Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind - Hardcover

Nicolas Bazan, M.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1589851129 ISBN 13: 9781589851122

Publisher: Five Star Publishing (MI), 2008

Synopsis

Neuroscientist Alvaro Cruz finds himself haunted by a recurring dream of a banjo player in an elusive cornfield that leads him on a personal quest to uncover the mysterious past of a New Orleans street singer known as Una Vida. Stricken with Alzheimer's, Una Vida can only offer tantalizing clues about her past through her mesmerizing vocals, incredible recollection of jazz lyrics, and the occasional verbal revisiting of a fascinating life that s fading quickly and forever into the recess of her mind. As Cruz searches for Una Vida's true identity, he learns profound lessons about the human psyche, the nature of memory and himself. Now available in paperback for the first time!

About this title

About the Author:

Nicolas Bazan is a man driven by his life's many passions including a thirst for knowledge about the human mind and eyes, and a hunger for great food and fine music. Born in the tiny town of Los Sarmientos in Tucuman, Argentina, Nicolas Bazan's defining moment was witnessing an aunt suffer a seizure while walking him to a music lesson when he was a young boy, putting him on the path to becoming one of the world's premier neuroscientists.

Review:

“In a chance encounter on a New Orleans levee top, a respected neuroscientist crosses paths with an itinerant blues singer. The result of the meeting launches the doctor on a voyage of discovery about jazz, about his beloved New Orleans, about human relations, and mainly about his own search for understanding the horrible affliction of Alzheimer's disease which he had battled clinically for years. In his search he discovers that it is not enough to simply study the physical brain and it's attending neurons and synapses but also to recognize the beauty of the person for whom the brain functions.

Dr. Nicolas Bazan has written a novel that is wrapped within interests that he obviously knows and cares about deeply. In doing so we are not only given a well-told story, but an invitation to passionately embrace his favorite subjects through the thoughts, dreams and dialogue of his characters. Admittedly, at times we are not sure if we are listening to the musings and observations of his main character, Alvaro Cruz, or lectures in history, culture and medicine by Bazan himself. In either case we understand the goal that Cruz/Bazan has set for himself early on. In the ancient, childlike and bluesy Mazy Waters - Una Vida - we see the embodiment of all that the inquisitive Cruz must confront as cognition slowly saps essence from her being. Throughout we explore Cruz's efforts to piece together members of her family and her past, all in a race against the time left to the mind of the singer.”

(Patrick M. Burke (New Orleans, Louisiana))

About this edition

• Publisher: Five Star Publishing (MI)
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1589851129
• ISBN 13: 9781589851122
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218