With A View from the Side, musician Michael Visceglia attempts to give the reader a window in which to view the lives, aspirations, adventures and misadventures, phenomenal successes and tragic failures of some of the leading practitioners of an art that he is intimately familiar with: playing the bass. Through stories of his own experiences, along with the interviews and profiles of his influential peers, Visceglia provides a compelling look at the nature of the pursuit of the artistic life.