Name: Gone
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
ISBN: 9780451496072

Min Kym

At seven years old Min Kym was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School of Music. At eleven she won her first international prize. And at twenty-one, she found "the one," the violin that would transform her life: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career soared. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned.

A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung

Gone

Judy Hudgins

Renee Blankenship

I have been on a bit of a memoir reading kick lately and have gotten really lucky with quite a few of them. When I read the synopsis of Min Kym's memoir I was instantly intrigued. Her story about growing up as a child prodigy with the constraints and challenges of being Korean sounded like something far from the usual memoirs I see on the shelf (and don't pick up). I was also instantly curious about her relationship with the violin that is stolen and how her life falls apart after its disappearance. All in all, I was excited to start this book!

Most of the beginning of the memoir, while interesting at points, was hard for me to enjoy. I am not musically inclined in any way and while I have a true passion for reading and art I was having a hard time connecting with the descriptions of what it means to be fully consumed by something. To have music and the sound of the violin play through your soul and be a living breathing part of you. I also don't know much about classical music or music theory and found myself skimming over parts regarding names of musical pieces and the like. I haven't had a chance to play through the musical playlist that accompanies the book (written out in the front and then tagged throughout the memoir, when you should play a certain piece) and I really need to do that. I think more than anything, for someone struggling to connect with this story on a musical level that would certainly help!

As the book went on and Kym finds her "soulmate" in this very special Stradivarius violin, I found myself connecting a bit more with her. Her description of the loss of this instrument (which seems like such a bland word to describe what the violin really became for her as a musical artist) was honest and well written. I felt myself hurting alongside with her, after the trials of her youth and all of her accomplishments, to have been dealt such a blow.

In the end, I enjoyed Kym's honest writing (with little regard to explanations or descriptions of things unknown to non-musicians). While I struggled with some of the more factual parts of the story when it came to names and the like, I did enjoy the memoir as a whole and the peek inside of a life I wouldn't normally have gotten to see or learn about.

Thank you to Blogging for Books for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

The spellbinding memoir of a violin virtuoso who loses the instrument that had defined her both on stage and off -- and who discovers, beyond the violin, the music of her own voice Her first violin was tiny, harsh, factory-made; her first piece was “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.” But from the very beginning, Min Kym knew that music was the element in which she could swim and dive and soar. At seven years old, she was a prodigy, the youngest ever student at the famed Purcell School. At eleven, she won her first international prize; at eighteen, violinist great Ruggiero Ricci called her “the most talented violinist I’ve ever taught.” And at twenty-one, she found “the one,” the violin she would play as a soloist: a rare 1696 Stradivarius. Her career took off. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned. Then, in a London café, her violin was stolen. She felt as though she had lost her soulmate, and with it her sense of who she was. Overnight she became unable to play or function, stunned into silence. In this lucid and transfixing memoir, Kym reckons with the space left by her violin’s absence. She sees with new eyes her past as a child prodigy, with its isolation and crushing expectations; her combustible relationships with teachers and with a domineering boyfriend; and her navigation of two very different worlds, her traditional Korean family and her music. And in the stark yet clarifying light of her loss, she rediscovers her voice and herself.

Tony Zhang

Molly M

Hannah Swithinbank

All my life my Stradivarius had been waiting for me, as I had been waiting for her . . . ' At seven years old Min Kym was a prodigy, the youngest ever pupil at the Purcell School of Music. At 11 she won her first international prize. She worked with many violins, waiting for the day she would play 'the one'. At 21 she found it- a rare 1696 Stradivarius, perfectly suited to her build and temperament. Her career soared. She recorded the Brahms concerto and a world tour was planned. Then, in a train station cafU, her violin was stolen from her side. In an instant her world collapsed. She descended into a terrifying limbo land, unable to play or function. This is Min's extraordinary story - of a young woman staring into the void, wondering who she was, who she had been. It is a story of isolation and dependence, of love, loss and betrayal, and the intense, almost human bond that a musician has with their instrument. Above all it's a story of hope through a journey back to music.

Gone A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung

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