Noble McCloud: A Novel

What makes a musician ‘gifted,’ or any artist for that matter, does not necessarily depend upon his skill and talent with his instrument. The seasoned guitarist, for example, may have mastered his instrument and moved mountains with his sound, but his artistry is not determined by talent alone. Rather, the gift of each musician, the guitarist in particular, is determined by how well he can survive the pangs of reality and at the same time continue playing as skillfully.
Debatable as this premise may seem, it is often the case that the greatest contemporary guitarists are never heard by anyone other than themselves. Those who do succeed are indeed gifted for their ability to withstand circumstance as well as advance their skill and style of play. The amateur guitarist, with a view from the bottom, works primarily on his skills and then hopes to achieve recognition and success by some fantastic turn of events. Rarely does he realize that survival, aside from talent, is equally important, if not more so.
For Noble McCloud, a soft-spoken young man from the suburbs of New Jersey, survival is but a sickness leading to the demise of the musician, and humankind in general. What really matters is the sound, not the walls the musician climbs to have his sound heard. As a result, his world is a dream rich with narcissistic fantasies about playing in packed amphitheaters and making love to groupies off-stage and having the world adore him as a legend. And this is before he even begins playing. He refuses to find a job, even though he’s broke. He would be homeless too, if it weren’t for his best friend and benefactor Shylock Winston, who works at the local coffee shop. When Noble finally decides to play professionally, after going through detox and a twelve-step program, after wooing the woman of his dreams by pretending to be wealthy, he finally grasps the duality of the artist as dreamer and as a person who must survive. This novel examines whether or not he succeeds, whether or not the amateur musician, usually alone and confused, can succeed when no one seems to be listening.