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I recently picked up a bargain book that looked promising, Night Music by Jojo Moyes. It's one of her earlier novels, published five years before Me Before You, which put Moyes on the map. Having loved that trilogy (as well as Sheltering Rain and Windfallen), I expected a sad but satisfying second chance story. And I got it!
The Spanish House (which isn't in Spain, but England) is a tumbledown mansion that too many people covet. So when the owner, nasty old Mr. Pottisworth, finally croaks, it sets a chain of events rippling through the village. The long-suffering Mrs. McCarthy and her conniving husband, who live in a smaller house at the edge of the property, think they deserve it for putting up with Pottisworth. A down-on-his-luck developer wants to knock it down to build commuter housing. Yet it's recently widowed violinist Isabel Delancy who inherits it and moves in with her two teenagers. Left penniless after her husband is killed in a car accident, Isabel is forced to leave a life of luxury in London for a monstrosity in the middle of nowhere. The house has no plumbing, heat, or electricity, and parts of it are literally crumbling. It's a mess with which Isabel's ill-equipped to deal, especially in the wake of her loss. As a career violinist, music has been the center of her world, so much so that it's cut her off from the rest of it, at least according to the children's nanny as she comforts Isabel's oldest:
"And she was fragile, a little like a child herself, Mary had said. "You often find that with people who have a talent," she had told Kitty one evening. "They never have to grow up. All their energy goes towards doing the thing they love." Kitty had never been able to tell whether or not she had meant this as a criticism." (60)
Faced with feeding her family and salvaging her strange new home, Isabel has to put music on the back burner, playing her violin only at night when she's lonely and thinks no one can hear.
Still, the Spanish House isn't the end of Isabel's story. Instead, it opens her up to a countryside full of characters, some incredibly kind and others unscrupulous as their greed for the Spanish House spirals. Their subplots intersect and overlap, weaving an intricate web of rural life and the motivations that fuel it. Yet it's Isabel's transformation from sheltered lady to forest forager (among other things) that anchors the novel. Despite her city sophistication, Isabel is naïve about everything else. Although starting over is painful, she digs deep and finds that she has pluck, armoring her against her enemies and deepening her bond with her children.
Rich with all the charm, heart, and, yes, melancholy that is Moyes' calling card, Night Music supports the old adage that big houses bring big problems. But it also shows us that there's more than one way to make music -- and, ultimately, a home.
