Two-Part Inventions: A Novel - Hardcover

Schwartz, Lynne Sharon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1619020157 ISBN 13: 9781619020153

Publisher: Counterpoint, 2012

Synopsis

Two-Part Inventions begins when Suzanne, a concert pianist, dies suddenly of a stroke in the New York City apartment she shares with her producer husband Philip. Rather than mourn in peace, Philip becomes deeply paranoid: their life is based on a fraud and the acclaimed music the couple created is about to be exposed. Philip had built a career for his wife by altering her recordings, taking a portion of a song here and there, from recordings of other pianists. Syncing the alterations seamlessly, he created a piece of flawless music with Suzanne getting sole credit.

In this urban, psychological novel, author Lynne Sharon Schwartz brilliantly guides the reader through a flawed marriage and calculated career. Beginning with Suzanne’s death and moving backwards in time, Schwartz examines their life together, and her remarkable career, while contemplating the nature of truth, marriage and the pursuit of perfection.

About this title

About the Author

Lynne Sharon Schwartz is the acclaimed author of several books, including Ruined by Reading, Disturbances in the Field, In the Family Way and The Writing on the Wall. Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s reviews and criticism have appeared in many leading magazines and papers. She has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Foundation for the Arts, and has taught in many writing programs here and abroad. She is presently on the faculty of the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in New York City.

From Booklist

Schwartz’s latest novel is loosely based on the true story of an unknown pianist whose recordings made her famous after they were altered and enhanced in the studio by her husband. That small seed of an idea set Schwartz’s powers of creation loose, and within Two-Part Inventions exists a forest of stories that grows more lush and complex with each page. Schwartz opens her tale with a tragedy—a husband finds that his wife has died suddenly—then asks how this couple arrived at this point, creating tension around an otherwise ordinary story of a marriage. Pianist Suzanne goes from timid preteen to beautiful ingénue to flawed artist struggling with stage fright. The yin to Suzanne’s yang is charming, confident Phillip. Is he an egotist? A controlling husband? A man for whom a childhood trauma can never heal? Schwartz takes great care to mold her characters into complicated beings who find themselves unsatisfied despite promising beginnings. The result is a painstaking character study and taut modern fable about people who live at the cross-section of art and fame. --Annie Tully

About this edition

• Publisher: Counterpoint
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1619020157
• ISBN 13: 9781619020153
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288