Review: The Wonder Singer by George Rabasa
The Wonder Singer
by George Rabasa
Description from Amazon.com
Mark Lockwood's life is a small one. He's made his living as a freelance writer, producing a series of little books for hire called How to Talk to Your Teen About... But for the past few months he's been at work on a ghostwriting assignment beyond his dreams. To prepare her autobiography, he has been interviewing the internationally renowned diva Merce Casals. When the Senora dies suddenly-floating sizable in her elegant scented bath-she is suddenly a hot property, and a celebrity biographer arrives to take over the writing of her book. But Lockwood realizes this is his one chance at greatness, and so he runs off with the interview tapes. Abetted by the beautiful but scrupulous Perla, the Senora's nurse, and by a female impersonator, who considers himself the diva's greatest fan, Lockwood locks himself into his study, endlessly plays the tapes, and begins to craft his greatest book. Once the three conspirators rescue the Senora s husband from the home she put him in, Lockwood's sense of his own heart begins to expand beyond his considerable imagination. Moving by turns through the diva's lyrical account of her life and the frantic pace of Lockwood's notes from underground, The Wonder Singer portrays for us just what it can mean to live a beautiful life to its fullest.
The Wonder Singer is told through the eyes of writer Mark Lockwood, which begs the question: do we ever hear the diva's true voice? Merce Casals story unfolds in two ways: in excerpts from The Wonder Singer, Lockwood's biography, and in the aftermath of her death, through Lockwood's memories. So I cannot help but wonder if the only woman we ever meet is one of Lockwood's imagination.
The thing about Mark Lockwood is that he loves words. He loves them a little too much. As his wife criticizes him at one point, when he talks it is as if he is listening to himself to see how the words sound rather than truly focusing on the conversation at hand. So when Lockwood remembers conversations he had with Merce, I wonder if she really spoke so eloquently or if his inner editor has gone back and “scrubbed up” her conversations to showcase an even more dazzling wit. The more Lockwood writes about Merce, the more he claims he has a special understanding of her, at time seeming like a man possessed by her spirit.
I'm not going to lie. I don't really like Mark Lockwood. He's a selfish man, with the world revolving around his shoulders. He's rude and horribly disrespectful to his wife, stayihg out late hours and cutting her off whenever she begins to question his approach to writing the book. Lockwood is also shamelessly/pathetically pursuing Merce's former nurse, who flirts with him but is generally quite uninterested. He is incredibly stubborn, nearly irrational with his obsession with Merce Casals. Maybe that's why she chose him to be her biographer after shooting down five others. She knew that to his personality type, she would be the sole star in his sky.
However unlikeable Lockwood may be, Merce Casals is amazing. Her story is one of constant movement and passion. One of the greatest opera singers in her time, she survived the Spanish Civil War, sang around the world, and was pursued by princes and celebrities. Whenever she spoke, I wanted to hear more. Describing Mark as an exterminator to flush the rats out of her, the Senora's story is one that truly needed to be shared. Every time the story reverted to excerpts from her life, I became fully absorbed and could not stop reading. It was beautiful, lyrical, sensuous, and utterly wonderful.
The modern-day adventures of Lockwood and team...not so much. I may be blinded by my dislike of Lockwood, but the paragraphs dedicated to his writing a novel could be quite tedious at times. Actually, the thing that really irritated me was the ending. Throughout the book there's this tension between Lockwood and his agent, who has turned the biography over to a “blockbuster” seller but Lockwood refuses to turn over the tapes. Yet this plot is never resolved. I dearly wanted to find out which book ended up selling better - if indeed Lockwood's book even went to press - and how the world reacted to it. Author George Rabasa never takes us that far.
In spite of my many complaints, I did enjoy the book and will probably read it again and again. The musical quality of the writing that captures the life of the Senora so well make for a work of true beauty.
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