Snag The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, And The Redemptive Power Of Music Chronicled By Steve López Distributed As Interactive EBook

Soloist reads like a book written by a columnist, which is to say it's clear, it's compelling and it's easy to read.
The subject matter is not so easy, Many reviewers have said that this book puts a face on mental illness and the homeless and that's true.
The mentally ill central character of the book is not just an illness, he's a real person, with a family, a history, hopes, dreams and problems.
That being said, the book also shows how difficult it is to treat mental illness, and how much time and resources are needed to achieve even small gains.
While the book might also be read as an indictment of the less than stellar job our society has done in treating the mentally ill, it's also true that the book suggests that this problem may not have any good solutions.


In this sense, the book The Soloist is just as schizophrenic as the character, the Skid Row soloist Row Nathaniel Ayers.
Parts of the book are uplifting, but parts are just downright depressing, While Ayers' life does improve in the teeth of his own stubborn opposition, and with the dedicated help of dozens of people it's clear that he, and thousands like him, are damaged goods, and that it is beyond our current ability to really "save" them.


I suppose this touches on the debate about the civil rights of the mentally ill.
There was a time when mentally ill persons were forcibly hospitalized, forcibly medicated with drugs that dulled them and even forcibly subjected to brain mutilating surgeries and electroshock treatments.
Today's medications and treatments, including the new and improved electroshock, are supposed to be better, so is it now ethical to force these on the mentally ill

All of which could be summed up by asking if there is a "right" to live on the street and refuse treatment At times, Ayers demanded that right in no uncertain terms, but he was mentally ill, right Should he have been forced to get into treatment and take medications Lopez figured out that this path doesn't really work, that the person has to make that choice for themself.
As The Soloist shows, getting that to happen takes an immense investment of time, patience and resources, and there is no guarantee of success.


So the grim reality is that most of the mentally ill will probably remain on the streets, largely ignored by the swirling society around them.
Few will be lucky enough to receive the attention and extraordinary care that Ayers received, The truth is that most of us think that the mentally ill are just different than we are, and we can't be bothered to try to help them.
For some, The Soloist will no doubt be taken as proof that bothering to help can be uplifting.
For others, it will be a reminder of just how daunting that task can be, Geez, where to start Whenever I've passed by a homeless person, I've always thought "how did you end up here" This was a beautifully sad story of one such person.
So talented but mentally ill, A vicious cycle of they should be on meds but the meds don't make them feel right so they don't take them, etc.
I am holding out hope for Nathaniel, Steve Lopez does a wonderful job in capturing and sharing the story of Nathaniel Anthony Ayers homeless man, who, in his prime, was a musical protege in Julliard.
Steve Lopez puts a face to the disease paranoid schizophrenia and mental illness as a whole.
Lopez reaches into a downtrodden and forgotten community of people to help a man who was left to fend for himself out in the streets without support, family, and treatment for close toyears.


Lopez writes this biography in a journalistic nature, drawing in readers with his wittiness, clever word choices, and infusing his own personality, fears, and joys into this great work.


A column writer by day, Lopez meets Ayers while out and about, Thinking that this man might be his next big ticket story, Lopez seeks Ayers out to hear how a man of his musical caliber is out there living on the streets.
Lopez in turns finds out more about himself than about Ayers, and the mental illness that has wrapped up Ayers for overyears.
Lopez tries to help Ayers in recovery, but soon finds out that recovery is not linear, and it could meanstep forward, and simultaneously takesteps backwards.
The road to recovery is slow, cannot be forced, and a great deal of patience is required to help Nathaniel start the process of improving.


Nathaniel Ayers is a Cleveland, Ohio native, who has transplanted himself to Las Angeles.
He started his career as a musical genius while in high school, and became a protege that followed in the footsteps of men who helped him path the way into Julliard.
While at Julliard, Ayers fell prey to the insurmountable pressure of being great, and had a mental breakdown.
This mental breakdown started his fall from grace, and landed him on the streets as a homeless man with paranoid schizophrenia.
While on the streets of LA, he comes in contact with columnist, Steve Lopez, and thus a friendship begins.


Throughout this book, I was fully engaged and educated about this mental illness, Even though this book was not about paranoid schizophrenia, Lopez did a wonderful job in painting the picture of a person who goes through life, on a daily basis, battling this sickness.
I went through similar emotions as Lopez, hoping that Nathaniel would get better with time, frustrated with his bad days, and happy on his moments of breakthroughs.
I definitely learned a lot about this disease, and also about Nathaniel and how a person could get to where he is.


