Reviews: Daughters of Song

"This is to go overboard. . . for Daughters of Song. . . [which] has done for music conservatory students what Augusta Tucker did half a century ago for medical school students. This is Paula Huston’s first novel, and it is some debut. The central figure is beautifully realized. The Peabody Conservatory, aged 128, is never named, but Daughters of Song is far and away the best book yet about life there."
—The Baltimore Sun

"Courage is the theme of most coming-of-age stories, but the arena is usually war . . . not, as in Paula Huston’s first novel, a classical conservatory in Baltimore where a 20-year-old piano student named Sylvia is wrestling with Beethoven’s last sonata, Opus 111. Yet Daughters of Song is at least as exciting a read as any masculine version, despite a near absence of blood and no bullets at all—largely because Huston has created in Sylvia as winning a heroine as American fiction has seen for years. . . . Huston’s prose is rich, sensuous, alive. In a hard-boiled age, she dares to write openly about the emotions [and] persuasively renders the hothouse atmosphere of the conservatory, its friendships and its rivalries."
—Los Angeles Times

"A risky, ambitious work about the relationship of art to life . . . [Huston] obviously knows her way around the world of music . . . . her writing can make the musically illiterate among her readers almost believe they can read the notes on the page . . . . She writes . . . with an uncommon blend of empathy and curiosity, confronting the cool, detached structure of classical music with the internal emotions of the music’s performers. Despite the fact that Daughters of Song is passionate and personal, . . . Huston cares equally for the music of the interwoven lives of her characters and the compressed beauty of the great works they struggle to understand."
—Salt Lake Tribune

"An extraordinary first novel . . . .The miracle of Daughters is that the intricate discussions of music, whether technical or philosophical, as well as the psychological insight into musicians, ring true. The discussions of musical passages, whether Beethoven, Schumann or Chopin, mirror the considerations a pianist must give to the right playing of a particular work."
—Santa Barbara News Press

"In this lyrical, completely enthralling debut novel, Huston celebrates the maturing of a naïve and sheltered young pianist into a self-possessed woman to whom the mysteries of love, friendship, and betrayal are revealed. Huston’s novel is imbued with a passionate resonance. . . . A stunning debut, filled with distinctive characters."
—Booklist

"This debut novel is remarkable not only for its rich characterization, but also for its authentic introduction to the world of classical music and the lives of those who create it."
—Orange Country Metro

"A lyrical first novel in which a young woman triumphantly masters Beethoven’s difficult Opus 111—and along the way learns as much about life and love as about music . . . . Often superb writing about music—its making, its teaching, and its inexorable hold on both the young and old. A promising debut."
—Kirkus Reviews

"With an open, breezy style reminiscent of Kate Chopin’s, this first novel, set in Baltimore, tells the story of a young woman who knows she must develop strong wings in order to fly against the winds of tradition."
—Publishers Weekly

"Paula Huston’s first novel . . . has about it an air of touching innocence . . . not a sign of the author’s inexperience, but rather testimony to her skill in evoking the heart and mind of a shy young piano student . . . Huston deftly and believably juxtaposes the experiences of young and old, the gifted and destitute, to create an affecting collage of city life. [She] enables the reader to re-enter the vulnerable, yet privileged state of soul where everything that happens seems to matter too much."
—The Christian Science Monitor ("Novelist’s Debut")

"Daughters of Song is as intricate and beautiful as your best memories of Mozart or Beethoven. Paula Huston has given us a gorgeous novel."
—William Kittredge, author of We Are Not In This Together

"Paula Huston, friends, is the real deal—a writer unafraid of the grave consequences of passion and sentiment; a storyteller eager to tell us about the half-blessed citizens her characters are; an artist dedicated to the spooky truths found in fiction. Like music from high heaven itself, Daughters of Song is a novel as beguiling as it is breathtaking, a book you’ll want to stand up and applaud for after its last clear, beautiful and perfect note."
—Lee K. Abbot, author of Dreams of Distant Lives and Strangers in Paradise.

"Daughters of Song is an affecting, beautifully written novel . . . . a wise, hope-filled, heartening book. I loved it."
—Ron Hansen, author of Mariette in Ecstasy.

"Over and over again in Paula Huston’s novel, the deeply-felt specific moment of experience rings a bell . . . and when that happens, your spine tingles. Few novelists use music with such authenticity to complement the narrative and even help define the characters themselves . . . who are also superbly drawn. .The music hovers, explains, educates. . . a novel of event and scene so gripping that readers will stay up all night to finish it."
—Radio Station KDB-93.7/FM ("Encore")