Art's Cello (Kindle Single)

4 4 out of 5 stars | 250 ratings

Price: 1.99

Last update: 04-16-2025


About this item

In this deeply moving memoir of loss, friendship and craft, Jim McKean shows what happens when long-time rivals set their egos aside and work together to memorialize the life of a dear friend — through the centuries-old art of violinmaking. Told in eloquent, honest prose, Art’s Cello is a story about coming to terms with the past and letting go of the failures we allow to define us — and, in the process, honoring the lives of those we’ve lost.

Jim McKean is an international award-winning violinmaker, author, and corresponding editor of Strings Magazine. He is a graduate of the first violinmaking school in America and the former president of the American Federation of Violin and Bow Makers. His novel, Quattrocento, was published in 2002.

Cover design by Evan Twohy.

Top reviews from the United States

Carol Peckham
5.0 out of 5 stars Zen and the Art of Violin Making
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2014
This splendid book by James McKean, which on the surface, is about losing a friend and making a musical instrument, is, in fact, a piece of music itself. The opening two sentences define the essential theme. "A jointer planer; that's how it all began. Rabut had one and I didn't." McKean's book is a fugue, which builds around the idea of creation through relationship as a means for defying -- not death -- but meaninglessness. The narrative plays back and forth in time over the course of about a year, pursuing specific themes -- the meaning of friendships and family, the essence of quality, and enduring extreme loss. He does this by tricking you. He conveys profound ideas with an "aw shucks' approach, with corny jokes, and quiet simple observations. He claims not to be the best friend or best husband ever. He isn't perfect, and he describes, without self-pity, his failings and inadequacies. He credits his friends with higher skills both at instrument making and relationships. There's nothing phony about his modesty. He believes it and so do I. I'm thinking, "Gosh, he's just like me." On the other hand, and here's the tricky part, while he's simply and honestly talking us through his difficult year, he is also creating, with his friend, a spectacular cello in tribute to Art, his dead friend. And, in writing this long beautiful essay, he made this experience resonate, like music, evoking the emotional journey by drawing his bow back and forth, playing us out from its central theme and back into it at the finish. You might close this book and say, "Well this is a pretty simple book by an ordinary guy. I could write this." You'd be wrong. It isn't, he isn't, and you couldn't."
takingadayoff
4.0 out of 5 stars Sax and Violins
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2014
At first glance, this short book seems to be about the author's friendship with a fellow violin maker, Art, who died in his fifties. James McKean tells of completing a cello that Art had started. He and their mutual friend, Guy, work on the cello over the next few years as a kind of tribute to Art, and to keep him alive in their memories.

But I found that I wasn't convinced that Art and McKean were very close friends. It seemed to me that the story was more about the friendship between McKean and Guy, and the even closer friendship between Guy and Art. Either way, it was interesting to read about how craftsmen make violins, violas, and cellos.

In addition to the story of the creation of a cello, the book tells of the difficulty of making a living at violin making. McKean made it work by repairing instruments as well, and by writing articles about the craft, and by writing books. As much as he loved making instruments, he seemed not to be as enamored by the music of those instruments. He never says so, but he mentions the music he listened to while working in his shop -- Charlie Parker, Lionel Hampton, or the Rolling Stones, but rarely anything that featured violins or cellos. On the one occasion in the book that he goes to a concert, he seems to be there only to see his handiwork in action as a musician plays a cello that he made.

The result is that the book is not the tearjerker that you might have expected (or feared), but that it's more about the life of a violin maker.
JAYDEE HALE
3.0 out of 5 stars IT'S A CONUNDRUM.....
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2014
This will be a strange review but it was a strange story....It was well written but not something that held my interest so it took several days to muddle through to the end.
If you are in an orchestra, this will interest you more than it did me and if you just happen to be a violin or cello maker, then you will love it as the best way to describe this book is to call it an instruction manual, a HOW TO for making either of these fine instruments, but written in a way that keeps it from being quite as boring. Can't really recommend it. The preview made it sound much better than it was.
recycledwords
5.0 out of 5 stars Such a beautiful story
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2014
I have only read through half of this beautiful story on my Kindle but I have to put it down ....if only because I am at work.

At first McKean was a vaguely familiar name. A children's author (?) and I thought, "How wonderful that a writer with so much perception is writing for children." but then I looked him up and discovered that he is a VIOLIN MAKER! Perfect! of course he is.

The writer of this book can't just be sitting at a desk making things up (as wonderfully as many writers have done). There is so much simple truth in this story he must have lived it at some level and he must be an artist of things that are visually and audibly engaging. He has to be a craftman. He has to have felt these tools, crafted these instruments, and loved these people in his soul to have captured them so well. This book is an offering of a gorgeous and generous perspective on life, friends and the things that matter.

I really admire the craftsmanship in writing, too. Elegant description, believable dialogue, and exquisite pacing all adding up to a story well told.

These days when it is really hard to trust a new writer, spend time searching for samples to read, or (yuk!) waste good money on stuff you want to correct with a pen, I am so glad I was able to once again stumble upon a wonderful book. I love that kind of surprise!
Yvonne Caruthers
4.0 out of 5 stars I play on one of his cellos...
Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2014
I'm not going to pretend to be unbiased about Jim McKean, since I own two of his cellos and play on one of them every day. I also don't have anything to add that other reviewers haven't commented on. This is indeed a rare look inside the world of cello making, and Jim has a way with words that makes you keep reading. The only thing missing is that I wish each of you could hear what Jim does to an instrument....why is that still not possible with an e-book? There's one passage in particular where Jim describes "setting up" a cello. He and Guy Rabut both know the cello doesn't sound its best, so they listen to it, then tap the soundpost, and suddenly the sound of the instrument changes. That's one of the most magical, and deeply gratifying, aspects of owning one of Jim's cellos: I can take it to him any time for an adjustment. But until the day that e-book technology rises to the level of reading an e-magazine (with hyperlinks) you'll have to settle for mere words alone. Not fair, methinks.

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