FICTION

A White Wind Blew

by James Markert
Sourcebooks. Mar. 2013. 400p. ISBN 9781402278372. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781402278389. F
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Working at the Waverly Hills tuberculosis sanatorium outside 1920s Louisville in the midst of a deadly epidemic, Dr. Wolfgang Pike is desperate to raise patient morale. When a former concert pianist checks into the sanatorium, Wolfgang has found his answer: he will form an orchestra and transform the patients' lives—as well as his own—through the redemptive power of music.
VERDICT The setting of this debut novel is well chosen and researched, but the cluttered narrative is uneven in tone. In addition, Wolfgang's selfish focus on his own emotional needs rather than the welfare of his patients makes him a markedly unsympathetic protagonist. The author also glosses over the real horrors of tuberculosis for the sake of the sentimental idea that music is the best medicine. Readers looking for a purely heartwarming tale, however, may be alienated by darker plotlines involving the Ku Klux Klan, suicide, religious and ethnic prejudice, and a veteran's traumatic memories of World War I.
Reviewed by Mara Bandy, Champaign P.L., IL , Feb 15, 2013
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