Body & Soul by Frank Conroy is about a boy who has nothing growing up then uses his talents to go somewhere with his life. The overall point of the book was good, dry at sometimes, you really saw the struggles the main character, Claude, went trough. Sometimes you even felt how he was feeling and that is mostly because the author did a really good job with the writing style. The whole purpose and theme of the book was to tell a story of how it doesn't matter where you come from you can still go somewhere.


One point I would like to make about the book is that it is a great example of finding yourself. In the beginning of the book the main character Claude comes off as a shy little boy. With no real friends he spends most of his days in side his house with his keyboard. Over the course of the book you really see him grow. By the end of the book he isn’t a shy little boy anymore. He is now a grown man who has friends and isn’t afraid to let people see the real him. Showing that he has more then grown in height, he grew as a person as well.


Another point I would like to make is that if you were blessed with a talent you should use it. The whole book is based along how Claude uses his talent for playing the piano to go some where. It doesn't matter what your talent is, anything from a talent for writing or singing you should use it because you never know where it can bring you. I’m sure Claude never imagined that he would become a successful piano player. He just did what he knew what to do and let it take him wherever. Lucky for him he used his talent well and really tried to use him, and that is probably why he ended up becoming so successful.


After reading the book I would say the genre that would make the most sense is Historical fiction. Though you wouldn’t realize it right aways if you read the author’s note at the end you see how he came up with the plot. The reason it’s historical fiction is because the author, Frank Conroy, took real piano players stories by reading other books and put them together to make one character to represent all of them. He also took events that happened during the time the book was set in and the city, New York City.



In conclusion the book was very good and I would recommend it especially to people who love music and it’s history. Though dry at the beginning and at some other points if you give it a chance, you will enjoy it.