THE COLOR OF SOUND

Going on strike gives a synesthetic musical prodigy space in her life to learn the music of her Jewish heritage.

Two things control 12-year-old Rosie’s life: 1. Her unusual brain, with its full-sensory synesthesia, echoic musical memory, and exceptional violin talent; 2. her imperious stage mother. After her overpacked schedule causes Rosie to lose her only friend, she stops playing violin. Refusing music camp, she perforce accompanies her frustrated mother to her grandparents’ for the summer—without devices as punishment. Connecticut offers a fresh start. Alongside secretly watching improv classes at the public library and swimming with her grandfather, Rosie learns about her Hungarian Jewish family history. Most intriguingly, through some time-travel anomaly, she encounters a girl she realizes is her mother. Shanna as a girl is so different from Shoshanna as a grown-up that Rosie wonders how the one became the other—and if she can change that outcome. Rosie is an appealing, sympathetic character who develops believably in her quest to expand both her life and her music. While the scope of her synesthesia is conveyed in a somewhat confusing way, the descriptions of her sensory perceptions are lyrical and evocative, though at times excessive. The depiction of generational trauma is poignant and subtle, from Rosie’s Holocaust-survivor great-grandparents, to her dying, Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandmother, to her mother. However, as a literary device, Rosie’s unexplained time-travel interactions with Shanna feel awkward and unnecessary.

A quiet exploration of synesthesia, music, and family history.