Every Note Played Book Review

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Every Note Played is a compelling novel with a heart-breaking story at its centre. World renowned pianist Richard has a successful career behind him, and though he’s been through a bitter divorce with his ex-wife Karina, he still looks forward to what’s ahead. Then the worst happens – he’s diagnosed with motor neurone disease and as he starts to lose control not just of his hands and therefore his ability to play the piano, but the rest of his body as well. He wants to fight it but as it begins to engulf him, Karina has no choice but to come to his aid and help him maintain as much of his life as she can. Both of them reluctant to forgive the other for mistakes in their past marriage, find that this disease may be debilitating, and they may be unwilling, but it might just bring them together for the better.

Having finished this book, I have now officially read every book Lisa Genova has written (see reviews here for the rest) and this one only reminded me why I love her books. Once again I found myself going into the book with little knowledge of the disease at its core, but as always Genova’s passion for learning more about these diseases so we can learn better how to fight them is infectious. I always find myself researching more having finished and Every Note Played was no different.

What I liked best about this book was the unconventional nature of the family this book centres on; with Inside the O’Brien’s and Left Neglected, from what I can remember, the families are mostly nuclear and while not perfect, not dysfunctional, whereas Every Note Played takes a family who’s already broken and proves the unfortunate nature of natural selection and how there is no ‘fair’ when it comes to diseases like ALS.

Richard and Karina were an interesting couple because they had this innate way of knowing each other that comes from being married as long as they were, but also how they both harbour secrets. I felt myself warming to Karina more than Richard which is probably unsurprising given that it felt like through creating a family she had been robbed of a career Richard was able to bask in. And because of this, I liked how this book raised issues beyond that of neurological diseases, but of patriarchal inequality and feminism.

If you’ve read any of my past reviews of Genova’s work, you’ll know how much I already adore it, and while I don’t think Every Note Played has knocked Left Neglected of its post as my favourite from her, I do admire what it achieves, as with Still Alice, Inside the O’Briens, and Love Anthony. I also think it had potentially the most emotional ending of all of the books. Educational, compelling, heart-breakingly plausible, and most importantly informative, Every Note Played shines a necessarily light on the atrocities of motor neurone disease and I urge everyone to read it!