This wonderful book tells the history of an American mixed-race family, learned, educated, where everyday life in Philadelphia is steeped in classical music , « the family’s secret language ».
The story unfolds against a historical background , most importantly the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. Rosa Parker, James Meredith, M. L. King, Eleanor Roosevelt…..all come to life in the book.
After a chance meeting in Washington in 1939 at a famous concert by Marian Anderson ( the first black opera singer to be recognised word wide), Delia , a coloured nurse and musician and David, a white German Jewish scientist ( just immigrated from Germany) , fall in love and get married. Music is their shared passion.
R. Powers sums up in one sentence the existential question about mixed-race unions :
« Can a bird and a fish fall in love ? How can they build a nest ? »
The couple has three children, two boys and one girl, and they are determined to protect them because everyday life amounts to living through discrimination, humiliations, anti-semitism. Crimes against black people are recurent in the news.
Each member of this mixed-race family keeps asking the same questions :
« Who are we ? » « Where do we fit ? »
The two boys are gifted musicians : Jonah, the eldest , becomes a famous tenor. Joseph, the pianist, devotes his life accompanying his brother. They play « white European music » and will eventually embark on a grand musical tour in Europe.
Meanwhile, as history unfolds and society changes, Ruth, the youngest child follows another path. She breaks way from her family, marries a Black Panther , becomes an activist. This period also marks the advent of American popular black music, jazz… v. European white music for the elite.
Marian Anderson paved the way for all those black singers and incredible black women like Jessie Norman, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbara Hendrix, Grace Bumbry ( the Black Venus in Bayreuth)….
To conclude : this book is about identity, race, family bonds, tolerance, resilience, tenderness. And, to accompany us throughout the book, the most beautiful pieces of music played by the family at « THE TIME OF THEIR SINGING »
At the end, Richard Powers comes back with the sentence :
« A bird and a fish can fall in love. The bird can make a nest on the water, the fish can fly. »
Anne Van Calster, February 2022
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