The Music Shop

A friend recommended a book to me. It wasn’t what I usually read. It was about music and I am tone deaf. The friend is quite different from me in many regards but I have the upmost respect for him as a person. And so... laid up for a day or so after a prostate biopsy... time to kill and all that. Once read, he said, review it. Here is my brief review.The story is about love. Unexpected and unlikely love. And so much more – if there can be more than the best of things. It’s about holding onto a dream. Keeping still while all around you are chasing wildly around and bumping into their hopes. It’s about listening to others even if they aren’t telling you what they really want, or need. The main character is music. Frank owns a record shop that only sells vinyl. He pays a huge price for his loyalty. His character is richly drawn and we learn more about him with every short chapter. He is a multi-faceted fellow and his past has such an impact on him that we want to hold him close and tell him it will be okay. Only if we tried that he would flinch away. He meets a woman and falls in love. Their story is so well told, the writing so beautiful that you are with them every awkward step of the way. With them, surrounding them, propping them up, are a rich array of people who are all very adeptly drawn. We know these people, odd, vulnerable and humorous as they are. Running throughout the story is the music. Frank has this gift of helping people. He does it through music. Finding for them the type of music that will help and heal them. I particularly liked the bank manager and his wife. Reading this book was an unforeseen and wonderful experience. It will stay with me and is highly recommended.

I have just finished reading Rachel Joyce's latest book, The Music Shop. I seldom, if ever, feel moved to write to authors of the books I read, but I simply had to let her know what a wonderful book she’d written, and how much it affected me.The last time I actually cried when reading a book was when I was 17 and read “Of Mice and Men”. The penultimate chapter of The Music Shop got to me in exactly the same way, but I’m now 65. I found myself first just gulping, then actually crying, upon reading this (spoiler alert: can't give details without giving the ending away). Then the final “Hidden Track” chapter was just so life-affirming. Feel another gulp coming on here!And, as an aside, I loved the early chapters of the book introducing me to music you need rather than music you think you like. As a result, I shall indeed be trying to source the Aretha album “Spirit in the Dark”; and that led me to think about uplifting songs/songs that made me feel extremely happy and uplifted back in the day, so I shall also be sourcing “O Happy Day” by the Edwin Hawkins Singers as well as “Lovely Day” by Bill Withers, both of which I used to own as singles, but have gone the way of all things now (lost/broken). A heartfelt thank you for an absolutely wonderful novel which will bear reading time and time again.Many many thanks for writing such a wonderful book, and I so much look forward to your next one.

I thoroughly enjoyed my reading of this beautiful book. Rachel writes realistically, whist peppering it with humour and melancholic undertones from yesteryear. I walked the walk with Harold Fry, I held Queenies hand, I perfected my enjoyment by then reading 'Perfect'.I looked forward to entering the music shop, my optimism was not dissolved in the slightest.Thank you Rachel, you are the possessor of a mighty fine story telling mind.You have added much colour and joy to my life. Your writing inflates me and lifts me up, to where we all belong. I read this book and also listened to the audio. The narrator was utterly brilliant!!Here's to tomorrow, here's to today, here's to yesterday, by now, far far away.

Music has an immense power – to move you, to break you, to raise your spirits, to plunge you into the depths of despair, to fill your heart with joy – and its impact is central to this wonderful book. Frank’s ability to choose music that perfectly fits the needs of the diverse cast of characters who he meets or who cross the threshold of his record shop in a dilapidated street in an un-named town – whether Aretha, smoky jazz, a violin concerto, or a disco track – is a wonderful and original concept I found absolutely enchanting.The characters themselves are exquisitely drawn – all a little broken, distinctly damaged people, some with their background stories shared, all with their lives enriched by their contact and interaction with Frank with his big heart and his passion for music on its original vinyl. I loved Frank himself – the scenes from his childhood where his mother shared her passion for music but was totally incapable of showing love were incredibly moving, sometimes heartbreakingly sad, sometimes joyous when the music soared and filled the spaces. His awkwardness is just wonderfully captured – particularly in his interactions with the beautiful and enigmatic Ilse – and the moments of humour (and there are many) are always tempered by the lump in your throat, there because you come to care for him so much.There were other characters I took to my heart too. I must mention Kit, Frank’s over-enthusiastic assistant, employed by Frank because he would never have survived life on the food factory production line, with his ability to break everything he touches and his production of posters and badges (all mis-spelled) to cover every situation. Meeting him again in later life was an absolute joy. And then there’s the spiky tattooist, the undertaker twins, the elderly lady who comes in humming tunes for Frank to identify, the Polish baker, the ex-priest with his immensely touching back story, the cafe waitress who becomes increasingly involved in Frank and Ilse’s relationship – the whole community is just perfectly drawn in every detail.The backdrop too is vividly captured – the unnamed town in the late 80s, Unity Street ripe for redevelopment, the odour of cheese and onion permeating everything from the nearby food factory, the atmosphere of menace, the racist graffiti appearing nightly. The timeframe shifts to the present day – the proliferation of discount chains, the soulless shopping centre with its plastic foliage, all acutely observed.And then there’s the story itself, very cleverly constructed with its four “sides” and a hidden track at the end – and a musical climax in the fourth section that grabbed me by the heart, totally joyous and quite perfectly done.This book was tender and tremendously moving, beautifully written, and left me with both a smile and an ache around the heart that the story had to end. Its characters, the central love story, its music and its silences will live with me for a very long time.

