Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Soloist

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Author: Steve Lopez
Genre: Biography

When Steve Lopez encounters a homeless man playing beautiful music on a battered violin, he finds the meeting impossible to forget. Any other person would probably not question how such a talented musician such as Nathaniel Ayers could end up as a homeless man on Skid Row, Los Angeles but Steve Lopez’s inquisitive nature leads him to find out more about Nathaniel’s true talent and his musical background. What began as a chance encounter turns into a unique relationship, one that has helped a homeless musician suffering from schizophrenia to explore and grow his talent and possibly lead him to a road of recovery.

This book tells of their friendship and their journey together and the challenges they face in battling schizophrenia.

Steve Lopez’s style of writing is something I am not accustomed to (because obviously I don’t read a lot of non-fiction) but I felt that it presented the frustrations faced by Steve Lopez with Nathaniel’s condition truthfully. Though I did not enjoy Lopez’s style of writing, I did find this book insightful and it provided a brief understanding of schizophrenia as a mental condition. I was also very much interested to find out how this condition had affected Nathaniel Ayers in his youth leading him to now lead a street life on Skid Row.

Well worth the read.

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