This superb exploration of "some aspects of how lives are lived in the presence—and the memory of the presence—of music" is in some respects a companion piece to O'Brien's earlier The Browser's Ecstasy
, his meditation on reading. These 15 new essays show O'Brien's remarkable sensitivity to his chosen subject and a stunning gift for crafting literary gems. But at almost twice the length of his earlier work, this volume allows O'Brien to luxuriate in his ideas, stretching them to touch on various music genres in a way that makes the book a joyous reading experience. The essays are united by O'Brien's search to capture how a listener "hears, or imagines he hears, and how he connects that listening to the rest of his life." Thus, an essay on the revival of interest in composer Burt Bacharach explores the forgotten ways mid-1960s pop music was defined by "genre-bending and marketing crossovers." An essay on Harry Smith's groundbreaking Anthology of American Folk Music
collection of recordings examines how, for "a generation that lacked much sense of common national tradition it became the equivalent of Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.' " Most striking, however, are the essays in which O'Brien explores the way music defined—and now defines how he remembers—his own formative youthful experiences, from the impact on his musical sensibility of his father, a popular radio disk jockey, to the way the pop music of the 1960s defined how he and his friends lived "as if we anticipated a world of exhilarated tenderness punctuated by brilliant invention." What emerges in the end is a remarkable book. (Mar.)
