Klarinet Archive - Posting 000021.txt from 2008/05

From: Nancy Buckman <eefer@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] A new review for an old book.
Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 02:06:14 -0400

Dan, =0D
=0D
Does your lovely wife know of your fantasies and your wish to give away =0D
children? ;?)))=0D
=0D
Nancy=0D
=0D
Nancy Buckman=0D
Orchestra AACC=0D
Opera AACC=0D
Baltimore Flute Choir=0D
Early Music Society of Northern MD=0D
eefer@-----.com=0D
=0D
On Sat May 3 18:31 , 'Daniel Leeson' <dnleeson@-----.net> sent:=0D
=0D
>Dear Friends,=0D
>=0D
>Just as my new book, "The Mozart Cache" is about to come out sometime in=
=0D
>June, I was given a review of an old one, the book I wrote for clarinet=0D
>players, "The Mozart Forgeries." It is such a good review that I wanted t=
o=0D
>post it here for all the clarinet players who have not read the book. It=
=0D
>will continue to be available for sale on Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble, etc. f=
or=0D
>the forseeable future. And I'll let you all know when the new book comes=
=0D
>out, but unlike "The Mozart Forgeries" the new one is not fiction. Clarine=
ts=0D
>have nothing to do with the matter. But if you like Antiques Roadshow and=
=0D
>having a treasure fall from heaven directly into your lap , you'll love th=
e=0D
>new book for which I hope to make so much money that I will avail myself o=
f=0D
>the services of Hertz Rent-A-Mistress.=0D
>=0D
>www.leesonbooks.com=0D
>=0D
>Dan Leeson=0D
>dnleeson@-----.net=0D
>SKYPE: dnleeson=0D
>=0D
>Here is the review.=0D
>=0D
>A Classic Caper, and Not Just for Scholars =96 By Al Past, Author of The=
=0D
>Distant Cousin Series=0D
>=0D
>The subtitle of The Mozart Forgeries is A Caper Novel for the Serious Moza=
rt=0D
>Aficionado, and that is an accurate description, though the book is a good=
=0D
>deal more than that. For instance while I consider myself a music=0D
>aficionado, I am not a fan of Mozart, but that didn't affect my enjoyment =
of=0D
>this book. I am also interested in books and paper and how they are made,=
=0D
>and I am an amateur calligrapher--all have relevance to The Mozart=0D
>Forgeries. But what matters most is that I also love a good read, and this=
=0D
>book measures up on all counts. There are two main characters, never named=
=0D
>(I will come back to that): Librarian and Forger. Friends since childhood,=
=0D
>they grow up with, or acquire, a variety of special skills and abilities: =
a=0D
>photographic memory for texts, the ability to play piano, a career dealing=
=0D
>with rare manuscripts, and not least among others, a willingness to break=
=0D
>laws in order to make money. Both are exceedingly cunning, and Librarian,=
=0D
>the leader, in particular has enough caution and planning skills to make a=
=0D
>top-drawer secret agent. In a nutshell, the basic premise is this: several=
=0D
>popular works of Mozart (known to anyone who loves classical music, even=
=0D
>me), are known to exist only from copies of missing originals. Librarian a=
nd=0D
>Forger decide to forge them and to auction them off for millions of dollar=
s.=0D
>The novel is a detailed account of how they do this, and I do mean=0D
>detailed--the process takes up the majority of the pages. The plot twists=
=0D
>and suspense come towards the end, but they do come. The story is=0D
>meticulously plot-driven rather than character driven: the reader will lea=
rn=0D
>an astonishing amount about music, how paper and ink are made, the process=
=0D
>of music composition, and most informative to me, the business of forgery.=
=0D
>If the skills involved were not so specialized, the text could almost be=
=0D
>used as a how-to guide for enriching oneself with a quill pen. The volume =
is=0D
>handsome and the story is splendidly written. You will not find a more=0D
>cleanly edited book anywhere. For my money, though, the style was a tad=0D
>cool. For example, I see no reason why the two protagonists couldn't have=
=0D
>been called Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones. In an aside early on the author=0D
>explains that since the characters desire anonymity he will call them only=
=0D
>Forger and Librarian. Whatever that added to the flavor of the story creat=
ed=0D
>awkwardness through the first two thirds of the book, for me at least. (I=
=0D
>finally did get used to it.) Furthermore, though the two men do have=0D
>vestigial personalities, they tend to speak as if they are university=0D
>lecturers, in polished, complex sentences. Ultimately, however, their=0D
>personalities are not the point. The caper is the story. In a way, it's th=
e=0D
>opposite of all those 'Oceans' movies, where the caper was almost irreleva=
nt=0D
>and the characters and their interactions and in-jokes were what mattered.=
=0D
>This is a decidedly scholarly caper story. If you are the type of reader w=
ho=0D
>enjoys florid, breathless, gauzily plotted crisis-a-minute action stories=
=0D
>like The Da Vinci Code, The Mozart Forgeries is not for you. If you enjoy =
a=0D
>tightly plotted, rigorously detailed, and even informative, caper story, I=
=0D
>don't know how you could do better.=0D
>=0D
>=0D
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