Grace Notes

by Bernard MacLaverty

Book Overview

Grace Notes is a compact and altogether masterful portrait of a woman composer and the complex interplay between her life and her art. With superb artistry and startling intimacy, it brings us into the life of Catherine McKenna--estranged daughter, vexed lover, new mother, and musician making her mark in a male-dominated world. It is a book that the Virginia Woolf of A Room of One's Own would instantly understand.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393318419
• ISBN13: 9780393318418
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Subtle and insightful.

This book is not what it seems. First: the subject matter is gloomy: composer Catherine McKenna, recovering from a postnatal depression, is returning to violence stricken Northern Ireland for the funeral of her father. Not a glimmer of humour in sight. Seems depressing, but does not leave you depressed. I find that remarkable.Second: it may also seem a simple little book, with not much happening. But go to the trouble to read between the lines, and you will get a lot in return. Because grace notes are the unobtrusive notes that seemingly hardly have a function, but that in some subtle and undefinable way make a piece of music into something special. MacLaverty writes in this way. His book has the same effect that a beautiful piece music has: you can't tell exactly why, but you are deeply moved by it.What does happen in this novel is that Catherine must try to reconcile the Northern-Irish heritage she has tried to leave behind with the motherhood she can hardly cope with and reconcile both with her work. In the end it is the music that makes her whole again. In a beautiful finale we are shown the healing effect of art. Not a book for those who want a page-turner, but warmly recommended for those who like a deeply felt and subtle insight into a woman's soul. It is amazing that it was written by a man.

Music, a celebration of life

Bernard MacLaverty's "Grace Notes" is a truly absorbing piece of work by one of Ireland's most promising modern writers. It is introspective yet never oblique or indulgent in the way the study of "interiors" has a tendency to be in lesser hands. For Catherine McKenna, a struggling music composer estranged from her parents in Belfast and bringing up her little daughter Anna as a single parent in Glasgow, music is a celebration and a transmutation of the pulse of ordinary life, from childbirth pangs to the sounds of nature. There is a beautiful passage in there which likens the experience of childbirth to an orchestral performance of a musical composition. The prelude is all but theory and practice. You have to experience it to understand its relevance and impact. "Vernicle", the Mass that Catherine finishes, is inspired by her life's highs and lows and the product of her adherence to her teacher's advocacy of the practice of "pre-hearing" and the ability to catch the "notes between the notes". MacLaverty has written a novel that is at once subtle, reflective, poignant and uplifting. It is a consummate achievement that's worthy of its Booker prize award nomination. Not to be missed !

Extraordinary Performance

This is one of the most honest, well observed, multi-layered fictions I've read in a long time. It opens up the mind and heart of the creative artist and gets down the details of a woman's life in a sensitive, straightforward way. It tightly weaves setting, metaphors, rhythm and action. Just as the protagonist's inspiration comes first in rhythms, this books seems to have been born in the movement of the sea. The author has an interesting way of ordering his information: you learn to trust early into the book that if something hasn't been explained, the explanation will flow in at a later, more appropriate moment.

Superb novel

Bernard MacLaverty was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but has lived for many years in Scotland. An accomplished fiction writer, he is the author of two novels: Lamb, and Cal (both of which were made into successful movies), as well as several collections of short stories. This year, his third novel, Grace Notes, was short-listed for the prestigious Booker Prize. Grace Notes is the superbly-written story of Catherine McKenna's difficult relationship with her parents, her doomed love-affair with the man who is the father of her child, and her efforts to achieve personal and artistic freedom. The novel begins with a funeral, and ends with the realization of the protagonist's musical ambitions in the form of the successful performance and radio broadcast of her own musical composition. In between this gloomy, inauspicious opening and this triumphant finale lies the rich and finely nuanced story of this woman's struggle for independence.The novel opens with Catherine's return from Scotland, where she now lives, to the family home in a small town in Ulster. Her father has recently died, and the visit brings back many memories of her childhood. The story is told and her feelings are conveyed with sensitivity and precision. She has grown apart from her parents over the years, and they have been out of communication for some time. Indeed, the last time she spoke to her father they quarreled, and he forbade her to come back again. For this reason, the homecoming, and the funeral, are especially difficult for both mother and daughter. Catherine is a gifted composer, and recently went on a study visit to Kiev to study with a famous European composer. Her mother, however, is a religiously devout and uneducated woman, and has little understanding of her daughter's musical ambitions. She is also disheartened by her daughter's indifference to the Catholic Church, in which she was reared. There is a dramatic climax to the tension between the two women when Catherine reveals that she has had a child. Angry and confused, the mother is offended and disappointed, but particularly concerned that the baby has not been baptized: "'What's right is right. You don't want the wee thing to spend an eternity in limbo. If it died.' 'Nobody in their right mind believes that kind of stuff nowadays. . .' 'I do.'"The novel's second half includes a lengthy flashback to Catherine's life on the Scottish island of Islay, where she worked as a music teacher, and where she met Dave, the English jack-of-all-trades with whom she falls in love. Their relationship is portrayed rather well, but it finally collapses as Dave sinks into alcoholism, and Catherine is left increasingly alone, with baby Anna. Her decision to leave her partner comes to her in a moment of inspiration, as she walks on the beach with Anna. At this time she also hears in her mind the first chords of the composition which will mark her emergence as a fully-fledged musician. Th

Beautifully orchestrated, gracefully written.

This multileveled novel tells of a young woman who escapes her Irish family, studies music with world class artists and composers, carves out a personal and professional life in a world dominated by men, and then returns briefly for the funeral of her estranged father and reconciliation with her mother. But it is also a search for grace in its various definitions. As a composer, Catherine looks for the "notes between the notes...graces, grace notes." A Catholic who no longer believes, she sees "music as the grace of God...a way of praying." Appalled by the cruelty and intolerance which "religious" men have shown each other throughout history, she believes that "her act of creation [not religious dogma]...define[s] her as an individual...and define[s] all individuals as important." She embarks on a series of religious compositions at the same time that she rejects the church and its teachings about marriage and family. Choosing not to marry the father of her child, she nevertheless recognizes her daughter as a miracle, a profound mystery which "there was no form of music to celebrate or mark..." Filled with symbols of Fatherhood, baptism, ascension, rebirth, and ultimate triumph, MacLaverty's Grace Notes is a compelling and sensitive exploration of a young woman's attempt to reconcile her humanity with the universal mysteries of creation.