This is the story of Lenny and Natasha, at the hopeful start of their relationship, at the start of US involvement in World War II, when Lenny is a young marine, and Natasha is a young concert pianist, who meets Lenny when she does a USO performance. It's also their story over three decades later, when their son is grown, and the early onset Alzheimer's that claimed her father is attacking Natasha. It's warm, heartbreaking, and yet ultimately with a touch of hope, that what Lenny and Natasha have is real and meaningful even as Natasha's identity is starting to slip away. It's told from Lenny's viewpoint the whole way, and captures his feelings of new love, fear, jealousy, hope, and excitement, as well as old, mature love, grieving at Natasha's slow decline, and a loving but frustrated parent who doesn't know how to strengthen his fragile relationship with his son. Altogether, a darker story than I expected, but very well done.

I bought this book. ( )

Uvi Poznasky’s The Music Of Us is a beautifully lyrical story of love and loss, covering the years from the Second World War to Vietnam and the 1970s. The novel builds a great sense of time and place from smooth, well-chosen details. Never intrusive, but always totally convincing, the threads of real events weave between the dance steps of love and the music of a wonderful soundtrack that frames the tale. The Music of Us is a sweet, sometimes crazy romance, with heart-warming longing, hilarious accident, and wonderful scenes that stick in the mind afterward. It’s also a beautiful walk into memory, haunted with those questions of loss that hide behind music and love.

The Music Of Us is the third in a sequence of novels, and a wonderful crown to the tale. Readers certainly don’t need to have read Apart From Love beforehand, and Music is hauntingly complete in its own right. It deepens the story of the earlier novel by adding time’s perspective, setting up the scene from which Apart begins. But it tells so story all its own, achingly lovely and sad.

Lyrical, musical, and hauntingly genuine, told in a voice that ages convincingly and loves completely, The Music Of Us lingers beautifully in the mind, long after the story’s told, and is a truly great read.

Disclosure: I thought I was just getting more of the original story, but this is so much more! ( )