August 4 - "Following the Notes"

“Following the Notes”
by Pia Z. Ehrhardt
New Sudden Fiction (2007)

* * * (Good) Realistic

A father and daughter find a small measure of connectedness and attachment through the music he shares with her.

I think the author was attempting to infuse this story with more meaning than it could hold. I guess, by the end of the story, I felt Ehrhardt was a little heavy handed with the imagery of the father and daughter sitting together at the piano as music gave them peace. In honesty, none of the characters were all that sympathetic. I felt about as involved as the mother who simply decides to leave the pair at the kitchen table in favor of watching TV alone in her room. There was potential here for much more, and I really did enjoy the beginning of the story with the dead car battery and switching of tee shirts (dude, a Ninja Turtles tee is always a great addition to a story).

[This story was read on August 4. The review was not posted until later due to laziness on my part.]