Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Sonata
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Phoenix
STATE: AZ
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://classicalwcrb.org/post/pain-and-piano-story-andrea-avery#stream/0
RESEARCHER NOTES: Birthday taken from prelude to her memoir.–DP
PERSONAL
Born c. 1977.
EDUCATION:Arizona State University, M.F.A.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Educator and writer. Teaches English in Phoenix, AZ.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Ploughshares and the Oxford American.
SIDELIGHTS
Andrea Avery is an English teacher and author of Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano. At the age of twelve, Avery was already looking at a potential career as a classical pianist when she was diagnosed with severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune disease. In her memoir, Avery relates how RA not only changed her musical plans but also threatened her ability to lead an everyday, normal life. Writing in Sonata, Avery notes that she knows the details of her illness from the very beginning of her diagnosis “thanks to an astoundingly comprehensive set of notes taken by my mother, a notetaker by nature and a nurse by training.”
Avery goes on in Sonata to relate the difficulties that challenged her growing up with RA while also dealing with the usual issues associated with puberty, going to college, and having sex. As noted by a Kirkus Reviews contributor, Avery “organizes her text like a sonata–in movements, each of which has chapters–and her love of music is patent on almost every page.” Avery turns to music to help her cope. She especially draws inspiration from Franz Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat D960 and from the life of one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. Writing in Sonata, Avery notes “a theme that was deeply true to Schubert himself: that music diminished misery.” Alongside her own story, Avery details the story of Schubert’s last sonata written by the composer while he was dying from syphilis.
As for her own story, Avery relates her long struggle to learn how to deal with her disease without letting it be the defining thing in her life. In the process, Avery shows how pervasive the disease’s effects are, from relationships with her family and others to the clothes she can wear. As for her family, Avery honestly recounts family problems, noting that the entire family was undergoing a transition. Her parents eventually divorced. Meanwhile, her brothers were involved in drugs, and one of them viewed Avery as a competitor.
Nevertheless, it is Avery’s own struggles and eventual triumph that form the heart of the memoir. Perhaps what made her struggles even more difficult is that sometimes the symptoms would disappear for a period of time only to return. Sonata includes an in-depth account of her symptoms and the various treatments she received to ameliorate their effects. For several years after she was diagnosed, Avery continued to play the piano, but as the disease progressed she realized it was affecting not only her playing but, in her own mind, the music itself, writing: “I was fine with having arthritis myself, but for the first time I had infected the music.” Avery was in college before she finally gave up her dream of being a classical pianist. “Instead of succumbing to her disability, as directed by a professor at Arizona State, she uses her pain to compose music, … in this case, music in prose,” wrote a Mari’s Book Reviews website contributor.
A major turning point for Avery occurred while she was shopping in Target. A little boy came up to her and asked about the way she looks. For Avery, who answered the boy in straightforward terms, it marked the time when she decided no longer to use “deflection tactics” and to fully face and own who she is, that is, not someone defined by the disease but by what she makes of her life.
Avery’s “story offers inspiration, and education on building a beautiful and meaningful life even when what you love most slips away,” wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. June Sawyers, writing in Booklist, called Sonata “A moving memoir of living with pain, and with music.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
Avery, Andrea, Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano, Pegasus Books (New York, NY), 2017.
PERIODICALS
Booklist, April 1, 2017, June Sawyers, review of Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano, p. 9.
Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2017, review of Sonata.
Publishers Weekly, March 13, 2017, review of Sonata, p. 75.
ONLINE
Andrea Avery Website, https://www.andreaaveryauthor.com (November 19, 2017).
Mari’s Book Reviews, https://marisbookreviews.wordpress.com/ (July 26, 2017), review of Sonata.
Andrea Avery holds an MFA from Arizona State University and teaches English in Phoenix. Her short pieces have been published in Ploughshares and The Oxford American, among others. She was a finalist in Glamour magazine’s annual essay contest and the winner of the Real Simple "Life Lessons" contest. This is her first book.
Contact Andrea Avery:
ANDREAAVERY77@GMAIL.COM
Andrea is represented by Rob Kirkpatrick of the Stuart Agency.
