The Soloist

1. The Soloist "A lost dream, an unlikely friendship and the redemptive power of music."

2. About the author: Steve Lopez  He is an American journalist, who works at the Los Angeles times as a columnist, and is the son of spanish and Italian immigrants.  "I'm on foot in downtown Los Angeles(...) That's when I see him. He's dressed in rags on a busy downtown street corner, playing Beethoven  on a battered violin that looks like it's been pulled from a dumpster." 

3. Schizophrenia Is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction.

4. Nathaniel Ayers "He is still suspicious of me, suspicious of everything around him it seems"  "The list includes Babe Ruth, Susan, Nancy, Kevin and Craig.  - Whose names are those?- I ask  - Oh those people, - he says,  - Those were my classmates at Juilliard" 

5. The first Section In chapter 1 of the book the author meets the musician Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, in a street corner in downtown L.A. in his way to work. The chapter concludes with Nathaniel as if it slipped away from him tells the author that he used to study at Juilliard.  "It was the fall semester of 1972, his third year at Juilliard, and Nathaniel had been tormented by months of confusion, anxiety and Hallucinations (...) Nathaniel began shedding his clothes for no apparent reason (...) He wasn't angry or aggressive, but he seemed to be under a dark spell (...) Nathaniel twenty one years old was wheeled away to the psychiatric  emergency room (...) The diagnosis was Paranoid Schizophrenia, and his life, as he had lived it until then was  over. So, too were his hopes of a career in music."

6. Chapter 2 In chapter 2 the author  finds out that Nathaniel never really learned to play the violin at Juilliard but he was taught to play the Double bass he claims that "I don't know how to play the violin." A violin that has only two strings Chapter 3: He's got the world on two strings  " Steve, I'm the CEO of the Pearl River Piano Group America Ltd. (...) This morning I read your article about the street violinist in L.A. and of course was moved by your story."  LaLamp: is a society that picks mental ill people from the streets which makes a deal with Lopez to keep Nathaniel's instruments in their storage room and that he may play there whenever he wants to. 

7. Chapter 4 "The Instruments arrive"  "He doesn't answer he is seen the Cello"  Lopez takes them to LALamp Chapter 5: Nathaniel goes to play at lamp and Lopez communicates him with his younger sister. Beethoven's Sixth  He feels trapped, he is only allowed to play inside lamp and after that his instruments are taken away from him. 

8. Second subsection  Claim: the redemptive power of music can save a soul but so can a friend and mental illness doesn't choose who it affects.  Nathaniel Ayers, He comprehends how having a friend has helped him deal with his menthol illness this friend is for him Lopez.  “.. a friend is someone who inspires, who challenges, who sends you in search of some truer sense of yourself..”  Lopez, showing that no one chooses what he gets from life and  that sometimes the most brilliant people (like Ayers) melt because of a disease like schizophrenia and it doesn't matter what they where before that. “Mental illness doesn't choose the most talented or the smartest or the richest or the poorest. It shows no mercy and often arrives like an unexpected storm, dropping an endless downpour on young dreams.”