Whether it be an extraordinary good restaurant meal or a fine wine, trying to reproduce an experience can often result in disappointment. Similarly with books by authors that one likes. I loved Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and another of her stories The Love Song of Miss Queen Hennessy.I couldn’t wait to read the Music Shop. However, there was something troubling me. It was perhaps the believability of the story: a music shop owner who can find the most perfect music (he sells vinyl records only) to satiate not only artistic sensibilities but all that ails one. Hence I delayed reading this story and it was down the list of my priorities.I should not have worried. Once I did start with Music Shop I was enchanted by the story and its magic. I will not be so reticent in future with this author - now definitely one of my favourites.

I love The Unexpected Pilgrimage and re-read it often. The Love Song, likewise. Harold, Maureen, David, and Queenie are as good as any characters you will encounter, and you care about their joys and sufferings. In The Music Shop, there is another bemused but lovable man who can't manage to hold his own emotions. We meet another dangerous teenage male who is on the edge of chaos, similar to Wilf. These characters were brilliant the first time around, but this time, the container is not strong enough to hold them. The quirky characters living on Unity Street have potential, but remain thin. The relationships between characters don't resonate as real. I don't know what went wrong here; maybe this book is too close to the author's real life for her to maintain creative objectivity. For my part, I was disappointed, and will return to my favorites when I want to read Joyce.

Die Art, wie hier Musik (und Vinyl) in den Mittelpunkt gestellt werden, hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Ich höre seither anders hin, wenn ich Musik höre. Von der Story her war es mir ein bisschen zu viel Klischee und Boulevard, dennoch nette Unterhaltung. Interessant fand ich jedoch in erster Linie die Passagen, wo es um Musik ging. Für diese alleine hätte ich 5 Sterne vergeben, denn hier eröffnen sich spannende, neue Perspektiven.

“Frank had helped them through illness, grief, loss of confidence and jobs, as well as the more daily things like football results and the weather. Not that he knew about all those things, but really it was a matter of listening, and he had endless patience.”Frank is a forty-year-old guy who has mas music for everyone, you just need to tell him how you are feeling today and he will give you what you need.The story is set in 1880s when Cd's have started replacing Vinyl records and Frank isn't ready to replace. His only close connection with normalcy has been these Vinyl record. But, what will happen when this "normalcy" isn't enough for Frank?When a mysterious girl faints in Front of Frank's shop??? When he is forbidding to change but life isn't ready to accept just this one condition of his?This is a story for romance. Your romance with a person and with a music. It is a tale of how music connects everyone, how much can strike those silent chords inside a person's heart, how very intimate it is? As they you can know alot about a person through his playlist.Another perks of reading this books- it gives you background stories of all those classical singers like Vivaldi, Beethoven etc, I really appreciate author's research.

Das Buch liest sich gut. Die Rahmen-Geschichte ist nett. Ob sie einem gefällt oder nicht ist Geschmackssache. Einzelne Episoden regen zum Nachdenken an. Ich fand allerdings die Anmerkungen zu den musikalischen Werken interessanter. Und da es dazu schon eine Playlist gibt, braucht man die einzelnen Titel nicht selbst nachzuschlagen.

Was für eine tolle Geschichte! Die Einsamkeit der Protagonisten ist herzzerreissend, aber ihr Weg zueinander so wunderbar erzählt, ich konnte das Buch kaum weg legen. So viel Musik, nur die Titel und schon klingt es im Gehirn. Eine wirklich eindrückliche und liebenswerte Geschichte, die zu Tränen rührt. Gerne mehr davon.

I love Frank( the protagonist)..He is simple, genuine always there to help and when he talks about music..it's like you are taken into a different journey each time. This book most definitely is beautiful and very original..and after a really long time my book spoke to me..My first but definitely not last book of Rachel Joyce.

I love her style of writingAnd it has a delightful cast of implausibleCharactersUsual odd but charming neighbourhoodA fairytale with loads of impossible twists and turns

This was a delightful reading and a different insight to both clasical and contemporary music. It certainly will change what we percieve from music. Well at least for me.Thank you so much .

Decent read, it goes pretty fast at the end compared to the beginning

A book selller recommended this novel and I knew the author so I purchassd the ebook. I would recommend it to any book worm who enjoys a different kind of love story.

Good

Agréable à lire et histoire originale, mais pas aussi émouvant que ses 2 autres romans: " The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry" et " The love song of Miss Queenie Hennessy"

i got bored with the characters and didn't finish the book

good book!