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Mar 20, 2025 By Frank Valish

Object Lessons is Bloomsbury Publishing’s series of short pocket-sized paperbacks that explore common items or objects. Books in the series include titles on the Cat, the Videotape, the Lawn, and Blue Jeans. Creating a viable book-length text about such a common thing would seem to be a difficult task to perfect. However, the latest book in the series, Mollie Hawkins’ Saxophone, does just that.

Hawkins begins her exploration with a history of the instrument, as created by Adolphe Sax in the 1800s. She discusses how it works, explores the ins and outs of reed performance, and traces the saxophone’s use from an almost second tier novelty instrument to major player in some of the greatest jazz records of all time (and then later seemingly a purveyor of cheese in so many ’80s soft hits).

But Hawkins’ connection with the saxophone is also a personal one. Her late father was a devotee of the instrument, playing in church and building a life around the instrument before tragically passing from COVID in 2021. And aside from Hawkins’ engagingly presented history of the instrument, this is where the heart of the book Saxophone lies. Hawkins so deftly weaves her own personal and family history through her tale of the saxophone, and in doing so brings the reader along with her, allowing the reader to connect with her book on a poignant, emotional level. As such, Saxophone becomes not only a brief tale of a normal, everyday item, but a story you won’t be able to put down. It becomes a memoir and a tribute to Hawkins’ late father. Through the instrument he loved, Hawkins is able to tell his story and hers as well, one of family, one of grief and beautiful memory, and one of life. All through that strange new brass instrument Adolphe Sax created so long ago. (www.bloomsbury.com)

Author rating: 9/10