Grace notes or the notes of grace

Major and minor. Rises and falls. Divine moments of enlightment and dullest routine. All these mixed up and served to you as an exquisite culinary masterpiece on an artful dish by Bernard MacLaverty.

Grace Notes is the novel written by MacLaverty in 1997 which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in the same year. It stands in line with other MacLaverty’s books expending on how difficult can be real life to a man (or woman) of art. The life of Catherine McKenna seems to be the best proof.

We meet Catherine on her way from Scotland to Ireland, her birthplace, for a painful reason - her father died. During the trip she needs to cope with her mother’s grief, with the ghost from past and with her own postnatal depression.

The only thing that makes Catherine feel better on her return is the hold of her daughter. Living in Scotland is not much easier for Catherine as her drinking boyfriend starts beating her. Feeling that she has had enough Catherine moves to friend’s basement willing to start a new life. She receives an offer from BBC Radio to perform her own piece of music on air and that is how the world becomes aware of her talent.

This is how the story would look if to dry it out. In fact it is much deeper and watery. We see how ruthless the soul of the main character is being prepared by author’s baleful scalpel. It’s challenging to find at least one side of social life which could have been safe for Catherine. Her parents were Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland which couldn’t be any harder. Her childhood seems to be a lovely time as she a talented and obedient kid - a child to dream of. But as she started to grow older getting involved deeper into different sides of life, her parents due to their life views expressed their misapprehension disapproval. Finally, it made Catherine feel unaccepted in her own family and pulled her away from her parents. Being not very sociable by nature Catherine lacked friends as well not receiving support from anybody. With such lack of communicative experience she makes a relationship mistake called David who becomes the father of her baby. This one night crash turns out into destructive villain-victim symbiosis ruining the last crumbles of her dignity.

There would have been no island of placidity in this chaotic ocean but for the Music. That is Music that used to guide her through all the stages of her life. From the very childhood when her first steps in music amazed her parents and made them support her beginnings to the period of meeting well-known composers from different parts of the world. That was the music memories that comforted her during her difficult trip to her native town. Music has always been inside her and that’s why she could find it all around her. This is what makes Catherine’s life worth living (and the book worth reading as well).

But it doesn’t make it easier for Catherine to face the real life. Her living has been so unbalanced since her teenage years that it takes her more than just being a good composer to feel better about herself.

Being brought up in religious family she was told a lot about dogmas and forbidden things. But she wasn’t told much about Love. That made her search for that feeling and for her own understanding of God. To compose a mass was the dream of her life. But it was approved neither by her parents nor by her music teacher (who used to have just as much influence by the way). But the music was calling and she couldn’t resist. Apart from music only one thing in the world could bring Catherine what her soul was looking for. The delightful moment of holding her daughter and smelling the head of hers makes Catherine feel blessed.

So being confused at the very beginning of her journey, feeling lonely even not being alone, Catherine manages to find her own way to Love and Peace and the other treasures of Life that were hidden from her eyes. Being kissed by God at the very first place she couldn’t realize it for quite a long period of time. But the cathartic exposure that took place after her dream was fulfilled gives a hope that she finally found what she was lacking of and now is ready to reset and start a new, more balanced, more graceful and happier life.

Choosing a woman character to pass to such a test was a brave decision of MacLaverty. Maybe Grace Notes won’t become a classical novel but it righteously deserves readers attention. You won’t be able to imagine how keen and refined this physiological-musical salad is before trying it yourself. So, bon appetite!

Katerina Khatenko

Non-verbal Communication Is Extremely Important; on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Communication as a process of sending and receiving information enables humans to share knowledge, attitudes, and skills. We first and uppermost associate communication with speech, but much depends on non-verbal signals, too. The social ecologist Peter F. Drucker stated that the most important thing in communication is what isn’t said, and I believe he meant non-verbal signals which can increase trust, clarity, and interest. While communicating in person, much of the message depends on intonation, tone of voice, facial expressions, body postures, and gestures. Non-verbal communication may take different forms illustrating, enhancing, or replacing the information expressed lexically. A good command of the body language helps send more accurate and informative messages to others, even if we fail to find the right words, and be able to