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US Mall 1 - The Soloist (Movie Tie-In): A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
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List Price: $15.00
Our Price: $5.28
Your Save: $ 9.72 ( 65% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 787.2092
EAN: 9780425226001
ISBN: 042522600X
Label: Berkley Trade
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 304
Publication Date: 2008-09-30
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Studio: Berkley Trade
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Next Steps
Comment: How often have most of us walked down the street and ignored the far too many homeless people that abound in most major urban centers in North America? One man I know with a schizophrenic son always carries large amounts of change in his pockets. He is generous with the change because, if circumstances were different, his son just might be among the homeless. Most of us simply tune the homeless out without thinking. Steve Lopez, to his credit, did not.
He took the time to be curious about one such person because of that person's talent for music and that led him on a journey to tell his readers in LA and eventually the readers of his book all over the world about the plight of those with mental illness. For his kindness to another human and for alerting people to this problem, he is to be commended.
But the issue here is that in any caring society, people who are ill should not, for any reason, be allowed to plummet to the point where they wind up homeless or, as often happens, in jail. Dr. David Dawson, who wrote the preface to my book Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery - Society's Shame and wrote and directed the film Cutting For Stone said that "the mentally ill of many western countries are not faring as well as they might have in 1960 or 1970, despite our advances in knowledge, treatment, and our nations' wealth".
The Soloist mentions that Ayers refused medication and some of the reviews have wondered how much autonomy we should give people who are sick to refuse treatment. One reason that Dawson and others have concluded that those with schizophrenia fare less well now than earlier is that we do allow too much autonomy. People who lack the capacity to understand that they are ill are still allowed to refuse treatment.
Some European countries such as Norway and The Netherlands, as I pointed out in my book, have laws that do allow for treatment in these cases, do respect individual rights and do manage to avoid our problems of homelessness amongst the severely mentally ill.
This book does help us to understand and be sympathetic but we must go beyond that as a society and deal with these problems at a societal level.
Marvin Ross
author of Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery - Society's Shame
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read it, then talk about it
Comment: The Soloist is one of those books that I want to give to everyone I know (and maybe even those I don't) just so we can talk about it later. On his way to work one day LA Times journalist Steve Lopez meets Nathaniel Ayers, a Julliard-trained homeless paranoid schizophrenic playing a broken and battered violin. The book chronicles their resulting relationship through all its complexities, challenges, and rewards. Though the title might lead you to believe that music redeems Ayers, I think it might ultimately be Lopez who finds redemption.
The Soloist challenges what most of us believe about the homeless, the mentally ill, and what's "best" for them. For example, finding Ayers a place to live is the easy part - getting him to want to live there is a complex dance of trust, safety, and shared responsibility. Lopez gives Ayers assistance, time, money, friendship, family, and access to countless resources, but ultimately the friendship is defined by what Ayers is able to accept more than by what Lopez is willing to give.
In the end, this is an amazing story of about humanism, commitment, community, courage, love, and acceptance.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just lovely
Comment: There are very few page turners in non-fiction for me, but this book was difficult to put down. The impact of mental illness in our society is not examined enough, and The Soloist has an honest, respectful way of addressing the myriad issues which surround this crisis in our culture. An entertaining and meaningful book which strikes just the right pitch.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Genius & Madness
Comment: A Los Angeles reporter discovers a homeless musician playing a 2-string violin under a freeway bridge. The musician is not just hacking away, but he's playing Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Bach. Intrigued, the reporter begins spending time with the homeless man -- initially with the idea of getting a column or two out of his story, but soon realizing this is the larger story of the shameful treatment of homelessness in America.
Written as a developing drama, it's easy to see why this book was immediately optioned as a movie, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. It is a tale of ups and downs, frustrations and breakthroughs, human kindness and human cruelty. Nathaniel Ayers alternately soars -- impressing professional musicians with his sensitivity and technique -- and plummets into profanity-laced tirades against the world. Lopez's portrait of mental illness is harrowing and sobering, as he learns just how difficult (if not impossible) recovery can be.
Some commentators (and reviewers) have accused Lopez of taking advantage of Ayers in telling his story for a book and movie, but I believe the spotlight that this turns upon the plight of the homeless is a greater goal. Let's hope the end of Reaganomics also brings with it some compassion for the newly disenfranchised victims of this economy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Music of the Fingers and Mind
Comment: Steve Lopez has written a moving story about Nathaniel, a homeless man, once a student at Julliard School of music. Mental illness has over taken his life and robbed him of what could have been another famous performer of classical music.
Through Steve's articles in the LA Times, he opens a world to a stranger that he met on a street corner, living on Skid Row, and whose world revolves around nothing but music. Music takes Nathaniel into a mind of his own world that no one seems to understand.
Beethoven rules his life. Nathaniel receives an opportunity to meet Yo Yo Ma who attended Julliard the same time he attended classes before his breakdown. Yo Yo gives Nathaniel an opportunity to play his cello.
