Skylark's Song: A Novel - Hardcover

Segal, Harriet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556113854 ISBN 13: 9781556113857

Publisher: Dutton, 1994

Crumbling marriages, torrid love affairs, and scandalous legal wranglings are interwoven with richly detailed flashbacks to World War II-era New York, in this tempestuous saga that is centered on a matriarch, the widow of a popular 1940's songwriter. A family reunion in wintry 1940s New York brings together the descendants of the composer's widow, causing disturbing secrets to be revealed as family members share their memories of the past.

A Good Housekeeping Novel of the Month.

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From the Author:

Who doesn't love to dance to the beat of a Gershwin tune or hear the clever lyrics of a Cole Porter song? I love this period in American history, the jazz-age music, the hedonistic pleasure-seekers, trying to ignore the approach of World War II. In Broadway's heyday, Julia comes to New York City from upstate Troy and lands a job with the foremost agent for musical-comedy talent. Thrust into this exciting world, she falls in love with the handsome, gifted Michael Shane, who is having his first show produced on Broadway. They marry, Michael's career soars, but in too short a time, his life ends tragically. The years pass, Julia remarries, and she has all but forgotten the bitter memories. Suddenly, there is an event that forces Julia to confront the past. It is a test of her strength of spirit and Julia must summon every inner resource to deal with the challenges. I took the title of this evocative tale from Anne Bront�'s Views of Life:
Because the road is rough and long,
Shall we despise the skylark's song?

From the Inside Flap:

Harriet Segal has woven a wondrously involving tale, full of engaging characters and surprising plot threads that take the reader into the colorful sights and sounds of twentieth century America. The Skylark's Song centers on a matriarch, Julia Rhinehart, the widow of a popular Gershwinesque musical-comedy composer. The occasion that brings the Rhinehart clan together is the 75th Birthday Salute in New York to the composer, whose work is enjoying a resurgence on Broadway. As the celebration approaches, Julia, her children and grandchildren cope with a variety of diffculties, past and present... The family is divided in the search for the composer's "lost scores," an entire portfolio he produced in a final burst of creativity before his death in the late Forties. Interspersed throughout the contemporary narrative are richly evoked flashbacks to World War II-era New York and Julia's whirlwind romance with the composer, their marriage and his eventual betrayal ... The Skylark's Song is a rich, tumultuous narrative by one of the most talented and mature voices in contemporary fiction.

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