The Melody

Master of the parenthetical and the aside, narrator Nicholas Guy Smith helps make sense of this brief novel written in two parts. In part one, the listener meets widower Alfred Busi. Busi is a former popular singer who is now living off his royalties and is known locally as "Mr. Al." Busi is attacked in his home one night after he has been outside cleaning up his rubbish bins. The attacker seems to have been a starving young person, but the reader never knows for sure and neither does Busi. The attack sets up a series of negative events that change Busi's settled life. He is quoted in a wild article about mythical Neanderthals—supposedly residents of the town's maritime forest—finds out his house and neighborhood are to be torn down, gets a rabies shot, and, finally, is mugged in a local park. The narrator inserts himself in the novel only peripherally, while listeners hear Busi's thoughts and imaginings. Busi dreams of standing up for the local homeless who live in the park, until he is robbed of shoes, money, and even the good luck talisman he's had for more than 50 years. Part two takes place some years later. Here the narrator is revealed to be a young neighbor who rents one of Busi's two units in the recently built townhomes. Smith's subtle change in tone from Busi to this narrator is a master lesson in nuance. The tone calls into question what has been learned in part one with the revelation of the narrator's part in events leading to the final scenes.