Composing a Life

About the Book

Christopher Hartley is the chair of the English department at the North Campus of Garden State University—a place he refers to as a “minimum intellectual facility.” Recently returned from a medical leave begun after the death of his wife, Holly, sixteen months earlier, he is seeking some measure of peace.

As Chris prepares a brand-new course called Music in Literature, he hopes the combination of the two disciplines—a pairing that has always fascinated him—will help him overcome his grief and deal with the estrangement of his daughter, Ivy. Peace, however, is as elusive as music itself. As he deals with his own health problems and the possibility of a new relationship with a much younger colleague, Chris moves through a chaotic and occasionally amusing fugue in which lust, love, self-worth, redemption, and meaning interweave.

This complex novel explores how music and literature aid one man as he deals with grief, considers the meaning of life and death, and struggles to come to terms with his own mortality.

About the Author

Tim McCracken, professor emeritus of English, has published and presented widely on literature and music. He holds a doctorate from New York University and has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Rochester and Princeton University. This is his first novel.