Middle C is unlike any other novel I have ever read. The storytelling doesn’t unfold in typical
linear fashion and because of this the reader becomes increasingly curious
about how our narrator, Joseph Skizzen, gets from point A to point Z. Joseph’s tale begins before he is even born,
with his parents and sister living in their native Graz, Austria just before
the dawn of World War II. Sensing that
the Nazis will soon be creating more than their fair share of problems in his
homeland, Rudi Skizzen flees to London with his family by pretending that they
are Jewish refugees. Joseph is born
shortly after their arrival and the Skizzen (now called Fixel) family manages
to survive the Blitz. Joseph’s father
“reinvents” or renames himself several more times and then disappears
mysteriously after the war. After desperately
searching for her husband, Joseph’s mother Miriam then manages to relocate
herself and her two children to a small town in rural Ohio.
And here is where
Joseph’s story takes off. We can see the
two Skizzen children grow into their new lives as Americans. Joseph is quiet and not particularly
book-smart while his sister Debbie becomes a cheerleader and wants to be a part
of all things fashionable. Joseph begins
to enjoy his piano lessons with a local teacher, but it is apparent that he is
self-taught in playing popular tunes than anything else. We are then shown a look at Joseph as an
older man, one who has used the entire attic of his large home to house what he
calls his “Inhumanity Museum” which is host to countless newspaper clippings
spotlighting all manner of man’s terrible acts.
We bounce back and forth in time to see Joseph working as a high
schooler in a music store, then as a college professor, then a college student,
then as an assistant in a small town library.
Each sector of Joseph’s life creates another layer of lies he tells
himself to continue on his way.