Many times Steve wants to give up on Nathaniel, but he perseveres and makes a break through. This book is moving and a whole new world opens to some of us that is unaware of of the struggles of mental health. You appreciate those who work hard to help change their lives and their world they live in.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Next Steps
Comment: How often have most of us walked down the street and ignored the far too many homeless people that abound in most major urban centers in North America? One man I know with a schizophrenic son always carries large amounts of change in his pockets. He is generous with the change because, if circumstances were different, his son just might be among the homeless. Most of us simply tune the homeless out without thinking. Steve Lopez, to his credit, did not.
He took the time to be curious about one such person because of that person's talent for music and that led him on a journey to tell his readers in LA and eventually the readers of his book all over the world about the plight of those with mental illness. For his kindness to another human and for alerting people to this problem, he is to be commended.
But the issue here is that in any caring society, people who are ill should not, for any reason, be allowed to plummet to the point where they wind up homeless or, as often happens, in jail. Dr. David Dawson, who wrote the preface to my book Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery - Society's Shame and wrote and directed the film Cutting For Stone said that "the mentally ill of many western countries are not faring as well as they might have in 1960 or 1970, despite our advances in knowledge, treatment, and our nations' wealth".
The Soloist mentions that Ayers refused medication and some of the reviews have wondered how much autonomy we should give people who are sick to refuse treatment. One reason that Dawson and others have concluded that those with schizophrenia fare less well now than earlier is that we do allow too much autonomy. People who lack the capacity to understand that they are ill are still allowed to refuse treatment.
Some European countries such as Norway and The Netherlands, as I pointed out in my book, have laws that do allow for treatment in these cases, do respect individual rights and do manage to avoid our problems of homelessness amongst the severely mentally ill.
This book does help us to understand and be sympathetic but we must go beyond that as a society and deal with these problems at a societal level.
Marvin Ross
author of Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery - Society's Shame
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read it, then talk about it
Comment: The Soloist is one of those books that I want to give to everyone I know (and maybe even those I don't) just so we can talk about it later. On his way to work one day LA Times journalist Steve Lopez meets Nathaniel Ayers, a Julliard-trained homeless paranoid schizophrenic playing a broken and battered violin. The book chronicles their resulting relationship through all its complexities, challenges, and rewards. Though the title might lead you to believe that music redeems Ayers, I think it might ultimately be Lopez who finds redemption.
The Soloist challenges what most of us believe about the homeless, the mentally ill, and what's "best" for them. For example, finding Ayers a place to live is the easy part - getting him to want to live there is a complex dance of trust, safety, and shared responsibility. Lopez gives Ayers assistance, time, money, friendship, family, and access to countless resources, but ultimately the friendship is defined by what Ayers is able to accept more than by what Lopez is willing to give.
In the end, this is an amazing story of about humanism, commitment, community, courage, love, and acceptance.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Just lovely
Comment: There are very few page turners in non-fiction for me, but this book was difficult to put down. The impact of mental illness in our society is not examined enough, and The Soloist has an honest, respectful way of addressing the myriad issues which surround this crisis in our culture. An entertaining and meaningful book which strikes just the right pitch.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Genius & Madness
Comment: A Los Angeles reporter discovers a homeless musician playing a 2-string violin under a freeway bridge. The musician is not just hacking away, but he's playing Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Bach. Intrigued, the reporter begins spending time with the homeless man -- initially with the idea of getting a column or two out of his story, but soon realizing this is the larger story of the shameful treatment of homelessness in America.
Written as a developing drama, it's easy to see why this book was immediately optioned as a movie, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. It is a tale of ups and downs, frustrations and breakthroughs, human kindness and human cruelty. Nathaniel Ayers alternately soars -- impressing professional musicians with his sensitivity and technique -- and plummets into profanity-laced tirades against the world. Lopez's portrait of mental illness is harrowing and sobering, as he learns just how difficult (if not impossible) recovery can be.
Some commentators (and reviewers) have accused Lopez of taking advantage of Ayers in telling his story for a book and movie, but I believe the spotlight that this turns upon the plight of the homeless is a greater goal. Let's hope the end of Reaganomics also brings with it some compassion for the newly disenfranchised victims of this economy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Music of the Fingers and Mind
Comment: Steve Lopez has written a moving story about Nathaniel, a homeless man, once a student at Julliard School of music. Mental illness has over taken his life and robbed him of what could have been another famous performer of classical music.
Through Steve's articles in the LA Times, he opens a world to a stranger that he met on a street corner, living on Skid Row, and whose world revolves around nothing but music. Music takes Nathaniel into a mind of his own world that no one seems to understand.
Beethoven rules his life. Nathaniel receives an opportunity to meet Yo Yo Ma who attended Julliard the same time he attended classes before his breakdown. Yo Yo gives Nathaniel an opportunity to play his cello.
Many times Steve wants to give up on Nathaniel, but he perseveres and makes a break through. This book is moving and a whole new world opens to some of us that is unaware of of the struggles of mental health. You appreciate those who work hard to help change their lives and their world they live in.
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