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Natalie Hodges: Uncommon Measure (2022, Bellevue Literary Press) 4 stars

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST NPR “BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR” SELECTION NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ …

Review of "Uncommon Measure" by Natalie Hodges

4 stars

I enjoyed this overall, but perhaps not as intended. It's a vivid portrayal of a kind of person I've often known but never quite understood: the classically trained musician who seems imprisoned and tortured by music while professing to love it. It's several sad stories told well — of lifelong performance anxiety, of inhibiting perfectionism, of being an outsider — but perhaps the saddest story is that of the person who might be happy if they could understand just one thing, yet you know they never will. I never bought in to the "time" theme, and the attempts to weave physics in were strained, but I found much to learn from and admire here.