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Date Posted: 15:26:41 11/04/05 Fri
Author: Syl
Subject: Sassenach Musings

This was sent in by Annie O. Thanks, lass! Very interesting sounding book!


A good summer romp. The friend who hosed me gave me this book saying it was delightfully written, with a bit of science fiction thrown in – how could I resist? That's pretty much what she said when she gave me Outlander to read!




TITLE: Sleeping with Schubert – a Novel

AUTHOR: Bonnie Marson

GENRE: Fiction

Think about it: a creative genius incredibly talented and driven is cut off from life too soon. What happens to all that energy?

Inhabitation. This book is about inhabitation. One day Liza Durbin, while in the shoe department at Nordstrom, suddenly finds herself inhabited by the spirit of Franz Schubert. Or, rather, she doesn't quite yet know who or what it is, she just knows she astounded herself and everybody else nearby by commandeering the piano in the store's foyer and playing it waaaayyyy beyond her ability. Suddenly she can rip off the most utterly amazing piano riffs anyone has ever heard, and she is able to improve upon traditional Schubert performance so much that she becomes a star.

Her humdrum lawyer life changes completely and immediately, though not all for the better. It takes her a while to come to terms with what is happening. The people around her have no problem admitting that since she was never particularly musical in the past, something wonderful has happened, but not all are ready to accept her explanation of it – when she finally gets around to telling them.

In the process we get to witness Schubert's reaction to present-day society, and Liza gets to witness scenes from Schubert's Austrian past through their very vivid dreams. (Schubert died of syphilis at 31, leaving his final symphony unfinished.)

It's not all serious, though. With shades of the hilarious Lily Tomlin/Steve Martin movie "All of Me," and a woman who channels the 2000 year old spirit of Jesus's miniature dachshund, it's plenty entertaining. And in the process of melding their lives, they meet others like themselves.

This is a book that, like Outlander, allows us to witness a sudden, profound, and miraculous change in a woman's life and compels us to ask, "What if…?"

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Replies:

[> Thoughts: I wonder if Marson has read any of Ruth Montgomery's books about "walk-ins", spirits who take over a living body in the middle of the person's life, w/o warning. (RM was an early New Age person who wrote about her 'paranormal' & spiritual theories & experiences --in her 90's now if still living.) So JC had a wiener dog!? And the book has a character who channels it? Sounds like something Flannery O'Connor would write if she were alive today! I just flashed on Gary Larson's book on Wiener Dog Art: The WD cave paintings, Egyptian temple WD wall paintings, etc. (Actually, I think dachshunds were bred as hunting dogs in Germany about 300 yrs. ago specifically to crawl down narrow holes after a burrowing animal.) Sounds like an interesting book. -- Lemora, 19:48:04 11/05/05 Sat


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[> [> That's true, Lemora, about the dachsunds. They were called badger hounds because they could get into a badger hole and pull it out. They were lots bigger then, though - almost like an agile version of a bassett. my parents bred dachsunds for years and years. it was pretty hilarious to find JC with one... -- annieo, 15:24:08 11/06/05 Sun


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[> [> Actually, my favorite was the weiner dog as melting clock. The Persistance of the Weiner Dog. -- beccabee, 16:49:22 11/07/05 Mon


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[> [> [> I love the zaftig pink angel 'Rubens' WD's and the Jackson Pollock WD's all sitting in the paint buckets. I think he was dipping them and zapping them against the canvas, i.e. Wiener Dog 'Action Paintings'. I miss Gary Larson in the funny papers every day. He has such a wild and wooly sense of the ridiculous. -- Lemora, 21:15:55 11/08/05 Tue


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[> Wow, this sounds cool. Thanks! -- beccabee, 05:20:34 11/06/05 Sun


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[> What a great story idea. Will add it to my TBR list. Thanks! -- LadyPeggyB, 16:48:58 11/06/05 Sun


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