Part 1: Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 Summary

Body and Soul is Frank Conroy's novel about music prodigy, Claude Rawlings, and his rise to celebrity status as a musical artist from extremely humble beginnings in post-World War II New York City.

The novel begins with a description of the everyday life of six-year-old Claude Rawlings. Claude spends his days locked in a basement apartment in New York City while his mother, Emma, works as a cab driver during the day. Claude spends each day watching the parade of legs pass by the small window in the apartment and understands a vicarious rush that there is motion outside and that people are headed somewhere all the time.

Emma works fourteen-hour days and collapses in a chair when she comes home each night and orders little Claude to bring her quart of beer which she normally drinks in one...