An Unfinished Score [Paperback]

Elise Blackwell is a constant source of surprises, changing directions with each engrossing new novel, and never repeating her subject matter or her approach to writing. In this, her fourth novel, Blackwell moves in yet another direction, studying the lives of people totally committed to the world of classical music-players in a string ensemble, a conductor, and a composer-and the often difficult personal choices they make. Though her subject matter has been very different in her four novels, her work has become increasingly complex and challenging, with this novel the most layered and intricate of all.

Suzanne Sullivan, a viola soloist, is listening to the radio one morning when she learns of a plane crash in Indiana. Alex Elling, her conductor-lover of the past four years, is dead. Suzanne, long unsatisfied with her marriage to Ben, an avant-garde composer, is nevertheless still living with him, and they share a house with Petra, Suzanne's best friend, and Petra's daughter--the only way the three musicians can afford a house in Princeton, New Jersey, where Suzanne and Petra are part of a string quartet. As Suzanne tries to come to terms with Alex's death, she goes about her daily life, but the novel veers widely from straight narrative, moving back and forth in time as Suzanne recollects people, places, and events in her relationship with Alex Elling, Ben, and Petra. Gradually, the complex lives of all the main characters unfold, their relationships with each other, both personally and professionally colored by their commitments to music. When Alex's wife Olivia sends Suzanne the viola solo from an unfinished concerto Alex has been writing--the only composition he has ever written--Olivia tells her that he wrote the concerto with Suzanne in mind. She will tell all about the affair unless Suzanne learns the almost impossibly difficult solo and finishes orchestrating the concerto so that it can be performed in Alex's honor.

Blackwell keeps the novel moving on many levels at once, incorporating stories about composers, about the technical details of instruments and their bows, and about the difficulties of the performing life, especially for female viola players (who are extremely rare). She has obviously done her homework, also including technical information about the financing and promotion of orchestras, issues of copyrights, and the sensitivities of unions. She models the structure of the novel itself on a concerto, matching the content to the moods of Doloroso, Agitato, and Appassionato movements, as the novel becomes more complex and increasingly dramatic. Motifs and echoes in the three movements of a concerto are paralleled here by foreshadowing in the plot structure, and as the novel moves toward a grand climax, the reader has been so well-prepared that the climax becomes a natural resolution rather than a huge surprise.

Parts of the plot and some of the characters' actions are unrealistic, however---melodramatic, even--and some readers may find that the coincidences and the summarizing Coda at the end of the novel strain credulity and make the novel feel somewhat "slick." Still, Blackwell creates an unusual story, maintaining the mood successfully, and she takes chances which some other, less adventurous authors might avoid. Many readers, especially lovers of classical music, will "willingly suspend disbelief" as the pace picks up toward this novel's resolution and as the full meaning of the title becomes clear.
Mary Whipple

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Couching her tale in the language of classical music, Blackwell once again exhibits her deep understanding of human nature. A concert violist, Suzanne has made a peace of sorts with her life choices, in marriage to Ben and relationship with Petra, her best friend. Ben's approach to music is more abstract and dispassionate, shielding his emotional barometer, extracting insights like a magician. He prefers the listener have "a distilled experience, something pure". Whatever the deficiencies in her marriage, they are blunted by a love affair of four years with conductor Alex Elling. Until the night she learns that Alex has perished in a plane crash. In that moment, Suzanne is left to imagine a world without Alex.

Suzanne's domestic situation is not traditional, subtly altered since a miscarriage and the decision to purchase a home with Petra, whose daughter, Adele, is deaf. This unusual family configuration allows the author to manipulate her characters, to balance the tensions between them and the demands of career and lifestyle, always precarious. But everything changes once again when Suzanne receives a phone call from Alex's widow, Olivia, demanding Suzanne complete the score for Alex's unfinished concerto. This is dangerous territory indeed, Olivia's motives suspect, but the task irresistible to Suzanne, who senses a reprieve to her grief, an opportunity to exists for a while in Alex's mind.

On this treacherous landscape, Suzanne will come face to face with realities she has thus far ignored, her ambitions, expectations and dreams for the future. As intricate and syncopated as the music that flows through every facet of these characters' lives, Blackwell marries music to passion, interpreting actions as deftly as the haunting notes of a symphony. Although those without knowledge of classical music may miss some nuances of the novel, her vivid characterizations are undeniable, if not always attractive, human failures as familiar as they are painful. This is a world where all reside, where love, betrayal, jealousy and fear are part of the fabric of life- and where forgiveness dwells. Luan Gaines/2010.

AN UNFINISHED SCORE by Elise Blackwell
Reviewed by By Barbara Jaffe
A serious and strong novel, An Unfinished Score is deeply passionate and personal in nature. The book's theme is woven around classical music and having studied classical piano in my youth, this title caught my attention.

Suzanne Sullivan is a concert violist in a marriage that has long been unsatisfying. While preparing dinner for her husband and their small extended family, the radio brings news that Alex Elling, a renowned orchestra conductor and Suzanne's lover of four years, was killed in a plane crash in Indiana.

Suzanne continues to keep her affair a secret until Elling's widow Olivia begins calling and leaving cryptic messages at her home and she fears her secret will be exposed. Eventually, Suzanne visits Olivia and discovers that Alex had been composing a score for Suzanne. Olivia blackmails Suzanne into completing the score.

Suzanne's husband and her manipulative best friend Petra are fully committed to the world of classical music, continuing the musical theme. And Petra's daughter Adele is deaf, which brings an interesting sideline when we learn that Adele is a candidate for a surgery that could help her to hear.

The book traverses through love, betrayal, jealousy and fear, each character fighting for their own interests while trying to tread lightly and avoid trampling the lives of those around them. This is especially true when the Suzanne/Petra relationship takes an interesting twist.

Blackwell keeps the novel moving on many levels, incorporating stories about composers, musicians and technical details of instruments in the orchestra. Beyond the storytelling, this is truly an education in classical music. I highly recommend this title to music lovers, but also to anyone who enjoys a richly textured, emotional story.