The Soloist

We, here in Philadelphia, have been reading The Soloist by Steve Lopez as part of the One Book, One Philadelphia project. I just finished it and heartily recommend it, before you see the movie of the same name.

The story is simple. A newspaper columnist (Lopez, who used to work in Philadelphia by the way) spots a homeless man on a street corner in Los Angeles playing the violin in a manner more suitable to a Julliard graduate than to a street person. After some poking around, it turns out that the street artist, one Nathaniel Ayers, did indeed go to Julliard and is, a gifted musician. Or at least was, until schizophrenia side-tracked him and he landed on the streets of L.A., by choice.

It is a story about the columnist who discovers Ayers, as much as it is about Ayers and how he fell from grace. It is also a story about the dismal way in which L.A. treats its mentally ill residents and how Lopez and his colleagues bring their plight to the attention of the mayor and actually get things to change, at least a little.

It is a story about friendship and about saving a life and about how the one doing the saving often reaps more than the one who is saved. And it is a story about patience and how mental illness does not follow a linear progression.

I loved it for obvious reasons--the kinship with the author being the main one--and how he weaves his own story of redemption in with the story of Ayers. I was intrigued by his structure and how he told the story and I think you will find it a good read. It will be a feel-good movie.

One small tidbit about Beethoven's third, Eroica. I never knew it was originally composed for Napoleon as an ode to his heroism until he too feel from grace in Beethoven's opinion. So it simply became Eroica, which means Heroism, an ode to all heroes.

I'd like to think my equine heroes like the piece as well...