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y separately published work icon Music and Freedom single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Music and Freedom
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A gripping and beautifully written novel that brings to mind Notes on a Scandal and Elizabeth is Missing.

'Alice Haywood is born on an orange farm in country New South Wales. She begins playing the piano when she is three, taught by her English mother who is unhappy in Australia and in a desolate, violent marriage. When Alice is seven, her mother, desperate for her daughter to leave if she can't, sends her to boarding school in the bleak north of England, and there Alice stays for the next ten years. Then she's offered a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London. That year, on a summer school in Oxford, she meets Edward, an economics professor, who sweeps her off her feet.

'But underneath his suave demeanor, Edward is a damaged man. He traps her into marriage and Alice is stuck, oppressed by his cruelty, in the Oxford home he has bought for her. After a disastrous recital of Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto, she stops playing and her dreams of becoming a concert pianist evaporate.

'Alice and Edward have a son, Richard, whom she adores. He too is a talented musician. But as Richard grows up he becomes more and more distant, and ultimately Alice can't find it in herself to carry on. Then she starts to hear the most beautiful music coming from the walls of her house.

'Inspiring and unusual, this novel's love story is that of a woman who must embrace life again if she is to survive. With a wonderful cast led by Alice, the novel explores the dark terrain of violence and the transformative powers of music, and love.' (Publication summary)

Notes

  • Dedication: For C. J. James and Doreen Oldfield

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • North Sydney, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Vintage Australia , 2017 .
      image of person or book cover 5834587035686943861.jpg
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 345 p.p.
      ISBN: 9781925324228, 9781925324204 (pbk)

Other Formats

Works about this Work

More Than ‘Rotten Apples’ : Australian Literature and the Possibility of Redemption for Men Who Abuse Daniel Moss , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;

'Popular analyses of gendered violence focus on the need for an individually-focussed approach to the problem which calls for greater responsibility and accountability for individual men. Men who use violence are often viewed as bad apples; or as deviant to the moral codes which are necessary in a moral society. But contemporary Australian authors examine the socio-cultural, political and economic structures that promulgate inequality according to gender, class, age and culture. This inequality manifests in the gendered violence which Christos Tsiolkas, Richard Flanagan, Charlotte Wood, Zoe Morrison and Sofie Laguna portray as a product of neo-liberalism. The men within their fiction are affected by disconnection and individualism within our neo-liberal, patriarchal society. The male protagonists are subjects of, as well as producers of dominant practices of masculinity. Equally, their female characters are not merely passive victims of gendered power as they protest against and challenge the structures that support inequality. Through post-structural analyses which leaves room for contradiction and nuance within characters, these contemporary Australian authors are able to maintain hope for difference and redemption in the lives of men who use violence and abuse, and the women and children who are affected. They consciously avoid separating people in to categories of good or evil, or just and unjust, given that these dichotomies are central to the patriarchal and capitalistic systems of individuality and competition which they critique.' (Publication abstract) 

Best Books 2016 Jennifer Bryce , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , August no. 97 2018; (p. 79-82)

— Review of Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel
What I’m Reading Emily Brewin , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Review : 'Music and Freedom' by Zoë Morrison Marie O'Rourke , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 383 2016; (p. 48)

— Review of Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel
Zoe Morrison Linda Morris (interviewer), 2016 single work interview
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 30-31 July 2016; (p. 18)
Rocky Roads from Sorrow to Hope Katharine England , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 16 July 2016; (p. 36)

— Review of Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel ; The Paper House Anna Spargo-Ryan , 2016 single work novel
Review : 'Music and Freedom' by Zoë Morrison Marie O'Rourke , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 383 2016; (p. 48)

— Review of Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel
The Minor and Major Keys of a Life Kirsten Krauth , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 18) The Sydney Morning Herald , 8-9 October 2016; (p. 24)

— Review of Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel
History Is A Many-Sided Thing Naomi Riddle , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , November 2016;

— Review of Wild Island Jennifer Livett , 2016 single work novel ; Skylarking Kate Mildenhall , 2016 single work novel ; Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel
Best Books 2016 Jennifer Bryce , 2018 single work review
— Appears in: SF Commentary , August no. 97 2018; (p. 79-82)

— Review of Music and Freedom Zoë Morrison , 2016 single work novel
Zoe Morrison Linda Morris (interviewer), 2016 single work interview
— Appears in: The Saturday Age , 30-31 July 2016; (p. 18)
Lifetimes of Consequences 2016 single work interview
— Appears in: Underline , December no. 1 2016; (p. 8-10)
'Musician, Rhodes Scholar, social justice advocate and author Zoe Morrison wrapped a lifetime of experiences into her debut novel Music and Freedom. Ane her ever-persistent invention - a character named Alice Haywood - gave Morrison a mouthpiece for those living on the margins.'
More Than ‘Rotten Apples’ : Australian Literature and the Possibility of Redemption for Men Who Abuse Daniel Moss , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 1 2020;

'Popular analyses of gendered violence focus on the need for an individually-focussed approach to the problem which calls for greater responsibility and accountability for individual men. Men who use violence are often viewed as bad apples; or as deviant to the moral codes which are necessary in a moral society. But contemporary Australian authors examine the socio-cultural, political and economic structures that promulgate inequality according to gender, class, age and culture. This inequality manifests in the gendered violence which Christos Tsiolkas, Richard Flanagan, Charlotte Wood, Zoe Morrison and Sofie Laguna portray as a product of neo-liberalism. The men within their fiction are affected by disconnection and individualism within our neo-liberal, patriarchal society. The male protagonists are subjects of, as well as producers of dominant practices of masculinity. Equally, their female characters are not merely passive victims of gendered power as they protest against and challenge the structures that support inequality. Through post-structural analyses which leaves room for contradiction and nuance within characters, these contemporary Australian authors are able to maintain hope for difference and redemption in the lives of men who use violence and abuse, and the women and children who are affected. They consciously avoid separating people in to categories of good or evil, or just and unjust, given that these dichotomies are central to the patriarchal and capitalistic systems of individuality and competition which they critique.' (Publication abstract) 

What I’m Reading Emily Brewin , 2017 single work column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
Last amended 11 Jun 2020 15:07:21
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