43 pages • 1 hour read
Steve LopezThe Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship
Steve LopezNonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2: Chapters 17-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2, Chapter 17 Summary
Ayers has his first cello lesson with L.A.Philharmonic cellist Peter Snyder. Lopez, Ayers, and Snyder all go to Ayers’s apartment in the Ballington. Ayers grows “distant and looks confused,” and Snyder presents “an open mind and more than a little confidence (162). Snyder gives Ayers Pablo Casals’s “Song of the Birds,” and Ayers begins playing.
As Lopez hears Snyder play, he realizes “for the first time how far Nathaniel has to go” (166). However, Snyder is impressed and says, “He might be a musical genius” (167). At the end of the lesson, Snyder encourages Ayers to come back, and Ayers resists, saying he instead prefers to play in the tunnel. They tentatively agree to another lesson in the apartment.
Lopez also presents the perspective of Gary Karr, Ayers’s former teacher at Julliard. Karr recalls Ayers’s “natural talent” and discusses how his issues “made him really hard to reach” (165). Karr believes that Ayers’s mental issues may be dangerous and tells Julliard he will not give lessons without someone else in the room. The university does not take Karr’s recommendation seriously, saying that Ayers’s problems are based on racial inequality.
Part 2, Chapter 18 Summary
Lopez travels to Las Vegas to visit Ayers’s father in an attempt “to better understand his son” (169). Ayers Senior is hard of hearing and has his television on full blast when Lopez enters his apartment in a retirement home. Lopez discusses Ayers Junior’s mental illness and asks his father if he misses him. Ayers Senior denies much knowledge of his son’s illness and instead says he has chosen to throw his life away. Lopez concludes that “his father is a man who doesn’t know him” (173). Lopez tells Ayers that he has met his father and that he misses his son.
Part 2, Chapter 19 Summary
Lopez interviews Stuart Robinson, a mental health professional at Lamp. Robinson often interacts with Ayers as he plays in the courtyard. He applauds the fact that Ayers takes on the new role of cleaning, and this shows his desire to “give back,” which is “no small development” (178). Lopez asks if Ayers is moving in the right direction, and Robinson thinks that it is promising.
A week after the Snyder lesson, Ayers asks if he can put his shopping cart in the apartment while he looks for sheet music. Lopez sees this as promising and wants to keep Ayers going to the apartment as much as possible. To this end, Lopez asks for a violin lesson. However, when they enter the apartment, Lopez sees a pool of blood, and they move back to the courtyard. Lopez tries to play both violin and cello and struggles with them.
In the courtyard, Ayers chastises a man for smoking. The man says that Ayers is not part of the community, but Ayers counters and says he lives in the Ballington.
Part 2, Chapter 20 Summary
Lopez wants to prepare Ayers’s living space so that “his room will no longer be a room but a shrine to his gods” (188). To that end, he gets a Beethoven bust from the Disney Hall gift shop. Ayers’s sister Jennifer sends a package with clothes, toiletries, and photos.
Lopez and Snyder visit Ayers and bring him the materials. Ayers appreciates everything and also tapes up photos on his walls. He places a photo of his mother beside his bed. He and Snyder have another lesson, and Ayers plays “Song of the Birds.” Snyder says, “The man feels every note” (190). The lesson goes on for two hours.
Part 2, Chapter 21 Summary
The year draws to a close, and Ayers is still sleeping in the tunnel. Snyder is only able to conduct about one lesson a month. Lopez meets another homeless man in the Third Street tunnel, Ernest Adams. One night, someone with a baseball bat beats him. He becomes blind in his left eye and his speech is impaired. After a stay in the hospital, he returns to the tunnel. Lopez wants to write a story about “a screwy system in which Adams was rescued from death only to be sent back to the scene of the crime at his own peril” (194).
Lopez gets Adams back to the hospital for a checkup. He learns Social Security will cover the cost of moving indoors, and he agrees. Adams tells Lopez about a time he witnessed Ayers taunting a cyclist, who had a gun. Lopez searches for Ayers who, he learns, has spent the night in his apartment for the first time. It is also Ayers’s 55th birthday. Robinson has Ayers sign a contract that says he must spend at least three nights a week in the apartment.
Part 2, Chapters 17-21 Analysis
Through these chapters, the author underlines the theme of racial inequality that has plagued Ayers all his life. Karr, Ayers’s former teacher, says of him, “He seemed to be struggling with his racial identity in a nearly all-white environment” (164). Racial differences were a divisive force at Julliard. When Karr complains to the administration, saying that Ayers might be suffering from mental-health related issues, the administration passes it off as race-related. Here, the administration cannot help Ayers with his mental health issues because they are blinded by the racial divides.
Lopez also underlines the divide between Ayers and other musicians. Peter Snyder is white and comes from a more privileged background. He notes that “there have been musicians and artists in his family in every generation dating back to at least 1800” (161). This provides a stark contrast to Ayers’s upbringing, where he had to struggle to connect with his art, and nothing was handed to him.
These chapters chart significant character development for Ayers as he takes steps towards recovery. At the beginning of his time with Lopez, Ayers sleeps on the streets, will not frequent any shelters or centers, and generally refuses help. He makes a change in reconnecting with his music when he accepts help from Peter Snyder of the L.A.Philharmonic. It is the first time Ayers has taken a music lesson since the ‘70s, and he is “hungry for the feedback” (163). Taking lessons from Snyder shows Ayers’s willingness to take a step back into the world of formal music and to accept help.
Moreover, Ayers begins to change his daily life by gradually accepting an apartment at the Ballington. He begins by taking music lessons there with Snyder. He also feels comfortable enough leaving his shopping cart there, something he would have never done before, which Robinson deems a “promising breakthrough” (179). After almost a year of knowing Lopez, Ayers begins sleeping at the Ballington, and “this room has meaning to Nathaniel now” (190). Through embracing music lessons and choosing to spend less time on the street, Ayers reconnects with himself and takes steps towards recovery.
Lopez also undergoes learning and growth in these chapters. As before, there are many ups and downs in his relationship with Ayers. Sometimes, he feels very proud. For example, when Snyder gives Ayers his first lesson, and Ayers performs well, Lopez says, “I feel like a parent whose child has just aced his audition” (167). These lines also emphasize how close Ayers and Lopez have become, and Lopez recognizes that Ayers treats him as something of a father figure.
However, Lopez almost completely loses faith:“All the high points, in retrospect, were a tease. I wanted to believe they promised breakthrough, but such optimism seems delusional now” (192). After almost a year, Lopez feels as if not enough progress has been made. This lack of faith, however, turns into hope when Ayers begins sleeping at the Ballington. In this way, Lopez goes through a tumultuous relationship with Ayers, and, in doing so, learns about his deep attachment to the musician and the meaning he provides.
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