Description: A story of not only one intimate struggle between a man and his cello, but also of the struggle between a society obsessed with success and individuals who choose challenging hobbies that yield no payoff except for the love of it.
Brief description: Wayne C. Booth (1921-2005) was the George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in English Language and Literature at the University of Chicago. His many books include The Rhetoric of Fiction and For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
Review Quotes: "If, in truth, Booth is an amateur player now in his fifth decade of amateuring, he is certainly not an amateur thinker about music and culture. . . . Would that all of us who think and teach and care about music could be so practical and profound at the same time."
--Peter Kountz "New York Times Book Review"