Allegro

Possessed of considerable credentials as a musicologist, Machlis (The Enjoyment of Music), sets his fifth novel (after Stefan in Love) in the musical world. Danny Sachs, a talented concert violinist, was taught to play by his father and taken to concerts by his mother, but nobody really taught him how to live. Ruth, a straightforward, intelligent young pianist at his music school, tutors him in the art of friendship. Just as love blossoms, however, Danny wins the International Violin Competition in Moscow and debuts as a soloist at Carnegie Hall. His spectacular rise pulls him away from Ruth, who suddenly seems pedestrian and predictable. Danny plunges into the glamorous life of a rising music star. He grows dependent on drugs--uppers, downers and especially cocaine--and has an affair with the wife of a wealthy patron before he falls in love with Natalia, a prima ballerina who is too concerned with her career to care for Danny. His obsession with the narcissistic Natalia throws off his playing and his career, escalating his drug addiction and leading to an arrest for possession and a stint in rehab. There, Danny realizes, too predictably, that he should return to Ruth, who truly loved him, and be thankful for his talent regardless of the trappings of success. Although Machlis conveys the pressures and promises of a life in music, the reader longs for a less simplistic plot in which happiness and inspiration are found someplace less obvious than right in the artist's own backyard. (May)