First page of chapter 1
Avery, Andrea: SONATA
(Mar. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Avery, Andrea SONATA Pegasus (Adult Nonfiction) $27.95 5, 9 ISBN: 978-1-68177-409-1
A high school English teacher, musician, and essayist emotionally and analytically chronicles her journey through the tangled wood of rheumatoid arthritis.Avery enjoyed about 12 years of "normal" life before the disease began to manifest itself, and she received her stern diagnosis in 1989. She was a gifted pianist, but the disease attacked her body relentlessly, including, of course, her hands. In this debut memoir, the author organizes her text like a sonata--in movements, each of which has chapters--and her love of music is patent on almost every page. Late in the book is one dazzling paragraph about an insensitive physical therapist, a paragraph into which she has inserted cues for musical instruments. Appearing like motifs are Schubert, Mozart, Wittgenstein, and others, whose words and biographies appear continually. The author also alludes to and quotes from texts about music and illness and mentions numerous others for various expository reasons--e.g., Flannery O'Connor and Susan Sontag--but it's a particular Schubert sonata that appeals to her in youth and beyond. Avery also writes frankly about her family (parents divorced, etc.) and her older siblings, one of whom the author viewed as a competitor. The initial bitterness eventually sweetens, and her tone is more conciliatory near the end. But as much as this is the story of Avery's mind and psychology, it is even more so the story of her adjustments to her traitorous body, to how people perceive her, that composes the capacious heart of this narrative. Through it all--her body's betrayals, the numerous and various surgeries--we see a bright, determined person trying to come to peace with herself and with a world that is not always kind. A wrenching account of a writer determined to maintain the music of her life in whatever forms are possible.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Avery, Andrea: SONATA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485105207&it=r&asid=1acecfc238296cc4cdc89399a1776cc0. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105207
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano
June Sawyers
113.15 (Apr. 1, 2017): p9.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano.
By Andrea Avery.
May 2017. 272p. Pegasus, $27.95 (9781681774091). 616.
Most of us take our health for granted, but what if, for most of your life, you were subjected to interminable pain and surgery after surgery? This is what Avery chronicles in her memoir of living with a chronic illness: rheumatoid arthritis. Her life changed forever in May 1989, when, at 12 years of age, she received the official diagnosis and her body turned on itself, attacking her joints, muscles, bones, and tendons. There were plenty of moments when the symptoms disappeared, only to return again with a vengeance. Music helped save her life--specifically, playing the piano and, even more specifically, Schubert's sonata in B-flat D960. By the time she was a teenager and the disease had ravaged her hands, she knew "nothing better than the piano. I loved nothing--no one--more." Her fingers were "extraordinarily good" before they became "extraordinarily bad." Despite her devastating condition, Avery makes it clear that her illness does not define who she is. She may be always sick, but, as she notes, she is not "sickly." A moving memoir of living with pain, and with music.--June Sawyers
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sawyers, June. "Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2017, p. 9. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491487815&it=r&asid=0ce89c837219daeb67208ea79bb5fd25. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491487815
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano
264.11 (Mar. 13, 2017): p75.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano
Andrea Avery. Pegasus, $27.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-68177-409-1
In 1989, at the age of 12, Avery was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She was also a promising pianist. This excellent memoir illuminates both elements of her life with equal dignity and insight. Readers will gladly follow along as the author, now an English teacher in Phoenix, Ariz., recounts a detailed description of her symptoms, treatments, and the numerous medical procedures she endured. The memoir is also a love story to playing the piano, which Avery began when she was seven years old. The author notes she had a "few years' grace" before the disease severely interfered with her playing. Her battle was both physical and psychological. After failing a piano exam, Avery explains, "I was fine with having arthritis myself, but for the first time I had infected the music. Now it was arthritic, too." Avery delves into how her disease complicated the normal chaotic process of growing up, dating, sex, and college. She also deftly narrates the remarkable stories of Paul Wittgenstein, a one-armed pianist, and Franz Schubert, who composed his sonata in B-flat while dying from syphilis, revealing how she used these men's stories and music as sources of inspiration. Her story offers inspiration, and education on building a beautiful and meaningful life even when what you love most slips away. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano." Publishers Weekly, 13 Mar. 2017, p. 75+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485971688&it=r&asid=1890cb8cf8aac9a6c68068eae7523c5d. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485971688
REVEiews
Avery, Andrea: SONATA
(Mar. 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Avery, Andrea SONATA Pegasus (Adult Nonfiction) $27.95 5, 9 ISBN: 978-1-68177-409-1
A high school English teacher, musician, and essayist emotionally and analytically chronicles her journey through the tangled wood of rheumatoid arthritis.Avery enjoyed about 12 years of "normal" life before the disease began to manifest itself, and she received her stern diagnosis in 1989. She was a gifted pianist, but the disease attacked her body relentlessly, including, of course, her hands. In this debut memoir, the author organizes her text like a sonata--in movements, each of which has chapters--and her love of music is patent on almost every page. Late in the book is one dazzling paragraph about an insensitive physical therapist, a paragraph into which she has inserted cues for musical instruments. Appearing like motifs are Schubert, Mozart, Wittgenstein, and others, whose words and biographies appear continually. The author also alludes to and quotes from texts about music and illness and mentions numerous others for various expository reasons--e.g., Flannery O'Connor and Susan Sontag--but it's a particular Schubert sonata that appeals to her in youth and beyond. Avery also writes frankly about her family (parents divorced, etc.) and her older siblings, one of whom the author viewed as a competitor. The initial bitterness eventually sweetens, and her tone is more conciliatory near the end. But as much as this is the story of Avery's mind and psychology, it is even more so the story of her adjustments to her traitorous body, to how people perceive her, that composes the capacious heart of this narrative. Through it all--her body's betrayals, the numerous and various surgeries--we see a bright, determined person trying to come to peace with herself and with a world that is not always kind. A wrenching account of a writer determined to maintain the music of her life in whatever forms are possible.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Avery, Andrea: SONATA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485105207&it=r&asid=1acecfc238296cc4cdc89399a1776cc0. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485105207
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano
June Sawyers
113.15 (Apr. 1, 2017): p9.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano.
