Bob, all true, and I shouldn't make light of it.
While we're on the subject of books with this title, I'd like to put a plug in for Mark Salzman's (earlier) book The Soloist--a beautiful, sad, funny, understated novel about a former child prodigy trying to come to terms with his own mediocrity. It really hit me hard. (I wasn't a child prodigy, but as a mediocrity I could relate.)