School of Velocity

Eric Beck Rubin

Average Rating 6/10 (1 Review)

A psychologically taut tale about a virtuoso pianist plagued by unwanted music in his head.

Jan, an experienced virtuoso pianist, is about to go on stage to perform his solo. But, once again, the music he hears in his head is not what he is supposed to be playing. Will it go away in time, or will it sabotage his performance?

As he struggles with this hidden condition, he thinks about his high school friend Dirk - a magnetic, eccentric personality. It began like a game, with Dirk playfully stealing Jan's first girlfriend. And it continued like a game - a very close friendship with an undertone of danger.

They go their separate ways after high school, but when they reunite as adults, Jan wonders: is Dirk really the strong character he appeared to be, and was their friendship in fact real, life-long love?

The final game Jan plays - a blind ride on a dark country road - is the most dangerous of all. In this powerful debut, Eric Beck Rubin conjures up a moving tale full of music and raw human emotion, with a virtuoso touch.

'A luminous, quiet storm of a novel that resounds long after its heartbreaking coda.'

'A hugely impressive first novel about music, friendship and obsession. Gripping and emotional.'

Review by Ben Macnair (310817) Rating (6/10)

Review by Ben Macnair
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 6/10
School of Velocity is a novel about music, about self-doubt, about mental health, and about friendship. Jan is a virtuoso pianist, always practising, the book starts with him accompanying a cellist in a foreign country, but the concert doesn’t go as planned. He can barely remember the music, misses a few cues, and leaves in disgrace.

As he comes to terms with this disaster, and the implications that it may have on his future career, he remembers Dirk, and old school friend, with a magnetic personality, and popularity to burn, and as Dirk’s personality and popularity rubs off on Jan, he finds his life changed by being allowed into certain circles within the school clique system. But the friendship is dangerous, and toxic with Dirk daring Jan to take on more and more dangerous risks, and after they leave school, the friendship falters.

They meet up again in later life, but things have changed between them. Jan is the successful one, making good on the promise he showed in his youth, but they are both also aware that their friendship was not a normal friendship. It was more than that, bordering on love, or on obsession, and as Jan takes one last risk to try to impress Dirk, we know that neither of them will find the full resolution that they need.

This is a fine novel, from a debut novelist, with plenty to say. The friendship between the two protagonists is well drawn, and while neither of them is particularly sympathetic, it is a believable relationship, and the story moves along at quite a smart pace, whilst secondary characters are well drawn, including the girls that Jan repeatedly loses to Dirk, or their family members. Eric Beck Rubin has also done his research into the piano repertoire, and describing the life of musicians in the highest standards of the classical music world.
Ben Macnair (31st August 2017)