Contrary Motion

March 14, 2016
"Two steps forward, one step back" describes not only the complicated musical technique that gives Mozina's darkly comic first novel its title, but the progress of the narrator's life and the novel itself. Chicago-based harpist Matthew Grzbc, who ekes out a living giving private lessons and playing for brunches at the Marriott, finally has a shot at a permanent position with an orchestra in St. Louis, but the rest of his life is falling apart. His father has just died, his sweet ex-wife is involved with a guy he doesn't like, his high-strung girlfriend is on the verge of breaking up with him, and his six-year-old daughter is "an anxiety prodigy." Mozina's skewed sense of humor occasionally leads him out of the realm of realism, as in a scene where a priest's depressing homily leads a bride to flee the church, and repeated descriptions of Matt's failures in the sack are almost as excruciating for the reader as for the participants. His encounters with the hospice patients for whom he plays the harp lead to temporary moments of insight that soon fizzle out. Mozina (author of the story collection Quality Snacks) stays faithful to the notion that art rings truest at its most tense and least resolved. Readers will appreciate this wry take on a richly dysfunctional life.

December 15, 2015
An anxious harpist flounders in the wake of his divorce and his father's death. "I'm a Midwesterner, born and raised in Milwaukee, where they manufacture beer and the heavy machinery you should not operate while drinking it," explains narrator Matt Grzbc in the opening line of this mostly charming novel. The painfully self-aware Matt has a great sense of humor, but his comic insights don't help him much as he faces a confounding array of personal problems. His father has just died of a heart attack--in the middle of a relaxing meditation to prepare himself for cancer treatment. Matt himself has a congenital heart defect and crushing sexual performance issues which put the kibosh on his fledgling relationship with a new girlfriend. It doesn't help that he's still in love with his already-moved-on ex or that their 6-year-old daughter seems to have inherited her father's malaise. Having bombed out at auditions for major orchestras early in his career, Matt is making a living playing hotel brunches and giving lessons; even in this low-stakes situation he's tormented by the continual "deep-seated sense that I am about to fail." Then two things happen: he gets a tryout for the St. Louis Symphony and is asked to play the harp for dying patients in a hospice. Between them, these opportunities light up his whole anxiety dashboard, and his attempt to rise to both occasions forms the plot of the novel. It's not quite enough, though. Mozina's (Quality Snacks, 2014, etc.) narrative loses steam in the second half, more or less due to the "contrary motion" identified in its title. The reader starts feeling as impatient with Matt as his friends and relatives are. On the other hand, the pleasures of the writing never flag: "If you've ever been trapped in a refrigerator only to have the door flung open just before you black out, you have some sense of what Chicago spring feels like." " 'Hello, ' T.R. drawls in his soft, hoarse, old guy's voice, like Winnie the Pooh gone to seed." Such a likable narrator, but his story gets as caught up in his underwear as he is.

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Starred review from February 15, 2016
Matt Grzbc pours too much of himself into his concert harp. The instrument torpedoed his first marriage, threatens his current relationship, and is in deteriorating condition, like his own mental state. Matt dreams of starting a new life by winning a coveted spot in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, but first he must painstakingly prepare for this life-altering audition. Focusing on this challenge becomes no easy task when his father suddenly dies, his six-year-old daughter seriously acts out, his harp starts buzzing, and he suffers from performance anxieties, mostly when alone with his new girlfriend. Throughout Mozina's (Quality Snacks, 2014) first novel, we witness the creation of what must be beautiful music. Contrary motion, the term for simultaneous notes diverging in direction, is an apt metaphor for the tensions in the lives of Mozina's characters. With the audition quickly approaching, Matt's anxious perseveration becomes our own. When he accepts an invitation to perform for patients at a Chicago hospice facility, this new endeavor proves surprisingly redemptive. Soon, the day of the audition arrives, and tough decisions need to be made. Mozina's finely detailed, painfully funny novel is a rollicking performance that will keep readers on the edge of their seats.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)