Slocumb is a current-day music academic.
In this novel, Professor Hendricks is commissioned by the Frederick Delaney Foundation to orchestrate a newly discovered work by Delaney who was a prolific composer 100 years ago. Delaney had written musical pieces related to the colours of the Olympic rings but Red is missing.
Rough sleeper Josephine Reed is neurodivergent, experiencing sounds as notes and transcribing what she hears in doodles. She also remembers every tune she's ever heard and can compose new pieces without having any training in musical notations. It is the early 1900s and Frederick Delaney—once known as the struggling Freddy Delaney—is suddenly the most popular composer in the country. The pair link up and Delaney convinces Reed that as a black woman, she can never be recognised and published, so he passes her work off as his own—he is a lyricist and transcribes the notations into a conventional musical score. She, meanwhile, is happy sleeping on his floor, cooking for him and listening to music.
In those days, music lovers bought sheet music and the pianists, such as Delaney, played in local department stores and made money from those appearances and the sale of their musical scores. A century later, Music Professor Bern Hendricks is hired by the Delaney Foundation to bring the long lost and recently discovered Delaney composition, Red Opera to the stage. Black Cybersecurity IT whiz Eboni Washington is his modern-day collaborator and mystery solver.
This is a novel exploring the issues of the early 1900s in USA, especially segregation and white supremacy. Musicians will more fully understand the musical references, but I can attest that having no musical knowledge is no impediment to being absorbed by this intriguing novel. The story is gripping and starts with Delaney going through his pre-performance routine of filling two champagne glasses and honouring a photo of an unnamed 'kiddo'.
The novel, like an opera, is in acts with alternating movements featuring Bern Hendricks and Freddy Delaney with occasional movements or chapters focusing on Josephine Reed. This story is also a plea to broaden our gaze to the people on the fringe—those who look, act, sound, or think differently. The musical term scherzo is used to represent Josephine as a sideline or interlude. Finally in Act 4, Josephine Reed is given the focus she deserves. She is no longer the scherzo, but this extraordinary woman becomes the centre of the music where she should always have been.
I found this book to be riveting in its evocative recreation of the era and an insight into the musical world of which I know so little.
I think you will enjoy it too.
5/5
You can download Jenny's 2023 reviews, 2022 reviews, 2021 reviews, 2020 reviews, 2019 reviews, and her 2018 reviews.