Broken Chords
By Todd B., Oxford, MI
Barbara Snow Gilbert’s Broken Chords will truly strike a chord with all who read it. Depicting the internal struggle of one teen, Gilbert develops her theme with great technique. Using rites of passage, she accurately shows teenage life.
The daughter of musical parents with high expectations, Clara, at 17, has conflicting desires about her future. After an injury, she struggles with trying to accept life as she has known it (with long hours of piano practice) or pursuing what she has started to want - a normal teen life hanging out with friends.
Snow’s writing resembles Allen Ginsberg’s. Through detail and a non-sugarcoated perspective, Snow delivers beautiful displays of confrontational predicaments.
“Clara, my darling, you should not play this concerto until - unless - you yearn to play it,” says her piano teacher. Such instances occur often throughout Broken Chords. It is almost as if Clara’s whole life represents a cry for individuality. Her mother basically runs her life. Clara needs freedom, and the ability to make her own choices. Snow’s depiction of one of life’s greatest conflicts - parents controlling children - makes Broken Chords a book that teens and parents alike will enjoy.
Broken Chords is in its own class. It gives a new perspective to all who have experienced a parent-child conflict. What makes it so compelling and magnetic are the issues it addresses that are dear to the hearts of many. Broken Chords is a masterpiece that gives the reader a new sense of self.
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