The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship

Steve Lopez’s 2008 book, The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, is a work of nonfiction that charts the experience of the musician Nathaniel Ayers. Lopez is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and encounters Ayers playing a two-string violin on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Lopez questions why so talented a musician is clearly homeless and reduced to his present circumstances.

Lopez strikes up a rapport with Ayers, and they build a relationship over the course of the book. We learn that Ayers is a classically trained musician—he attended Julliard for about a year and a half until his schooling was cut short by his experience of mental illness. Ayers suffers from schizophrenia, and his symptoms emerge full force while he is at school. He returns to his family’s home in Cleveland where he undergoes bouts of unsuccessful treatment. Eventually, he moves to California in search of a father who abandoned the family years ago. Untreated and without support, Ayers ends up homeless on Skid Row, sleeping and playing his violin in the Second Street tunnel.

As Lopez begins writing about Ayers in his column, support pours in from many sources. Many donate money and musical instruments to Ayers. Lopez himself feels responsible for trying to improve Ayers’s life further. He embarks on a mission to learn about mental illness, the homelessness epidemic, and the best way to help someone like Ayers recover. Lopez enlists the help of the Los Angeles Men’s Project (Lamp) and the Village, two facilities that serve the mentally ill and homeless of Los Angeles.

Reluctantly, Ayers begins spending time at Lamp, though he refuses to stay overnight. He plays his instruments in the courtyard but also exhibits some disruptive behaviors towards the other attendants. He still refuses treatment for his schizophrenia. Lopez is in contact with Ayers’s younger sister, Jennifer. She eventually flies out to Los Angeles and is made legally responsible for Ayers’s financial affairs. 

Lopez and Ayers attend concerts played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. One of the cellists, Pete Snyder, agrees to give Ayers lessons. Throughout Ayers’s journey towards recovery, he continues to experience ups and downs. He often becomes excited about an opportunity, then refuses to do it.

Towards the end of the book, Ayers begins staying in an apartment at the Ballington. He also begins using a music studio built for him at another LAMP location.