Veteran literary critic Booth (Univ. of Chicago; The Company We
Keep: An Ethics of Fiction, 1988) offers a heartfelt, though
somewhat scattered, assertion of the value of avocation. With
detailed (sometimes overly detailed) examinations of the many ways
that his devotion to chamber music has affected his life and
worldview, Booth, who started his lifelong study of the cello in
1952 at the age of 31 (after earlier dalliances with clarinet,
piano, and voice), makes a convincing argument for the spiritual,
physical, and social benefits of "amateuring." The book, an amalgam
of ruminations, journal entries, and polemics on and around the
topic of why "the amateur chooses, day by day, hour by hour, to
pursue what life does not require," is in many ways a paean to the
composers (most particularly Beethoven) whose music the author
adores and to the teachers and fellow amateurs (most particularly
his wife, a talented violinist) who have shared with him the pain
and joy of this devotion. Booth sometimes veers into a fussy,
dogmatic tone - on familiar subjects like the evils of passive
hobbies or the failure of the school systems to provide a decent
musical education - which may make readers impatient for the return
of his more starry-eyed, crazy-for-the-cello narrative. For the
Love of It would benefit from an accompanying soundtrack; it
illustrates a bit too perfectly the dichotomy between rhetoric and
music, since often the long passages that attempt to describe the
rapture of a specific opus fall short of success. Yet Booth's
struggle - both musical and authorial - is so admirable, and his
joy in learning so tangible, that many readers will be tempted, as
he hopes, "to stop reading and get working on [their] own amateur
pursuit." An inspiring exhortation to those who have yet to find
passion in pastime. (Kirkus Reviews)
"For the Love of It" is a story not only of one intimate struggle
between a man and his cello, but also of the larger struggle
between a society obsessed with success and individuals who choose
challenging hobbies that yield no payoff except the love of it.
"If, in truth, Booth is an amateur player now in his fifth decade
of amateuring, he is certainly not an amateur thinker about music
and culture. . . . Would that all of us who think and teach and
care about music could be so practical and profound at the same
time."--Peter Kountz, "New York Times Book Review"
" T]his book serves as a running commentary on the nature and depth
of this love, and all the connections it has formed in his life. .
. . The music, he concludes, has become part of him, and that is
worth the price."--Clea Simon, "Boston Globe"
"The book will be read with delight by every well-meaning amateur
who has ever struggled. . . . Even general readers will come away
with a valuable lesson for living: Never mind the outcome of a
possibly vain pursuit; in the passion that is expended lies the
glory."--John von Rhein, "Chicago Tribune"
"Hooray for amateurs And huzzahs to Wayne Booth for honoring them
as they deserve. "For the Love of It" celebrates amateurism with
genial philosophizing and pointed cultural criticism, as well as
with personal reminiscences and self-effacing wit."--James Sloan
Allen, "USA Today"
"Wayne Booth, the prominent American literary critic, has written
the only sustained study of the interior experience of musical
amateurism in recent years, "For the Love of It." It] succeeds as a
meditation on the tension between the centrality of music in
Booth's life, both inner and social, and its marginality. . . . It
causes the reader to acknowledge the heterogeneity of the pleasures
involved in making music; the satisfaction in playing well, the
pride one takes in learning a difficult piece or passage or
technique, the buzz in one's fingertips and the sense of
completeness with the bow when the turn is done just right, the
pleasure of playing with others, the comfort of a shared society,
the joy of not just hearing, but making, the music, the wonder at
the notes lingering in the air."--"Times Literary Supplement"
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