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Eidus, Janice (Editor) It's Only Rock and Roll: An Anthology of Rock and Roll Short Stories
Boston David R. Godine Publisher November 1998 1-56792-089-6 / 9781567920895 Paperback Very Good
How different this anthology would be if it had been published in, say, 197 2, when rock and roll still had its messianic buzz. Twenty-five years later we have a book of 22 stories about rock in which not a single character ev en thinks about doing acid. If that makes you feel, well, old, welcome to t he overriding theme of the book. Jill McCorkle captures the mood here in th e wonderful "Final Vinyl Days" (also the title of her current collection fr om Algonquin), in which the narrator, a mid-30s male rock aficionado, exper iences both the phasing-out of real records and the parallel rejection (by a series of girlfriends) of his alternative, non-advancing lifestyle. In a similar vein, the 35-year-old father in Geoffrey Becker's "Bluestown" (from his novel of that name) removes his 15-year-old son from high school for a n unauthorized journey to Canada, ostensibly to share his last shot at a st eady gig but really in a hurtful effort to overcome his own sense of failur e. Then there is the mood of rueful mundaneness in Madison Smartt Bell's "N ever Mind," covering a day in the life of a "covers" band, whose members kn ow that it will never make the big time. Still, all is not resignation. Mor e upbeat tales include Kevin Downs's funny story of how an ex-punker came t o love that schlock classic, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven"; Harold Ja ffee's stream-of-consciousness post-gonzo rant "Madonna"; and Lucinda Ebers ole's throwaway, "Bigger Than Jesus," about a man who wakes up as a Beatle- -Ringo, of course.
Price:
700.00 JPY
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