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Review
`William Fiennes's beautifully written memoir of his childhood is like a double painting. On one side of the diptych is a picture of the 700-year-old moated castle near Banbury where he lived. On the other is a portrait of his older brother Richard, who suffered from epilepsy and became increasingly violent, and died aged 41. ... An outstanding book for rich, quiet contemplation.' --Derwent May, The Times
`A superb piece of writing from the author of The Snow Geese... Fiennes lends a lovely, lyrical touch to his own childhood journey towards understanding and this is a wholly captivating account of a family's loving forebearance with an adored but difficult brother.' --Metro
`I bought 12 copies of this for friends I thought would appreciate the near-perfect prose. A glorious evocation of an unusual childhood - far from miserable but tinged with certain sadness, also very funny. Especially high-grade verisimilitude in the snatches of dialogue.' --Angela Huth, The List
`William Fiennes describes his childhood alongside a brother suffering from epilepsy and brain damage. Their family home was a beautiful, medieval castle in Oxfordshire. Both the brother and the property receive a tender, respectful care from the author's parents, and it is as a portrait of such care that this memoir, displaying its integrity and delicacy throughout, really succeeds.'
--Sunday Telegraph
`[A] tender, affecting portrayal of his upbringing...Suffering and terror coexist with beauty and serenity in a book whose gifts of tact and timing turn its discords into harmony.' --Boyd Tonkin, Independent
`Bewitching...In a touching act of bearing witness, Fiennes has created a family history beyond oil paintings and suits of armour.'
--Guardian
`Beautifully written, subtle, and tremendously acute.' --Daily Mail
`Fiennes's forte is for minutely detailing the exterior world. This memoir begins by assiduously chronicling material wealth in cavernous country rooms. But it grows movingly towards an understated understanding of inner wealth, in the form of abundant love and patience.'
--Independent on Sunday
`A very poignant book.'
--Evening Standard
`The moving descriptions of Rich's behaviour lay bare the struggle his parents faced raising a beloved son who knew neither his strength nor his own mind.' --Daily Telegraph
`Poignant'
--Scotsman
`A superb piece of writing from the author of The Snow Geese... Fiennes lends a lovely, lyrical touch to his own childhood journey towards understanding and this is a wholly captivating account of a family's loving forebearance with an adored but difficult brother.' --Metro
`I bought 12 copies of this for friends I thought would appreciate the near-perfect prose. A glorious evocation of an unusual childhood - far from miserable but tinged with certain sadness, also very funny. Especially high-grade verisimilitude in the snatches of dialogue.' --Angela Huth, The List
`William Fiennes describes his childhood alongside a brother suffering from epilepsy and brain damage. Their family home was a beautiful, medieval castle in Oxfordshire. Both the brother and the property receive a tender, respectful care from the author's parents, and it is as a portrait of such care that this memoir, displaying its integrity and delicacy throughout, really succeeds.'
--Sunday Telegraph
`[A] tender, affecting portrayal of his upbringing...Suffering and terror coexist with beauty and serenity in a book whose gifts of tact and timing turn its discords into harmony.' --Boyd Tonkin, Independent
`Bewitching...In a touching act of bearing witness, Fiennes has created a family history beyond oil paintings and suits of armour.'
--Guardian
`Beautifully written, subtle, and tremendously acute.' --Daily Mail
`Fiennes's forte is for minutely detailing the exterior world. This memoir begins by assiduously chronicling material wealth in cavernous country rooms. But it grows movingly towards an understated understanding of inner wealth, in the form of abundant love and patience.'
--Independent on Sunday
`A very poignant book.'
