Blue Guitar Strings

Book Title: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

Summary:

The book tells the life story of Frankie Presto, a legend in the music industry. The book begins with his death. And from this first chapter of the book, the last chapter of his life, unfolds his story from the perspective of people he has worked with, people he inspired, people whose lives he touched. From a tragic birth, followed by numerous challenges throughout his life, there's only one thing that has kept him company ~ the one that his tiny hands clenched the moment he opened his eyes and saw the brilliant colors of talents ~ music.

It's music that narrates his life story the best. It's only music that knows what all the others who thought they knew him were not aware of. It's music that makes the revelations of his distant past, and the nearby past just before his death, all the twists in the story of the greatest guitar player's life.

From the moment his mother died in the church just minutes after he was born, to the time when he made his last performance on the stage, during all the in betweens ~ a nun trying to raise him as her own, a dog and its owner seeing him through his formative years, all the lessons in music and life with his blind music teacher, the hellos, the goodbyes, the reunions with the love of his life, reaching the peak of fame and then losing it all, all the other bands that he impacted, and that impacted his life, and the strings that turn blue when it's time to save someone's life, music has always been there.

But what nobody else knows and again, only music does, is that there's also someone who's been there through it all, just a shadow in the background that sees him through.

Reflections:

Everyone joins a band in this life. There are some bands that we don't get to choose, like the family that we are born with, or the next couple of people who takes care of us during our formative years. There are those we choose, like the friends we make at school, the colleagues we share free time with at work, and the partner we promise to love for life.

Just as a musical band creates music, so do all the other bands in our life ~ each creating a rhythm, a melody, notes, lyrics ~ something common that connects the band, a pace that we go through in life, a guide that we sometimes we follow and sometimes we miss, life stories that we tell.

And just like musical bands that disband sometime in the future, all bands do break. Sometimes, it would be a choice, like making a shift in career ~ like moving through another chapter in our lives and seeing less of our friends. Sometimes a partial choice, having different perspectives and standing by it, like a disagreement among band mates ~ a misunderstanding between partners. Sometimes though, it's not a choice we make, like death that eventually visits us all, but the timing is not the same.

The novel, like many other Mitch Albom's stories, would definitely touch your soul. The story seemed simple, like an ordinary story of an orphaned boy who became a famous music genius. But what sets the story apart are the life lessons that you'll bring with you even after reading the book. Though the twist at the end seemed to go beyond what's normally acceptable for a story to still be believable, this fictions still brings with it the stories that will break your heart, bring a tear or two, and forever change how you view the people around you.

Quotes:

"Everyone joins a band in this life. You are born into your first one. Your mother plays the lead. She shares the stage with your father and siblings...

As life goes on, you will join other bands, some through friendship, some through romance, some through neighborhoods, school, an army. Maybe you will all dress the same, or laugh at your own private vocabulary. Maybe you will flop on couches backstage, or share a boardroom table, or crowd around a galley inside a ship. But in each band you join, you will play a distinct part, and it will affect you as much as you affect it.

And, as is usually the fate with bands, most of them will break up-through distance, differences, divorce, or death."

"Do not cry over losing blood. Not for something you love."

"Talent is a piece of God's shadow. And under that shadow, human stories intersect."

""You cannot write if you do not read", the blind man said. "You cannot eat if you do not chew. And you cannot play if you do not listen.""

"Truth is light. Lies are shadows. Music is both."

"Being both means being neither."

"You humans are always locking each other away. Cells. Dungeons....No other creature has this arrogance---to confine its own."

"A song inside a cage is never a song. It is a plea."

"Everyone joins a band in this life. One way or another, the band breaks up."

"But being silent is not forgetting."

"Man suffers for his art. That is what you must remember."

"Every loss leaves a hole in your heart."

"The secret is not to make your music louder, but to make the world quieter."

"Man searches for courage in drink, but it is not courage that he finds, it is fear that he loses."

"When you listen, you learn. Remember that. In music and in life."

"You don't need much to remember someone. Even one thing will do."

"But all love stories are symphonies. And, like symphonies, they have four movements:
Allegro, a quick and spirited opening
Adagio, a slow turn
Minuet/Scherzo short steps in 3/4 time
Rondo, a repeating theme, interrupted by various passages."

"Everyone joins a band in this life. Sometimes, they are the wrong ones."

"This is life. Things get taken away. You will learn to start over many times - or you will be useless."

"Everyone joins a band in this life. Sometimes they reunite."

"Had many of you left places even one day earlier, the landscape of your lives would be rearranged. You cannot play your notes. Time, like music, is indelible that way."

"There are few things emptier than applause when you feel you don't deserve it."

"You cannot ask things to do what they are not meant to do. Eventually they will break."

"What you're thinking about can be what you become. Good and evil."