Every Good Boy Does Fine
by Jeremy Denk
Random House, 2022
ISBN 978-0812995985
Last year, in Calgary, I heard a remarkable recital by American pianist Jeremy Denk. A wonderfully gifted pianist equipped with a fabulous technique, a refreshing approach to programming and an insatiable curiosity, Denk likes to address the audience at his concerts and always has something interesting to say. As readers of his blog Think Denk or his occasional New Yorker articles know by now, he is a brilliant writer, too. His first book—Every Good Boy Does Fine—is subtitled A Love Story, in Music Lessons. Basically, it’s a coming-of-age story: how a gifted child living in a dysfunctional family discovers music and a love of the piano, and advances through childhood into adulthood (Denk is 53 now) and a career in music. It’s also about sexuality and how a young man devoting most of his waking hours to music, but with a deep-seated insecurity, finds love. But this book also has other themes and I’m not sure Denk is entirely successful in blending them into his life story. Denk has a lot to say about a lot of music. Unfortunately, he says it in a way that is unnecessarily difficult to follow.
Excerpted from a review first published in Classical Voice North America
