An okay read, but fell a little flat for me.

The premise for this novel was intriguing, something different and new. Rarely are there pieces of modern historical fiction that cover musicians in this vein. The story was presented a bit differently than I expected, giving a good insight into the relationship between Katherine "Kay" Swift and George Gershwin, but only truly following Kay in terms of her relationships with her husband, James, and George. There was a lot of focus on James's familial background in the beginning that overshadowed Kay's own past. There wasn't a focus on Kay and her own full life beyond her emotional conflict once she and George meet. Instead, it was merely a story of how she felt about each man and her attempt to determine how to live her life in terms of them. Because of this, the story didn't feel quite full. She became less of a powerful character, despite her obvious talent and musical genius. I needed the tale to be more fully about her, rather than how other men defined her. The fact that the story then ends without following out Kay's life makes this even more blatant and, for me, took something away from the integrity of the tale.

The historical accuracy of the novel feels true to form, and the events and characters were presented in a way that fits to the information available. It is clear through the story and the author's note that there was a lot of care taken to try and make the novel as accurate as possible. Because of this, there are definitely moments where it can take on a bit of a more stiff, educational tone, but the information given is honed to moments that feel important. I found myself intermittently grasped by the plot and did want to finish the book out, but will admit that the pacing wasn't consistent for me and I did have a hard time finding myself truly invested in the story. There are certainly readers out there who will find greater enjoyment in the work than I did, as I do think that there are valuable pieces of story and writing present throughout the book.

The writing is good and flows fairly well, but can come off a bit pretentious. The author is a clear academic and this comes out in word choice and sentence structure. This may make the book slightly more inaccessible for some readers and might have played a part in why I was not able to fully emotionally connect to the story and characters. Something about the tone made the story feel a bit more sterile than I would have liked. There are also a lot of places where names are dropped simply to drop them, not really involving these characters in the scenes in any way other than having been there and potentially adding to the celebrity of Gershwin. I would have rather they were kept only to those characters who truly played a part.

The best part of the novel was the atmosphere of the era. There was good attention to the opulence afforded the upper crust, with a nod to the fact that the Great Depression occurred mid-tale. There was great discussion of the style of New York and the contrasting style developing on the West Coast. There was a lot of inclusion of new inventions and technology of the age and these were sprinkled in to the narrative in a fairly subtle way. The description of clothing and style were also well done and helped to round out the encapsulation. The setting was extremely well established and I enjoyed the inclusion of different facets of society, discussing Tammany Hall, Harlem, the Broadway set, and so much more. The attention to these pieces really brought a lot of color to the narrative and helped to give it a lot of grounding.

All in all, this was an okay read for me. As stated, there are those who would be a better audience. I don't regret my read...I just wish it had pulled me in a little harder.



* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *