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\”Allegra Shapiro is me,\” says my daughter, who adores The Mozart Season. Granted, dear daughter, now 8, is not a 12-year old violin prodigy. But then few people are. In fact, there are actually few similarities between my daughter and Allegra. But the few there are are enough.
Both are intelligent, inquisitive, thoughtful, beloved children, children who are growing up in a world in which sometimes parents have to give their children away to save them. A world in which parents, no matter how loving, sometimes cannot save their children at all.
The Mozart Season is the story, told in the first person, of a young girl who comes to understand, deeply understand, the depths of good and evil in the world. This coming-of-age novel describes the process by which Allegra comes to cherish the eccentricities of her grandmother, (who is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor), her mother’s brilliant best friend (who lost her child and her equanimity in a dreadful accident), a street person (Mr. Trouble, who lost his brain to lead poisoning and his quality of life to an indifferent system), and Mozart’s Fourth Concerto.
My young daughter read The Mozart Season so slowly that my husband had to beg a special dispensation from our library. Allegra painstakingly describes the process by which she masters her violin piece. She collects challenging words, which my daughter wanted to master before she went on. Defining every single unfamiliar word in the book became an obsession. This mastery took time. \”I need to know what a delphinium LOOKS like NOW,\” my daughter cried. \”It’s a flower,\” I insisted. \”It’s time for bed. We can figure this out tomorrow.\”
The words of The Mozart Season flow smoothly and truly as if spoken by a precocious twelve-year old girl, but don’t let that deceive you. Parents who are reluctant to have their children think deeply about how evil in the world can destroy even the most ordinary family should steer clear of this one.
The virtues of The Mozart Season are those of The Giver or Ender’s Game, but the horrors it describes happened and do happen. Its matter of fact presentation adds to the power, and terror, of its message.
–Emily
