Every Good Boy Does Fine

In Every Good Boy Does Fine, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible artistic journey. Life is difficult enough as a precocious, temperamental (and possibly insufferable) six-year-old piano prodigy in a small town in New Jersey. But then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico, far from classical music's nerve centers, and Denk has to please a new taskmaster while navigating the perils of junior high school. Escaping to college in Ohio at sixteen, he meets a bewildering cast of music teachers, experiences a series of triumphs and humiliations, and ultimately finds his way as one of the world's greatest living pianists, a MacArthur ''Genius'' and a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall. There are few writers capable of so deeply illuminating the joys and miseries of artistic practice -- the hours of daily repetition, the mystifying early advice,