Ariel's Music

Ariel's Music is an original novel that portrays a young pianist's struggle to become a performer in the competitive world of classical music while she copes with life in a family troubled by depression and divorce. Both a coming-of-age story and a "portrait of the artist," this work depicts Ariel Terraine's search for identity amidst the social pressures of a small-town Midwestern environment and the zeitgeist of American culture during the 1970s and 1980s. The protagonist becomes troubled by the sense that classical music has no value in a capitalist society in which success is a function of popularity. Ariel's Music also emphasizes oppositions that pervade American culture: rural versus urban, masculine versus feminine, intellect versus emotion, and utility versus aesthetics.