**spoiler alert** I didn’t love this book, but it certainly riled me up. It aggravated me in many ways. Yes, it told about racism that a black classic**spoiler alert** I didn’t love this book, but it certainly riled me up. It aggravated me in many ways. Yes, it told about racism that a black classical musician faces, and we all agree that that is bad, but the way his family was portrayed was racist in itself. His mother doesn’t work or clean up the house, as plates full of greasy chicken bones adorn the coffee table. Instead she gets her hair done, gets her fake nails decorated and is constantly texting or on the phone. She is totally unsupportive of her son who is a talented musician. She never goes to his performances or even gives him a ride, and thinks he should quit high school early and get a GED so he can get a steady job at Popeye’s.Most of the rest of the family is just as bad, always expecting money from our protagonist, who gives them most of his money. An uncle even sent a girlfriend to him, asking for money. When the family finds out that Ray’s old violin is worth $10 million, they just want to sell it and divide the proceeds among the adults in the family. I find it abhorrent that as a child he was not removed from that horrible family situation. I did not love the narrator of this audiobook. His voice was raspy and he made some mispronunciations. He also made the protagonist sound stupid. (Although many of the things Ray did were, stupid, like not retaining counsel immediately when he found out his violin was valuable, not having a manager, and flying off to look for his violin two days before a major competition. The producer also missed opportunities to play examples of the classical pieces that were being talked about while they were being talked about so we as listeners could really understand. You can do that in an audiobook! No doubt this book will provide a lot for book clubs to talk about because it is so aggravating....more
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