--Evening Standard
`The moving descriptions of Rich's behaviour lay bare the struggle his parents faced raising a beloved son who knew neither his strength nor his own mind.' --Daily Telegraph
`Poignant'
--Scotsman
Review
The Music Room has an elegiac feel, not least -because Mr. Fiennes writes about his family with such care and dignity. His descriptions of Richard's -outbursts and seizures have the brutality of truth -without any of the modern memoirist's tendency to sensationalize. We are brought deep into the castle that was a family's home, yet what we learn still has an air about it of privacy and restraint. -- Meghan Cox Gurdon
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
44 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Broughton Castle in Oxfordshire is a 700-year-old stately home which nowadays attracts numerous visitors and film crews. William Fiennes, whose family has lived there for centuries, is a journalist and writer whose previous autobiographical book, The Snow Geese, ended with him returning to Broughton. He has now written his own account of growing up there, in particular with his older brother Richard who suffered from severe epilepsy and was often very difficult and even violent.
If one didn't know otherwise, one might take this memoir for a first-person fiction. It seems to me that Fiennes takes a step back from the specificity of time and place which a factual memoir would emphasise; for example, the phrase "Broughton Castle" does not occur at all. There are many reconstructed conversations which, I suspect, are a long way from pure reportage. It is like an imaginative and beautifully-written novel, interspersed with accounts of past scientific research into epilepsy (complete with a list of sources at the end).
The book covers a roughly 25-year time span, up to the time of Richard's death at age 41, a death which suddenly and unexpectedly intrudes into the narrative by way of a 10-word sentence (which, coincidentally, I reached just hours after hearing the news of young Ivan Cameron). We read how the young narrator grew up with the regular intrusion of film crews and well-known TV stars as part of normal domestic life, and we can imagine his surprise on discovering that most homes do not have such experiences!
This book will be of interest to anyone who has visited Broughton Castle, and to anyone else who enjoys an excellently-written account of growing up in a stately home.
If one didn't know otherwise, one might take this memoir for a first-person fiction. It seems to me that Fiennes takes a step back from the specificity of time and place which a factual memoir would emphasise; for example, the phrase "Broughton Castle" does not occur at all. There are many reconstructed conversations which, I suspect, are a long way from pure reportage. It is like an imaginative and beautifully-written novel, interspersed with accounts of past scientific research into epilepsy (complete with a list of sources at the end).
The book covers a roughly 25-year time span, up to the time of Richard's death at age 41, a death which suddenly and unexpectedly intrudes into the narrative by way of a 10-word sentence (which, coincidentally, I reached just hours after hearing the news of young Ivan Cameron). We read how the young narrator grew up with the regular intrusion of film crews and well-known TV stars as part of normal domestic life, and we can imagine his surprise on discovering that most homes do not have such experiences!
This book will be of interest to anyone who has visited Broughton Castle, and to anyone else who enjoys an excellently-written account of growing up in a stately home.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I did find this a bit heavy-going at first but I stuck with it. It is essentually a story of epilepsy and the effect the sufferer has on the rest of the family. William's brother Richard has epilepsy and this has caused brainn damage. Richard is expelled from a couple of epilepsy centres because of his violence. When he is home in the holidays the rest of the family treat him normally. William doesn't understand that his brother has no control over his emotions so as a young boy tests him to see how far he can go. It's only has William gets older he realises the full extent of Richard's condition. Richard will never be a fully independent adult as he himself will be. Sadly Rich dies in the epilepsy centre during a bad seizure. He is forty-one. Very poignant, Rich's mum is particularly upset at the death of one of her children. All the way through the book is interspersed with the history of the treatment and causes of epilepsy from the very early times in ancinet Greece to the present day. Really interesting read. Buy this book, I guarantee you won't disappointed.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
The Music Room is an elegiac memoir that interweaves three strands: the narrator's own idyllic childhood in a historic castle in the Midlands; a portrait of his elder brother, Richard, who suffers from severe epilepsy and brain damage; and a medical history of the understanding of epilepsy and brain neurological function. None of which might sound particularly riveting, but Fiennes has won prizes before and this book shows why.