I would recommend this book to everyone, especially those who like books that are turned into movies.
The book makes me want to see this film again, and the film does an excellent job in telling this story.
I would rate this book ait's definitely in my top, I just finished this book and am having a hard time coming up with words to describe how I feel about it.
Steve Lopez is a columnist for the LA Times who stumbles across a homeless man in a tunnel who is playing a two stringed violin.
Mr. Lopez begins talking to the man, who obviously has a mental illness, and learns that he previously attended Juliard on a scholarship for the bass.
Mr. Lopez leaves the meeting thinking that if this mans story checks out it would be an interesting column.
and ends up embarking on a journey to help Nathaniel Anthony Ayers exJuliard student, lover of music, and victim of schizophrenia, get off the streets and on the path to "recovery".
Along the way, Mr. Lopez gains as much, if not more, from the friendship than Mr, Ayers

This book documents the first two years of the friendship between Mr, Lopez and Mr. Ayers the struggle Mr. Lopez has to grasp the extent of Mr, Ayers disease, the constant upsanddowns of Mr, Ayers mental health, and the love and exceptional talent Mr, Ayers demonstrates for music which is the bright beacon that cuts through the fog of schizophrenia.
There is no doubt that Mr, Lopez has helped Mr. Ayers in many ways simply by providing support and friendship but Mr, Ayers relates life lessons that brought a tear to my eye,

This book was phenomenal and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something to read this month.
I also recommend checking out the origninal columns which can be found online, I am now looking forward to the movie but know that it will pale in comparison to the book.
I often become immersed in my reading but it has been a long time since I have been so moved by a story of compassion, friendship, and humanity.
I love reading books by newspaper columnists Marley and Me, Dan Savage's The Kid, and anything by Dave Barry, and Steve Lopez was one of my favorites.
I'd seen the trailer to the upcoming movie before I started reading this, and that's unfortunate because I kept seeing Jamie Fox and Robert Downey Jr.
. . whereas I'd never have cast them myself in my head for these roles, The story is poignant, I was rooting for both men as they progressed and evolved, and I was touched and humbled by the story.


I'll have to look up Lopez's columns in the LA Times to see what's happened to Nathaniel Ayers.
I won't be seeing the movie, I suffer from mental illness and l like to read about how others fare, even if its difficult.
Ive read a few books about mentally ill street dwellers and this is one that shows

how an astonishingly talented person with profound difficulties can progress in a positive way.
I do believe the author may have been really blessed by his often frustrating relationship with his friend.
"The Soloist"'s story is so wellknown at this point grizzled newspaper columnist befriends oncepromising classical musician whose schizophrenia has left him long homeless that there's little need for me to recount it here.
Steve Lopez's writing is less that of a toptier author and more that of a solid reporter today's poetry is tomorrow's birdcage liner, but the true story is wellserved by Lopez's relatively unadorned and straightforward prose.


While Nathaniel Anthony Ayers's story was welltold in Lopez's original columns stories I read when they first ran in the Los Angeles Times years back "The Soloist" offers a more cohesive version of the musician's travails.
There's some filler to bring the story to book length, but not much,

To call Ayers's story heartbreaking would be a severe understatement, While any story about a man living on the streets because of mental illness would be wrenching, when the man is not only as talented as Ayers is he plays string bass, cello, violin and piano proficiently, and experiments with other instruments but is also intelligent, educated, caring and wellspoken, it becomes an even harder story to get through.
I know it shouldn't be that way we should feel the same compassion for anyone in a horrible situation not of his own making, no matter what his or her talents are but it's nevertheless true.


And Lopez is refreshingly honest about such inherent problems in telling Ayers's story: Ayers shouldn't get treatment different from Los Angeles's other homeless people, but he does because of his talents and because Lopez is writing about him Lopez is using Ayers to fill his column quota and advance his career, but also genuinely cares about the man Lopez wants to get Ayers off the streets and living a more normal life, but Lopez realizes that such efforts are partly to satisfy his own ego Lopez wants to be a good friend to Ayers and have him in his life, but he's sacrificing time with his own family, who should be his first responsibility, to devote so much time to Ayers.


I resisted reading "The Soloist" for a while because, having read Lopez's original columns, I felt I knew the story.
It turns out, though, that the book is compelling reading even for religious Los Angeles Times followers and easily recommended to anyone who doesn't read Lopez's column.
Ayers's story is a tough one to tell, and Lopez does a good job telling it without romanticizing it or making it overly maudlin.
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