Appel's "Strings" is one of the better written stories in this Beach House collection. Just look at how succinctly he sets the stage in the first sentence:
"RABBI CYNTHIA FELDER WAS NEWLY MARRIED, and in her pulpit only six months, when a former lover asked to borrow the sanctuary."
Note the use of caps in the opening phrase, like a headline, screaming "emancipated woman here" and a rip in the conventional fabric of society. All at once we have Gays, Lesbians, and Koreans gathering in her tabnernacle, but the thought of 400 musicians (cellists!) invading her sanctuary seemed the height of effrontery. At the pinnacle of this impudence was the fact that a female was the ultimate arbiter of the use of God's space.
The description of the new music concert led by ex-lover Jacques Krentz was so accurate that Appel surely must have seen such a spectacle. I've seen many such concerts of new music where the conceptual framework challenges musical convention leaving the audience stunned, and rendering the musicians somewhat incoherent.
"No Strings" was the name of a musical by Richard Rodgers, and while the title suggested a romantic relationship with no obligations, it also described an orchestra for the musical that had no string instruments in the ensemble. For some reason, this story title reminded me of that musical, and there is a tone in Appel's writing that "Strings" seems to resonate metaphorically for Jacques remaining attached to Cynthia, the newly married rabbi. But instead of NO Strings, it is actually ALL STRINGS, 400 Cellists!
This story emerges as a comedy and a statement of a world fluctuating in artistic and social change, Appel leaves us smiling, perhaps thinking the world isn't so bad after all. It's a tight, well-knit narrative, attempting to celebrate the grandiose, and recognizing that bigger is not necessarily better.
