‘The Soloist’ by Marc Salzman
“The Soloist” by Marc Salzman is the story of Renne, a child prodigy at the cello. With his mother pushing him, Renne plays concerts on the world’s stages and is loved by audiences everywhere. But one day, his gift for playing leaves him, and he can’t find the right tones. Then he receives a summons for jury duty, and a music teacher writes him about a young boy (nine years old) who he thinks is a natural cellist. When Renne makes up an excuse, the boy’s mother calls and insists on an hour for him to audition the boy.
Renne celebrates his thirty-fourth birthday alone at a B and B in Santa Barbara with a bottle of champagne his mother has sent him as she does every year. He teaches students but prefers playing concerts to a large audience, but he’s afraid the tone will be off again.
Nine-year-old Kyunghee is thought to be a fabulous cellist already, and his mother wants Renne to mentor him. She shows up early for their lesson appointments. The cello is as big (or as small) as he is, and the boy wears a new suit and tie and scuffed shoes.
When Renne shows up for jury duty ready with an excuse, he changes his mind after hearing the judge dismiss other excuses as frivolous. Renne has given the Korean boy a Bach piece to play by sight and was impressed by the feeling he’d shown. This was not imitated or learned, and this was from the boy’s heart.
In the courtroom the next day, the defense attorney Ms. Doppelt spends hours asking the prospective jurors questions about their lives, then Mr. Graham, the prosecuting attorney, does the same.
Renne buys a special chair for Kyung-hee that will keep his shorts from dangling down. When Renne asks Hee if he knows about scales, he says fish have them. Then Renne gives him scales to play with and says to practice them daily. Hee wants to play Bach, but Renne says no, but to play a little of it for him. The music transports the boy as before, and Renne finishes the lesson, exhausted.
The judge at the trial says the defendant pleads guilty because of insanity. First comes the guilt phase, then the insanity phase.
The author weaves the stories together with details. The defendant found enlightenment at a Buddhist church and proceeded to beat the Zen master until he died of a crushed skull and broken neck. The jurors talk at the break about whether it is good to make kids take music lessons against their will. The resident monk at the L.A. Zen Foundation is the first witness for the state and describes the meditation retreat of one week and fiftyminute periods of a daily ritual. He shows the stick the defendant had used, and he says he was enlightened as he beat the man. Renne goes to lunch with another juror, Maria Teresa, and shares his table with her at an Italian restaurant nearby. Ms. Doppelt, the defense attorney, asks the monk about the stick, and she learns it is used as a kindness to awaken the student by hitting him or her on the back to make him be quiet. A puzzle the defendant had to solve said if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him. He knew Mr. Okokura was a living Buddha, and he demonstrated the answer: to kill him.
At the next lesson, Mrs. Kim asks Renne why Yee has to play such easy exercises.
Author Salzman tells the reader the facts without embellishing them, and we see no emotions. The policeman who took the defendant into custody testified that he was most cooperative and talked about his philosophy. Next was the homicide detective who said Philip admitted he’d killed the man and how with complete confidence anything he does is fine. The judge explains how to come to a verdict, and the jurors write guilty, not guilty, or undecided on the papers they are given. A verdict of seconddegree murder must show intent to commit, not accidental. They find Philip guilty unanimously of second-degree murder and still have to decide on the insanity plea. Ms. Doppelt says the insanity was brought on by the rigid meditation retreat that added to Philip’s mental illness. The next witness is a psychiatrist who defines schizophrenia and says it gets worse as one gets older. The defendant’s mother had this condition, and the trial gets more intense. The doctor says the defendant became psychotic when he killed the Zen master. At the end of the day, Renne drives Maria Teresa home as her car keys are locked in the car. He observes her house and finds it messy but charming and takes a beer when she offers it. He’s attracted to her, and she thinks the doctor was a snob.
At the next lesson, Kyunghee doesn’t want to wear a suit. He wants to wear a Batman outfit, and Renne goes to buy him one despite his mother’s objections. Kyung-hee is happily practicing his cello in Batman’s suit. He thinks fighting is more important than music but that Batman could play music when he was Bruce Wayne. He hears elaborate music like Mozart and spare or symmetrical as Bach. When Renne plays a recording of “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Kung-hee relates the emotions to a visual image.
At the trial, the defendant’s father says he was a failure as a parent and takes responsibility for his son’s behavior. Renne wants to take the boy to a live concert and gets his father’s permission.
At the trial’s lunch break the next day, Maria Teresa takes Renne to an Indian restaurant, and he suddenly kisses her, then takes her to her apartment. But soon, he can’t continue his sexual behavior, and everything seems ugly at her place, so he leaves in a hurry. Then he goes to pick up Kyunghee for the concert, and Hee thinks the musician is good, but the composer hadn’t finished the last piece.
On the last day of the trial, the jurors spend the entire day deliberating their decisions. Renee wonders if they know he’s the only one to vote not guilty. How does Renne feel about his vote? Ms. Doppelt says he’s done a very important thing. Does he continue teaching Hee the cello? Does Renne get a cat for Hee, as a way to achieve sanity for himself? Find out in this fascinating story on the new fiction shelf at your local library.