Not a word is out of place (without any kind of conscious `literariness') as he navigates his way through this story. And what stood out most of all for me was the very ordinariness of the family: despite their home and life-style, despite Richard's illness, at heart this is a story about the deep, unquestioning, patient and tolerant love that makes the family what it is. The narrator says that he always understood that Richard was `different' from other brothers but he never fantasises an ideal Richard. The brother he has is who he is, and that is accepted.
The portrait of Richard himself is both harrowing and immensely tender: his illness is so bad that he is sent away to an epilepsy treatment centre during the week and only comes home at weekends. Gentle and somehow innocent, he slides into a pattern of violence, aggression, anger that takes it toll on everyone around him, not least those who love him best.
Fiennes writes with a very light touch: nothing is over-stated, everything restrained and spoken with dignity and respect. Images of Richard's father leaning against the house to draw strength from its centuries-old stone; his mother washing her adult son after he has wet the bed again, are offset by shimmering pictures of Richard holding an injured bird in his huge hands, and his triumphant recital of a remembered poem at his birthday party.
Ultimately this is a compassionate and very humane book, and one imbued with a kind of love not often celebrated in literature. Highly recommended.
Not a word is out of place (without any kind of conscious `literariness') as he navigates his way through this story. And what stood out most of all for me was the very ordinariness of the family: despite their home and life-style, despite Richard's illness, at heart this is a story about the deep, unquestioning, patient and tolerant love that makes the family what it is. The narrator says that he always understood that Richard was `different' from other brothers but he never fantasises an ideal Richard. The brother he has is who he is, and that is accepted.
The portrait of Richard himself is both harrowing and immensely tender: his illness is so bad that he is sent away to an epilepsy treatment centre during the week and only comes home at weekends. Gentle and somehow innocent, he slides into a pattern of violence, aggression, anger that takes it toll on everyone around him, not least those who love him best.
Fiennes writes with a very light touch: nothing is over-stated, everything restrained and spoken with dignity and respect. Images of Richard's father leaning against the house to draw strength from its centuries-old stone; his mother washing her adult son after he has wet the bed again, are offset by shimmering pictures of Richard holding an injured bird in his huge hands, and his triumphant recital of a remembered poem at his birthday party.
Ultimately this is a compassionate and very humane book, and one imbued with a kind of love not often celebrated in literature. Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
An emotional rollercoaster ....
Anyone who wants to have more insight into how families cope with the challenges of complex epilepsy should read this. Read more
Published 4 months ago by DJK
A moving, well written memoir
I read this in a single sitting. The language, as well as the underlying story, was moving and life affirming. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. A. Granville
This one's a keeper
This book describes an exceptional childhood and yet it strikes so many resonances. It will undoubtedly be considered a classic in years to come. Pure pleasure to read.
Published 8 months ago by Tuskie
review of The Music Room
I had just finished writing my semi-autobiography about my husband's epilepsy and subsequent dementia so I was keen to read this book on a similar subject. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Dr. R. J. Westwell
A great book
The cover blurb of the hardback version of this book proclaims it to be a small masterpiece. I can find no good reason from dissenting from this view. Read more
Published 16 months ago by J. Newth
Understanding epilepsy
A beautifully written and compassionate story of the author's early years growing up in a castle with an older brother who suffers from epilipsy. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Talisker
Promised so much but very dull
This was a book club read but I am fairly sure I would have chosen to read it at some point due to the interesting subject matter and the fact that it is a real life account,... Read more
Published 19 months ago by J. Fenn
a good read
The book arrived on time and in good condition. I'm only part way through but am so far impressed by the succinct yet poetic style and accuracy (as far as I know) of the scientific... Read more
Published 19 months ago by E. L. Riggs
More of an insight in to epilepsy than an autobiography
Having had this book recommended to me by an author, and then read good reviews I was a little disappointed. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Book chatter
A superb childhood memoir
Having read The Snow Geese and found it to be exquisitely well written, I was looking forward to Fiennes's second book. Read more
Published 22 months ago by hiljean
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