Book Review: S. F. Hayes' The Red Concerto
The Moral Excellence of Reality
A love story/mystery novel from a biologist/philosopher should grab your attention. It did mine – and The Red Concerto by S. F. Hayes never let it go. Set in the revolving door of pop music, reality TV, and marketing campaigns, Hayes has created a matrix of the superficial vs. the spiritual and of self-imposed guilt vs. self-made pride.
Like a good mystery novel, its pace accelerates to a dramatic resolution with twists that are uniquely powerful, as does the centerpiece of the story, the concerto itself:
“Each line poured out and dissipated into the next in a complex cascade that should’ve been chaos, but the harmony progressed so logically that it created a sense of control.”
Yet, the love story is more than the unlikely mutual attraction of the two main characters, Charlie and Alexandra. Theirs is predicated on that rare essential for any genuine, loving, romantic relationship:
“It was the vulnerability of finding something that can be torn from you, something that makes you weak. Something that makes you want.”
To discover that “something” you will need to read The Red Concerto, imagine Alex seeing it and Charlie hearing it - before anyone could grasp its moral excellence.
The secondary characters are an interesting mix from the fields of psychology, classical music, academia, and entertainment – and all of them add layers of subplot that are easy to follow, relatable to other personalities in fiction or real life, and move the story along.
At the same time, “a few weeks” went by when I didn’t understand how the production of the reality TV show was being released to the public. That is a minor point and more than compensated with vivid descriptions of scenery that were both environmental and introspective:
“Even the room seemed imbued with a different personality, as if lighting the fire had sparked another consciousness to life.”
To me, that is the significance of this novel. Sarah Hayes has created a number of reality vs. reality TV shows within her reality TV show titled Mrs. Music. Not only must Charlie and Alex be true to their own identities and highest values or fake reality, so does the reader. “We hire and promote mediocrity. It’s all we do and all I want to do.” Fortunately, The Red Concerto provides readers with a melody and the secret to your own marketing success,
“In order to make music with the kind of passion that will connect with people, you have to learn to trust them. If you want someone to be open to your art, you must be open to them. Let them see you.”
In pop music, think Taylor Swift. In classical, Yo-Yo Ma. But this is also a mystery. For that I challenge you to identify the primary villain in this story, and more importantly – his weapon. Why does that matter? It is dominant in our culture today and a brilliant plot device from S. F. Hayes.