Iowa art coming of age early 20th century war
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1Joelle24
A book about a girl coming of age in Iowa. After her father's death, his good friend the local doctor introduces the girl (age 9-ish) to his wife, who takes her under her wing.
The wife is from the ousted Argentinian political elite, with excellent connections to the global art and music community. After the horrors of a revolution/coup, and she chooses to live a very quiet life in an Iowa town, with her 3 French servants and supportive genius doctor husband. He is the local town doctor, and the top brain surgeon in the nearest city, and was a close friend of the main character's father.
The main character lives a fairly normal life with her mother (and siblings?), going to local school, but the visits to the doctor's wife have the most important impact on her. They encourage her love of music and her skill at the piano. However, her father once told her she would grow up to be a famous artist, so she feels fated to be a painter, and tries her best to learn. The doctor and wife help her with art and piano lessons. Their conversation, often with sophisticated dinner guests, helps the main character (and me) learn more about the arts and the world.
Once, a famous violinist comes to visit, and asks her to accompany him on the piano after dinner. She thinks it's too hard, but he helps her, and encourages her to pursue a career in piano. She still thinks she has to be a paint artist to fulfill her father's dying wish.
When she is in high school, a world-famous artist visits the local community college, and judges an art competition the girl entered. Her entry comes last, and he correctly guessed the gender of every painter except her. Later she meets him at the doctor's house (and finds out that he came to Iowa because the doctor's wife invited him). The girl finally accepts that she isn't a gifted painter, and focuses on her music. The doctor's wife arranges an audition to join a world tour as accompanist, but the tour is interrupted when war breaks out in Europe.
As the girl grows older, so does the scope of the novel, expanding from small-town Iowa, to world-famous artists and global politics. War, how to avoid it, and how to respond to aggression, trauma and death is a growing theme the book. Eventually, war overtakes the narrative, changing everyone's plans (even before the US joins).
The doctor goes to the front as a surgeon, having spent his career developing new tools and techniques for brain surgery since the last war, when he could do too little. The main character goes to the front as well, as nurse/driver in France (?), and sometimes plays piano for the troops.
Here, in the middle of the war, the book ends, leaving the reader, like the characters, to respond as best we can to the cards we're dealt, to do our best to make the world a better place.
My best guess is that it was written around 1940, but it could have been 1916. The copy I read 15 years ago was not paperback - it may have been covered in blue cloth with silver letters. The title followed the format of "name of main character; or 3-4 word phrase" like "Rebecca; or An Artist Grows Up."
I do not remember any of the characters' names, but half-remembered lines come to my mind often:
Doctor: "My wife seldom goes out of the house and has very few visitors. I think your society would do her good."
Wife: "One of the first lessons a woman should learn is how to look beautiful at home for no one but herself."
Girl: "I can't play this! It's too hard!"
Violinist: "I'll help you."
Girl: "I'll never get used to how much happens in French in this house!" (on finding out that the servants already telephoned her mother about a change of plans).
Visiting artist: "This painter, he has no sense of perspective."
Teacher: "But the perspective is so careful!"
Artist: "It is artificial and clumsy."
Artist: "Is she any good?"
Doctor's Wife: "I don't know"
Artist: "Well, if you don't know, she probably isn't - you could always tell at a glance."
Girl: "The disdainful soldier who gave me advice about Beethoven - and he was right!"
"Something about name of a young nurse made everyone feel protective of her, though she certainly didn't need protecting."
Also in my mind is a clear image of her sitting on the kitchen step at home, of her mother's care, and of the way the doctor's wife opened a world of opportunity beyond her wildest dreams.
The wife is from the ousted Argentinian political elite, with excellent connections to the global art and music community. After the horrors of a revolution/coup, and she chooses to live a very quiet life in an Iowa town, with her 3 French servants and supportive genius doctor husband. He is the local town doctor, and the top brain surgeon in the nearest city, and was a close friend of the main character's father.
The main character lives a fairly normal life with her mother (and siblings?), going to local school, but the visits to the doctor's wife have the most important impact on her. They encourage her love of music and her skill at the piano. However, her father once told her she would grow up to be a famous artist, so she feels fated to be a painter, and tries her best to learn. The doctor and wife help her with art and piano lessons. Their conversation, often with sophisticated dinner guests, helps the main character (and me) learn more about the arts and the world.
Once, a famous violinist comes to visit, and asks her to accompany him on the piano after dinner. She thinks it's too hard, but he helps her, and encourages her to pursue a career in piano. She still thinks she has to be a paint artist to fulfill her father's dying wish.
When she is in high school, a world-famous artist visits the local community college, and judges an art competition the girl entered. Her entry comes last, and he correctly guessed the gender of every painter except her. Later she meets him at the doctor's house (and finds out that he came to Iowa because the doctor's wife invited him). The girl finally accepts that she isn't a gifted painter, and focuses on her music. The doctor's wife arranges an audition to join a world tour as accompanist, but the tour is interrupted when war breaks out in Europe.
As the girl grows older, so does the scope of the novel, expanding from small-town Iowa, to world-famous artists and global politics. War, how to avoid it, and how to respond to aggression, trauma and death is a growing theme the book. Eventually, war overtakes the narrative, changing everyone's plans (even before the US joins).
The doctor goes to the front as a surgeon, having spent his career developing new tools and techniques for brain surgery since the last war, when he could do too little. The main character goes to the front as well, as nurse/driver in France (?), and sometimes plays piano for the troops.
Here, in the middle of the war, the book ends, leaving the reader, like the characters, to respond as best we can to the cards we're dealt, to do our best to make the world a better place.
My best guess is that it was written around 1940, but it could have been 1916. The copy I read 15 years ago was not paperback - it may have been covered in blue cloth with silver letters. The title followed the format of "name of main character; or 3-4 word phrase" like "Rebecca; or An Artist Grows Up."
I do not remember any of the characters' names, but half-remembered lines come to my mind often:
Doctor: "My wife seldom goes out of the house and has very few visitors. I think your society would do her good."
Wife: "One of the first lessons a woman should learn is how to look beautiful at home for no one but herself."
Girl: "I can't play this! It's too hard!"
Violinist: "I'll help you."
Girl: "I'll never get used to how much happens in French in this house!" (on finding out that the servants already telephoned her mother about a change of plans).
Visiting artist: "This painter, he has no sense of perspective."
Teacher: "But the perspective is so careful!"
Artist: "It is artificial and clumsy."
Artist: "Is she any good?"
Doctor's Wife: "I don't know"
Artist: "Well, if you don't know, she probably isn't - you could always tell at a glance."
Girl: "The disdainful soldier who gave me advice about Beethoven - and he was right!"
"Something about name of a young nurse made everyone feel protective of her, though she certainly didn't need protecting."
Also in my mind is a clear image of her sitting on the kitchen step at home, of her mother's care, and of the way the doctor's wife opened a world of opportunity beyond her wildest dreams.
