Michael Pelusi
Not all of the accompanying text worked for me, but the photos are all wonderful – lonely urban noir, my favorite kind of images.
Significantly different from the movie, and not as good. There was something a bit vacant about the personality of the protagonist, Charlie Arglist – the film fleshes it out much more, among other things.
Among other things, this has some great lessons and rules of thumb for writers – and not just screenwriters.
Extremely well-researched and wide-ranging. So wide-ranging, in fact, that sometimes all the pieces don't quite fit together. But Young has populated this book with compelling figures – like Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, and John Martyn – and chronicles a plethora must-hear albums (including more than a few that I still need to hear). So the strengths of this book way outweigh the flaws.
So maybe the world doesn't need any more Beatles books, but this is a keeper, one that puts all the ass-kissing bios to shame. It comes close to fully clarifying the morass of legal issues that has engulfed the band for decades now. While filled with its share of dirt, the book is a credible work of music journalism, and the band members (and other major players) are portrayed sympathetically, as human beings, rather than saints or degenerates.
I get why people are loving this. The structure is very impressive, and Egan writes very well about dashed dreams and the like. And yet, it didn't always hang together for me. Despite the connections between all the characters, sometimes this just read like a bunch of short stories.
I reviewed this book for the Philadelphia City Paper. Scroll down a bit here: http://citypaper.net/articles/2009/10/15/nonfiction-reviews
I'm a Nick Cave fan, but I think I prefer his OTT wordsmithery when it's accompanied by The Bad Seeds' sonic whup-ass.
The third Kenzie and Gennaro book is less preachy than the first two, and keeps the focus primarily on plot and characters. But there are still goofily pure-evil villains, a few too many plot twists and an over-the-top climax. I'm never gonna fully get into this series, but I still have every intention of finishing it.
Improbable as it seems, I first read this when I was around 16. I really wanted to develop a “darkly humorous” sensibility back then, and I determined that reading authors like Martin Amis was part of the whole deal. Anyway, this did not hold up very well.
Sure, why not? Completely works as both pure noir and a modern-day recontextualisation of the same. And it sticks the landing, and sometimes even otherwise-great detective novels can't quite manage that.
I probably could have done without the “prologue” chapters taking place nine years before the main bulk of the novel. However, the plot, action, perspectives etc. are handled so deftly, particularly during the second half of the book, this became one of my favorite Pelecanos novels.
Clearly I am not as bowled over by this one as a lot of people. Would've been better as a novella or short story maybe.
Probably should be three-and-a-half stars, on the strength of A German Requiem and about half of The Pale Criminal.
Let's all make Kelly Link the most acclaimed and adored short story writer of our age, ok?
This was one of my favorite books during my childhood, and I wanted to re-read it to see if it had influenced me in some subtle way. There's definitely a liberal, urban-friendly undercurrent that might have seeped into my brain. I'd even suggest that urban bikers and biking advocates ought to read this, even if actual bikes hardly ever appear in the book.
Kinda feel like behind-the-curve guy here, but I'd recommend this book to just about anyone, particularly people who are interested in The Beach Boys, nostalgia, radicalism, thwarted idealism, America in the last 40 years, and the ability (or inability) to reinvent your life.
Ray writes wonderfully about his experiences in New Orleans, including when a mugger shot him there in 2004. He also flashes back frequently to moments from his career with the Kinks. While I am usually eager to devour any information about the band – even during their slow decline in the '80s and '90s – he frequently overdoes it here with too much minutia regarding record label hierarchy and business managers.