Discord

Cooper (Brian) delivers the plodding story of a fraught collaboration between a composer and a saxophonist. Nearing 50, Rebekah Rosen is “at once both innovative and indecisive,” feeling inspired one minute and sensing the “death throes of a failed composer” the next. Her agent sets up a meeting with Evie Bennet, a “star-to-be” who plays her saxophone in flashy designer sneakers and eventually agrees to perform Rebekah’s composition in progress at a prestigious classical music festival in London. Rebekah is possessive and resentful of Evie, attracted to her “glistening youth” and intimidated by her talent and confidence. The novel follows their relationship as the two very different women get a feel for each other and the evolving piece and discuss architecture, another of Rebekah’s interests. In third-person narration, Cooper dutifully describes the buildings and music Rebekah and Evie like and dislike, and he supplies potted biographies of numerous composers and architects as well as a parade of minor characters, like a shoe retailer, who enter the protagonists’ lives. As the concert approaches, there’s less of a crescendo than a steady drone of meetings and outings. Despite the formidable intelligence behind it, this novel never sings. (June)