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The Violin Conspiracy

Brendan Slocumb

Start date: November 1, 2023

Finish date: November 30, 2023

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Nov 02, 2022 Bonnie rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, 2022-books

I don't know who started the rumor that this is a mystery/thriller, but they are liars. If you're looking for a mystery or a thriller, keep walking. There is a stolen violin, but that is just a frame story to examine the life of Ray McMillian, a violin prodigy who must overcome his unsupportive family (aside from his lovely angel of a grandmother and his cool aunt) and the consistent racism directed at him as a black man, and especially as a black classical musician.

Even though I came in expect I don't know who started the rumor that this is a mystery/thriller, but they are liars. If you're looking for a mystery or a thriller, keep walking. There is a stolen violin, but that is just a frame story to examine the life of Ray McMillian, a violin prodigy who must overcome his unsupportive family (aside from his lovely angel of a grandmother and his cool aunt) and the consistent racism directed at him as a black man, and especially as a black classical musician.

Even though I came in expecting a thriller, I came out truly enjoying this as contemporary fiction. It's usually difficult to overcome the bait-and-switch of genres. But Slocumb has written a book that's so good that I don't even care that it was an entirely different genre than advertised.

I expected Ray to come to the realization that the Stradivarius was a safety net that he no longer needs. It's more than just a magical talisman that helps him stand out, of course - it's also his family history and an emblem of his beloved grandmother's love and belief in him. Even if it was not a Stradivarius and just his Pop-Pop's fiddle I believe he would fight equally hard to get it back. But he puts so much emphasis on needing the violin to succeed, when it is clear to the reader that he does not. It is shown over and over again that the violin may make him stand out, but it is his innate talent and, more than anything, his intense passion for music that makes him so entrancing as a musician. The magic wasn't in the Strad. The magic was inside him all along! But, unfortunately, Ray really never seemed to learn that lesson. It was honestly kind of shocking.

But less shocking when I think about Ray as a character. Ray is many good things - he is smart and kind and brave. He handles the abuse that comes his way with grace. He goes out of his way to help other aspiring black musicians (when many people who succeed turn around and pull up the ladder behind themselves instead of reaching out a hand to pull up others). And he never becomes egotistical despite his wild success. But the other thing about Ray is he is incredibly impulsive and not entirely self-reflective. A prime example is his grasping, greedy family. His mom and his uncle are, first, dismissive of his dreams (his mom tells him that working at Popeyes is better than going to college on a music scholarship. Those are her priorities - immediate financial reward trumps any future bigger gains). Then, later, when Ray starts earning money, they see anything that he has as rightfully "theirs." (because he is using the fiddle gifted to him by his grandmother, when his mom and uncle wanted nothing to do with it...until it turned out it was worth a mint). Ray spends years giving them a large amount of his earnings because he was raised to accept that. In the end he impulsively buys them out. But he never, ever ponders about the ramifications of how his mother's behavior shaped him, how hard it must be to have a mother who used you instead of loved you, why he felt the need to give them his money. It just...is. Just like the Stradivarius as a safety blanket, I thought the relationship with his family would be a bigger theme or resolved in a more satisfying way. But there was no cathartic moment or emotional realization regarding his family.

Slocumb himself is a classical violinist and he explains in the note at the end that many of Ray's experiences were drawn from his life. Reading this novel I felt that it must be semi-autobiographical, because it feels like an authentic, lived experience. Slocumb's determination, which is Ray's determination, and Slocumb's intense love for classical music, which Ray shares too, really ring true, as well as the subtle and not-so-subtle racism that Ray endures. ...more

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