By Andrea Avery.
May 2017. 272p. Pegasus, $27.95 (9781681774091). 616.
Most of us take our health for granted, but what if, for most of your life, you were subjected to interminable pain and surgery after surgery? This is what Avery chronicles in her memoir of living with a chronic illness: rheumatoid arthritis. Her life changed forever in May 1989, when, at 12 years of age, she received the official diagnosis and her body turned on itself, attacking her joints, muscles, bones, and tendons. There were plenty of moments when the symptoms disappeared, only to return again with a vengeance. Music helped save her life--specifically, playing the piano and, even more specifically, Schubert's sonata in B-flat D960. By the time she was a teenager and the disease had ravaged her hands, she knew "nothing better than the piano. I loved nothing--no one--more." Her fingers were "extraordinarily good" before they became "extraordinarily bad." Despite her devastating condition, Avery makes it clear that her illness does not define who she is. She may be always sick, but, as she notes, she is not "sickly." A moving memoir of living with pain, and with music.--June Sawyers
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Sawyers, June. "Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2017, p. 9. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA491487815&it=r&asid=0ce89c837219daeb67208ea79bb5fd25. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491487815
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano
264.11 (Mar. 13, 2017): p75.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano
Andrea Avery. Pegasus, $27.95 (272p) ISBN 978-1-68177-409-1
In 1989, at the age of 12, Avery was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She was also a promising pianist. This excellent memoir illuminates both elements of her life with equal dignity and insight. Readers will gladly follow along as the author, now an English teacher in Phoenix, Ariz., recounts a detailed description of her symptoms, treatments, and the numerous medical procedures she endured. The memoir is also a love story to playing the piano, which Avery began when she was seven years old. The author notes she had a "few years' grace" before the disease severely interfered with her playing. Her battle was both physical and psychological. After failing a piano exam, Avery explains, "I was fine with having arthritis myself, but for the first time I had infected the music. Now it was arthritic, too." Avery delves into how her disease complicated the normal chaotic process of growing up, dating, sex, and college. She also deftly narrates the remarkable stories of Paul Wittgenstein, a one-armed pianist, and Franz Schubert, who composed his sonata in B-flat while dying from syphilis, revealing how she used these men's stories and music as sources of inspiration. Her story offers inspiration, and education on building a beautiful and meaningful life even when what you love most slips away. (May)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano." Publishers Weekly, 13 Mar. 2017, p. 75+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA485971688&it=r&asid=1890cb8cf8aac9a6c68068eae7523c5d. Accessed 6 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A485971688
Mari’s Book Reviews
Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano by Andrea Avery
Some people make music their life while others live life musically. Andrea Avery writes her life as Sonata. Using Franz Schubert’s sonata in B-flat D960 as inspiration and metaphor, she shares her memoir of living with RA, rheumatoid arthritis. Like Schubert, debilitated at the height of his career, Andrea, in college, gives up her dream of playing piano professionally when her body will no longer allow it. Instead of succumbing to her disability, as directed by a professor at Arizona State, she uses her pain to compose music (129), in this case, music in prose.
Each chapter is a movement of the sonata (e.g. Allegro Giocoso or Largo) and is accompanied by a quote from Ludwig Wittgenstein, brother to one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein. These headings name the tenor of the chapter and set her story in the context of a community of musicians and philosophers wrapping their heads around the place of pain and illness in art. Resonant of Olivia Laing’s THE LONELY CITY, Avery manages to make connections out of her individual and isolating experiences. Reaching out from these dark places, she speaks to us readers in our own. A climax comes in Target, of all places, where she encounters a curious little boy who asks why she looks the way she does. The incident, a cadenza of sorts, becomes a turning point. It is time go beyond the “deflection tactics,” (142), the tattoos and funky clothes, and claim “bi-abled” status, exclaiming, “I am the things I make. I am not the shape I take” (205).
Andrea’s writing style is like the eclectic look she develops from childhood. “She’s something else” her physicist father likes to say. She’s not afraid to embrace a both a hip tone peppered with slang and references from her favorite grunge bands, as well as the academic elegance of research and her mother’s copious medical notes. Related-able to most every reader, she extends to us the same encouragement as the teachers she takes after to “put some oomph in it!” find the book via Pegasus