9/16/2023 0 Comments Review utopia avenue![]() It’s not just a star parade though, there’s real heart in the band’s ups and downs, and Mitchell achieves the near impossible by at least coming close to capturing music’s power - at concerts, at a cremation, even at U.S. A special mention must go to Francis Bacon, a man who really knows how to have a good time - was that Samuel Beckett in the casino? - and claims the book’s best line with “grief is the bill of love, fallen due”. ![]() Seasoned rock n' roll readers should also be able to pinpoint the real life heroes that Mitchell used as templates for his motley crew, and the author adds to the fun by having the likes of Bowie, Jagger, Lennon, a very deep Syd Barrett, Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, Sandy Denny, and a host of others interact with the band to drive the narrative along. The cause of his troubles – who or what is Knock, Knock? - may also come from somewhere else entirely, with his surname, for those who have spent time with Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, offering a clue. Jasper might prove the more fascinating character, depending on your familiarity with Mitchell's previous works, as he descends further and further into apparent schizophrenia. If the book has an individual hero, it's Dean who is morphed by experience from someone you wouldn’t trust to mind your bike to a man who displays both personal strength - in an Italian Jail - and a genuine concern for others - his abusive father (the bonfire will break every muso’s heart), a possible offspring, and his band mates. The last piece of the puzzle is folk singer/piano player Elf Holloway who's already had one of her songs turned into a hit, and had her Antipodean bastard of a boyfriend Bruce rip her off. Utopia Avenue is the first work I have read by veteran novelist David Mitchell, perhaps more well known for his Booker-nominated Cloud Atlas.It was on my radar for a few months before its release, having landing itself in my to-read pile due to its subject matter being somewhat close to the novel I’m currently working on. David Mitchell knew that he’d done his job well when a few book reviewers tentatively asked his publicist whether the eponymous 1960s rock band in his eighth novel, Utopia Avenue. Erstwhile manager Levon Frankland comes to his rescue and pulls some strokes in order to pair him up with laddish jazzy drummer Peter 'Griff' Griffin and space cadet guitarist Jasper de Zoet. Posted about my SAB listing a few weeks ago about not showing up in search only when you entered the exact name. When we first meet bass player Dean Moss, he's down on his luck he gets conned in the street, fired from his job, and kicked out of his digs all in the space of a few pages. Most, if not all, of the rock clichés in the book turn up in this book – good gigs, bad gigs, groupies, festivals, drugs, hassle from the man - but, rather than taking away from the reader's enjoyment, they offer a chance to get the cards out for a spot of rock n’ roll bingo. If, like me, you have read far more rock biographies than are good for you, or even the odd music magazine, then you will recognise, and may well predict, a lot of what transpires here as the band stumble through early blunders and work their way towards pop's golden dream. The man is usually more at home in the realm of the fantastical – he’s perhaps best known for the brilliantly brain pummelling Cloud Atlas, which is really only part of some class of uber novel involving recurring characters that he's been building since his first book, 1999's Ghostwritten, and he's currently co-writing the fourth instalment of The Matrix - but he carries off this chronicle of the late sixties adventures of the titular band, Utopia Avenue, with admirable aplomb. Capturing a time when youthful idealism collided with jaded reality, this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides, define an era and thrill the soul.The move from what could be called speculative fiction (isn’t all fiction speculative?) into imagined rock n’ roll biography might seem an odd step for Mitchell. This is the story of a unique band’s brief, blazing journey from Soho dives to chart success and on to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was giving way to something much darker – a tale of dreams, drugs, sexuality, madness and grief, and of fame’s pitfalls. ![]() ![]() Strangers to each other and from widely different backgrounds, together they create magic. The year is 1967 and word is spreading about a new band on London’s psychedelic scene – an unlikely combination of a female folksinger, a blues bassist, a jazz drummer and an electric guitarist. ‘ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANTLY INVENTIVE WRITERS OF THIS, OR ANY, COUNTRY’ IndependentĪ story of music and dreams, drugs and madness, love and grief, from the acclaimed author of Cloud Atlas ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |