This is Jessi Wakefield and you’re listening to Check It Out.
Every now and again there is a book that comes along that leaves you in a state of simple, quiet joy. The book that I would like to recommend to you did that to me. The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce.
"The Music Shop" is a very character driven novel, filled with a unique a quirky group of lovable misfits who are more like family than friends. Set in 1988 London the story revolves around music shop owner Frank, who has an almost supernatural power to find the exact song you need for any mood, crisis, or emotion you are feeling at that moment. He just has to sit and wait for the song to hit him and he will cure you of your emotional ailment, or accentuate your joyous mood. Even if the customer thinks they know what they need, Frank will play for them exactly what they need, and he is never wrong. Although he is not a musician himself, he knows everything about music and expresses his enthusiasm for it in a way that is endearing and awe inspiring.
There are some really wonderful characters in this story that are all part of Frank’s world. Characters such as Maud, a brusk, emotionally shut off tattoo artist. Frank introduced her to Adagio for Strings by Barber and she has been in love ever since. There is Father Anthony, an ex-priest who runs a religious articles shop. Frank introduced him to jazz, and in no uncertain terms says that Frank saved his life for doing so. There is also a host of other characters that make for a truly rich tapestry of outsiders who’ve found a home together. Frank has everything he needs, he is for want of nothing. And then one day a mysterious woman enters into his life, Ilse Brauchmann, and from then on everything in his world changes.
I hope you have a chance to visit the Sioux City Public Library and check out Rachel Joyce’s The Music Shop.
Support for Check It Out comes from Avery Brothers.