A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

The antique oak piano in Ricki’s flower shop symbolizes the link between past and present. When Ricki first sees it, she wonders: “There’s such faded glamour in this piano […] Who played it? Whose lives were lived here?” (26). The passage acts as foreshadowing, hinting at Ezra’s identity before the readers learn about it because he was once the original owner of the piano. At the same time, Ricki’s questions bring attention to the amount of history hiding in plain sight—one of the novel’s key secondary interests. Ricki loves feeling like a part of this history; the piano’s age and worn out quality makes it her “comfort spot” (69).Ricki notes, “This piano had old stories in it—Harlem Renaissance stories—and it felt like the lives embedded in the grain of the wood were on her side, somehow” (124).

The piano also comes to represent the connection between Ezra and Ricki. One night, Ricki acts out her attraction to Ezra at the piano: When running into Ezra after the wedding, where he plays for her in a captivating way, she masturbates atop the instrument. The scene combines desire, mystery, and art—all the qualities that will eventually define Ezra for Ricki.