Solo Variations

A musician struggles against crippling stage fright and the legacy of her parents' unhappiness in this polished coming-of-age tale about a woman and her oboe. In the four months since Gala graduated from Julliard, her auditions have either faltered just short of perfection or completely collapsed. In the meantime, her boyfriend Tom's career is taking off, with a tour lined up for Europe, an engagement at the Eastman School of Music and a contract with the Prokofiev Quartet: in the eyes of the cognoscenti, he has arrived. Gala's fatal insecurity is somewhat predictably linked with family problems. Her father, a Columbia professor, seeks psychic comfort in endless, futile psychoanalysis and a longstanding affair; her mother, having sacrificed a musical career of her own to become a ""perfect"" wife and mother, earns scorn from her husband and daughter. Gala herself is tempted to take up with comfortable pianist Steven, who does not have Tom's threatening charisma. Garbus renders Gala's anxieties with a fine delicacy, making her an appealing figure. Garbus also resists facile solutions; by the end of the book, Gala's professional and romantic resolutions fall well short of metamorphosis. The truly exceptional (and unpredictable) development is her mom's splendid midlife plunge back into the sea of music and love. (Feb.)