Honoria: A Novel in Sonata Form

In his debut novel, Sacramento author Patrick Guderski encapsulates the anxieties and obsessions of teen culture circa 1993 in a quaint story about a girl preparing to audition for the Juilliard School.

Young Honoria comes from a family of classically-trained musicians and has suffered tragedy and loss at an early age. Hopeless and helpless and living alone in her

upper-middle-class San Francisco home, she befriends a classmate at her city college who initiates her in the world of post-adolescence.

Intertwined in the narrative is a story about John, a similarly-aged young man entering his freshman year at UC Berkeley. Coming from a fragmented domestic life, his ability to relate to other students is severely strained, and he copes with his social isolation through intellectual elitism and a newfound passion for art-house cinema.

Jamie, the lead singer of a San Francisco grunge band, is eager to discover more about Honoria. By chance, John becomes acquainted with Jamie and, through him, Honoria as well. A chance audition at the Juilliard School suddenly lures her towards a new life in New York. The prospect of this audition tests her relationship with Jamie, while John is now convinced that Honoria personifies his romantic destiny.

Being a story about impressionable young students, the novel is peppered with asides and references to historical and contemporary musical culture, including the passionate works of the great composers and the tense alternative-rock music heavily rotated on the music-video circuit during the early 90s.