In Alex George'sA Good American music is important to the lives of the characters and is integral to the plot. Jette and Frederick meet when he serenades her in a park. They find help in New Orleans from someone that Frederick met through music. This same man will come back into their lives and greatly impact their future. Frederick and Jette's sons and grandsons are all singers. Music is a huge part of their lives and it a way it was no surprise that George ends up comparing Jette's life to an opera.
"My grandmother's life had been one long opera. There had been drama, heroes, villains, improbable plot twists, all that. But most of all there had been love, great big waves of it, crashing ceaselessly against the rocks of life, bearing us all back to grace." Page 353
That passage made me think of a ballet I saw performed several years ago. The Four Seasons tells the story of a man's life, set to the music of Vivaldi'sFour Seasons. There was youthful exuberance in the spring and sensuality in the summer, while the fall and winter have a beautiful, though slightly mournful, acceptance that life is drawing to a close.
It made me wonder how I'll view my own life. Will it be a concerto? An opera? Perhaps it will be a play, though hopefully not Shakespearean tragedy. Or maybe it will be a poem. At the moment, I'm hoping my life will be a mixed media art exhibit, featuring words, sounds and images. I'm not sure because I'm not done living it yet.
If you were to compare you life to something, what would be it be?
BlogHer Book Club Host Karen Ballum also blogs at Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.