The Piano Man's Daughter

by Timothy Findley

Book Overview

Narrated by Charlie Kilworth, whose birth is an echo of his mother's own illegitimate beginnings, The Piano Man's Daughter is the lyrical, multilayered tale of Charlie's mother, Lily, his grandmother... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0006480535
• ISBN13: 9780006480532
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Canada, Limited
• Length: 541 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

the mystery and dread of fatherhood

The winner of numerous awards, Canadian author Findley shapes this 1996 novel around a young man's quest for his father and his dread of becoming a father himself.Narrator Charlie Kilworth is the son of mad, beautiful, evervescent and tormented Lily Kilworth, who cannot or will not remember who Charlie's father is. It is her story Charlie tells, after her death in an asylum fire, a fire she may herself have set.Lily's story begins before her birth, when her mother, Ede, meets an itinerant piano man. "The sight of him was like a match being struck," Ede recalls, beginning the incendiary allusions that punctuate the novel and haunt Lily's private world.The piano man dies before he can wed Ede but eight years later she marries his brother, Frederick, an ambitious piano manufacturer whose one unorthodoxy is falling in love with Ede. He accepts Lily but without knowing of her affliction - severe epileptic seizures.He is as repelled by Lily's epilepsy as Ede is frightened by it and becomes, for Lily, the demon of her childhood, the focus of rebellion and despair. But even though Frederick locks her in the attic whenever company is expected and finally banishes her to a school for difficult girls, Lily blossoms.A beautiful, vibrant young woman, "hampered" not "handicapped" (the word makes her indignant) by her illness, she goes to England with a friend and it's there that Charlie is conceived. He knows only that the event occurred in January 1910 and he examines Lily's photos intently, imagining fathers, and questions her friends, adding pieces to the life she has already related to him.Lily and Charlie return to Toronto before World War I but Frederick, outraged by Charlie's birth, refuses to see them. They begin a round of living in expensive hotels, going to dances where Charlie is always her partner, and seeing movies. For Charlie the life is a series of enchantments and nightmares as his mother's demons pursue her and drag him along. A child, he learns to watch over his mother although his dependency often renders him helpless.When tragedy pushes Lily over the edge into madness, Charlie is liberated into normalcy - school, friends his own age, relatives. "It made a decent life - secure in ways I had never known." Lily emerges from the asylum but never permanently.Charlie's voice is wistful, awed, admiring, impatient, petulant and wise. But it is Lily who colors and shapes the story, taking flight from her son's narration. Findley's writing is deeply atmosheric, enveloping the reader in the Canada of 1890 to 1920. He invites an intimacy with his characters (many not even touched on here) that creates a bond without violating their essential human secrecy.A rewarding novel, which will linger in the mind.

By all views, a good book

You may think this story is only about Lily and her strange way of life, but it is so much more. It is also about her mother, her mother's empty life, although it would appear to be so full, her mother's loss of love, and other family wounds. Then , also woven into the story is the life and beliefs of her son, Charlie, who narates the tale of the strange legacy this family carries.At times there are sad situations, sometimes a moment of joy and happiness also seems sad, because you realize how fleeting that moment will be for the characters involved. The madness of a woman so desperate to also be a mother and the way her needs all intertwine are very well written, and I think the author deserves huge kudos on this fact. the plot is interesting, the details are well written, and the story is intriguing. I love feeling like I am somewhere, for instance at a silent film, taking in the details Findley offers and so you also learn about a whole different time and way of life.While some of the other reviews have criticised his over use of italics I found them so important to the book- for they usually revealed the true thoughts behind ones words and they showed how often we are not honest in what we say to what we are really thinking. All in all there is a lot to be learned from this book, whether it is a sympathetic moment, a new understanding of a different time, or the need to take what good you can from life at all times (a lesson we always need to be reminded of) you will not put this book down without thinking and enjoying some new and interesting thoughts. Those fans of old time movies and the likes of Charlie Chaplan...etc. would probably enjoy many of the stories in the book even more, for these old time favorites may have been the only escape for some of the tragedy in these characters lives, and parts of the book revolves around them. I think for people who enjoy reading an interesting tale, especially one that touches on the need to break free from generational issues, this book would be a good additon to your reading list.

Another great one from a great author!

This is probably the seventh or eigth timothy findley book that I have read and probably one of my favorites. It was to say the least a book I rarely put down. From beginning to end the trials and tribulations of Lily Kilworth are fascinating and sometimes disturbing. A deep dive into the world of a mad woman and her son, it stirs the reader both emotionally and mentally. A great read at any age!

A tribute to the song of life

In this beautifully written and captivating novel, Canadian author, Timothy Findley, affirms that life is a magnificent and mysterious blending of our past, present and future. In fact, as Charlie, the narrator of the novel, discovers, the past teaches us how to live in the present and plan for the future. His mother, Lily, whose entrance into the world and whose place in the world are both unconventional, shares her wisdom with her son as they seek to discover the identity of Charlie's father. Although deemed mad by most of her socially conscious family and acquaintances, and often mistreated because of that, Charlie knows that despite her weaknesses, the wisdom Lily shares with him defies madness. The daughter of a piano man, Lily has a profound understanding of the meaning of music. She teaches her son that all living creatures share a song and that song must be passed on to others. "That song--those songs are just the same as what I was telling you about the ants. This is me, they say. This is you. This is us. All songs pass from one to another--the songs of ten thousand years of nesting together--of being one--of being us...We and the small stream burgeoning out of the storm and the stars above the field and the sky with its endless curving. Us. Us. Us, they said. We're singing. Us. This was my mother's teaching. I received it then--but I had no notion until her death of its potency. Pass it on, she had said. Pass it on." Only after his mother frees herself from the confines of a lunatic asylum and finally finds her ultimate safe place, does Charlie understand the importance of the song and the duty and privilege that is his to pass it on, despite the uncertainties and fears that often accompany the song. In The Piano Man's Daughter, Findley encourages all of us to listen carefully for the song of life, to appreciate all of the singers, and to lift our own voices as we pass on the hauntingly beautiful melody

An unexpected treasure celebrating the power to give life.

The search for meaning in his mother's life and the discovery of the identity of his father help the narrator in this lyrical, but unsentimental novel decide whether to father a child of his own. Lily, the piano man's daughter of the title, is born out of wedlock late in the last century in the field on a farm in Canada where she was conceived. She is a beautiful and winning child, but also suffers seizures and periods of amnesia. Pampered and cared for in her early years, life becomes difficult when her mother marries and they move from the farm to Toronto. Her new father, embarrassed by her seizures, orders Lily confined her to the attic when the family is receiving visitors and eventually banishes her to a school for problem girls. In 1910, her schooling complete, she and three of her friends (chaperoned, of course) travel to England. It is here that Charlie, our narrator, is conceived during one of Lily's "lost" periods. Lily knows only that the father is one of three men. She returns to Toronto to have her child, raises him until he is sent to school and ultimately dies in an insane asylum. This all sounds much grimmer than it is. Lily lives and dies on her own terms, something Charlie and we come to appreciate as her past is revealed through the memories of friends, family and the narrator. The tone of the narrative is dispassionate allowing the narrator and the reader to observe without flinching the terribly painful situations experienced by both Lily and her son. This is not to say, however, that we are left unmoved. The author's poetic style and use of imagery more than adequately evoke the feelings and emotions of the characters. When it comes, we feel the rightness of Charlie's difficult decision about becoming a father. Perhaps more significantly, we also accept as believable the strange twists of fate that serve as the coda to the story. This period piece is an unexpected treasure that left me appreciating the gift of both life and the power to give life