The Soloist (Chapters 1-6)

The story opens with the view of a poor many living out of a shopping cart playing an old violin admiring Beethoven. The writing style of Steven Lopez is easy flowing and a series of chronological events explaining the accounts of a true story on the life of Nathaniel Ayers through his eyes.

True stories like the one by Steven Lopez are always of interest to me because I am finding out information at the leisure of reading a book. The first six chapters of “The Soloist” are page turners. So far the information gathered is that Steven Lopez is a local paper journalist seeking a story. Like most things that happen in life he happens upon an even greater discovery. He sees a man playing a two stringed violin living out of a shopping cart. He compliments him and realizes this man is a great story. He later finds the man is Nathaniel Ayers who is only living on the streets because of his diagnosis of schizophrenia that caused him to drop out of Julliard, which explained the violin.

So far the first six chapters have shown great inspiration. Even if I stopped at this point I would have been inspired by Steven Lopez’s ambition to further his meetings with Nathaniel and get his story. I am inspired by the life of Nathaniel. Even though he is living on the street he has a problem. He is not one of those people who takes his problem as a seek for pity by others, but he lives the way he wants playing his music which gives him life. People who live through the music and only need that to be happy inspire me greatly because something so simple can give them joy and that shows such passion.

I am looking forward to reading farther and to see what else happens between Nathaniel and Steven.