Love's Unchained Melody
RobertEvansSeniorLecturerinNewTestamentRobertEvans
あらすじ
An Odyssey of Music and Love It's July 7, 1954. The Memphis area is about to hear and witness perhaps the world's most famous and profound singer, entertainer, and unique individual in music history. It all came together in what could be called the 'perfect storm'. A period in history that created a vacuum for the exact right person, at the precise time and place to fulfill destiny's call. During the years of 1954 and '55, the Memphis area had a front row seat to experience the genesis of an astonishing era in music that has never been seen before or since. In the first part of the book, we step into the Patton family and their small-town community near Memphis. Through them, we experience the incredible excitement and hysteria created by this local Memphis singer as he exploded into a worldwide phenomenon. Part One of "Love's Unchained Melody" includes an intriguing account of the magnitude of excitement that took place in the Memphis area from the year 1954 and throughout the remainder of that decade. This unique and unprecedented era in music is witnessed and experienced from the perspective of the Patton family, their two teenage daughters, and school friends from within a small-town community near Memphis. The Pattons are a fictitious family representing and characterizing what it was like within the local Memphis area to experience in a close and personal way this real and incredible period in history. Part Two of the book begins August 16, 1977. It takes you on an amazing journey of triumph and victory over seemingly insurmountable odds. It's a story of how destiny miraculously brings soul mates and families together. How the miracle of grace transforms lives. You'll be touched and inspired by a heartwarming larger-than-life epic love story that really has no end. The book comes to a conclusion on April 28, 2003. "The storyline embodies inspiring examples of how life free from drug addiction opens the door to unlimited possibilities."
作品考察・見どころ
本作は、伝説の胎動を目前にした熱狂と、個人の魂の救済が交錯する壮大な叙事詩です。一九五四年のメンフィスという音楽史の「完璧な嵐」の中に架空の家族を置くことで、著者は一時代の胎動を息づかいが聞こえるほど生々しく描き出しました。歴史のうねりを瑞々しい感性で追体験させる筆致は、読者をノスタルジーの先にある運命の瞬間に立ち会わせます。 後半で描かれるのは、依存症の闇を抜け、恩寵によって愛を掴み取る魂の再生です。音楽が時代を変え、愛が絶望を打ち砕く。二十一世紀まで続くこの感動的なオデッセイは、人生の無限の可能性と、時を超えて鳴り響く不滅のメロディを読者の心に深く刻み込みます。不確かな時代を生きる私たちに、真実の希望を灯す一冊となるはずです。
