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simsarah79's review against another edition
4.0
This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for 6 years. I picked it up and each time I was like.. not now. But unlike many other books that I say not now to I finally actually read this one. And boy did I need something that hasn't been pushed on instagram. Or a book club. Or in the GR feed or on amazon. This book has barely even been rated. I have this weird (wrong) assumption that books that don't have National Bestseller or NYTimes bestseller or blurbed by every other author are the only ones that are good.
But I'm also tired of reading what everyone else's reading so boy was I glad to read this and find that it's actually good.
The book is about a guy named Bud Bartlett. He's a musician but also a wicked junkie. He's been in and out of rehab, mostly because the record company needed him to be clean for a tour but he never really wanted to give up drugs because he's just way too into blurring out his life.
The book opens in the present- Bud is at a hotel 6 months sober and reading an old newspaper clipping of when his mother had committed suicide a number of years ago and Bud has no idea why. No one does. The hotel he's staying at is across the street from the hospital where his father is dying.
Bud needs to talk to his father, that much is apparent but we don't really find out why right way. Before that we get to see in different periods of Bud's life - all centered around his addictions- and his wrecked relationships - and also his childhood and his relationship with his *ashhole* father.
Each chapter is a different time in his life. It jumps around and seems hard to follow until you realize that's not about keeping track of where you are in his life because what you're witnessing is how a drugged out person would experience something- in fragments and probably out of order. It only adds to the story, it doesn't detract.
This is party autobiographical and the writing is stellar. And what's cool is that the author is in a real band called the urinals and he's in a fictional band called the Popular Mechanics and if you search for it you can actually listen to an album (very obscure) Rob recorded as Bud and the coolest part of that is that I think it's really good (maybe even better than The Urinals.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I got it all in spades. Dysfunction, vices, love, betrayal and some sexy scenes too.
But I'm also tired of reading what everyone else's reading so boy was I glad to read this and find that it's actually good.
The book is about a guy named Bud Bartlett. He's a musician but also a wicked junkie. He's been in and out of rehab, mostly because the record company needed him to be clean for a tour but he never really wanted to give up drugs because he's just way too into blurring out his life.
The book opens in the present- Bud is at a hotel 6 months sober and reading an old newspaper clipping of when his mother had committed suicide a number of years ago and Bud has no idea why. No one does. The hotel he's staying at is across the street from the hospital where his father is dying.
Bud needs to talk to his father, that much is apparent but we don't really find out why right way. Before that we get to see in different periods of Bud's life - all centered around his addictions- and his wrecked relationships - and also his childhood and his relationship with his *ashhole* father.
Each chapter is a different time in his life. It jumps around and seems hard to follow until you realize that's not about keeping track of where you are in his life because what you're witnessing is how a drugged out person would experience something- in fragments and probably out of order. It only adds to the story, it doesn't detract.
This is party autobiographical and the writing is stellar. And what's cool is that the author is in a real band called the urinals and he's in a fictional band called the Popular Mechanics and if you search for it you can actually listen to an album (very obscure) Rob recorded as Bud and the coolest part of that is that I think it's really good (maybe even better than The Urinals.
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I got it all in spades. Dysfunction, vices, love, betrayal and some sexy scenes too.
lizcowgill's review against another edition
3.0
Kind of hard to read at times. The ending is a complete flip out. Ultimately, I did like it.
luiscorrea's review
4.0
This is some good, crazy shit. Although some of the chapters seem a little out of place (I suspect that has something to do with Roberge having written some great short stories that he really wanted to fit into in a novel) and a few of sentences fall victim to a "writerly" turn of phrase, the novel packs an emotional punch. It's like a grittier, nuttier A Visit from the Goon Squad. Also, has some good music and sex writing, both of which are difficult to do well.
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