{ "item_title" : "Body & Soul", "item_author" : [" "], "item_description" : " This saga of a son of the working class who grows into a piano prodigy is hypnotically readable . . . The best story I know of in a long, long time (Vanity Fair).   As a boy, Claude Rawlings looks up through the grated window of his basement apartment to watch the world go by. Poor, lonely, supported by a taxi-driver mother whose eccentricities spin more and more out of control, he faces the terrible task of growing up on the margins of life, destined to be a spectator of that great world always hurrying out of reach. But there is an out-of-tune piano in the small apartment, and in unlocking the secrets of its keys, as if by magic, Claude discovers himself. He is a musical prodigy.   Body & Soul is the story of a young man whose life is transformed by a gift. The gift is not without price—the work is relentless, the teachers exacting—but the reward is a journey that takes him to the drawing rooms of the rich and powerful, private schools, a gilt-edged marriage, and Carnegie Hall. Claude moves through this life as if he were playing a difficult composition, swept up in its drama and tension, surprised by its grace notes. Music, here, becomes a character in its own right, equaled in strength only by the music of Frank Conroy's own unmistakable and true voice.   Bristling with character and invention, Body & Soul is Dickensian in its range and richness. This is a novel with all the emotional appeal and moral gravity of a classic bildungsroman, but with a tone as contemporary as a jazz riff—an unforgettable achievement by one of the great writers of our time. ", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers2/ebook/15/90/9780547729015_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "10.41", "our_price" : "10.41", "club_price" : "10.41", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "club_savings_amt" : "0", "club_savings_pct" : "0" } }

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