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blevins's review against another edition
3.0
Novel about the drummer in a rock band from Canada called Okay and the book is okay. Sorry. Not a lot of depth to it and it meanders all over the place thanks to its lack of arc set-up but it is a fun read for music fans. I wish Litt wouldn't have given all the characters these absurd nicknames--Crab, Mono, Syph, Clap--as that was pretty annoying. Just use people's names rather than that silliness. Not sure why that bugged me so much. I also wish there would have been more scenes about making music--lots of girl talk and how rock musicians get a lot of female companionship. Really? Never heard that one before.
captainfez's review against another edition
5.0
This is the first of Toby Litt's books that I've read. It's pretty much ensured that it won't be the last.
The novel charts the course of a [fictitious] Canadian indie band called Okay (though it's lowercase italics, thanks) through the recollections of its drummer. (He's named after a sexually transmitted disease, as are all of the quartet.)
It's structured as a series of short stories, and they cover the gamut of band experiences: shitty venues, groupie-shagging, drugs, death, religion, booze, marriage, music and friendship.
While it's deceptively easy to read, and features a lot of namedropping (from Bono to Leonard Cohen, via Dylan and Anal Cunt), Litt's writing ensures that you never question the authorial voice. He's so tuned in (!) to what happens between bands, their fans and their families that I still have to remind myself that the narrator is a creation.
Litt's taken a tale about music and made it the vehicle for a story that's really about maturity - or coming to terms with the struggles that face one on the path to it. There's deep meaning - or the search for same - inside these tales of excess and 4/4 beats.
If you're a music nerd of any sort, then you MUST read this book. Must. Particularly if you're an Indie music nerd. Or Canadian.
The novel charts the course of a [fictitious] Canadian indie band called Okay (though it's lowercase italics, thanks) through the recollections of its drummer. (He's named after a sexually transmitted disease, as are all of the quartet.)
It's structured as a series of short stories, and they cover the gamut of band experiences: shitty venues, groupie-shagging, drugs, death, religion, booze, marriage, music and friendship.
While it's deceptively easy to read, and features a lot of namedropping (from Bono to Leonard Cohen, via Dylan and Anal Cunt), Litt's writing ensures that you never question the authorial voice. He's so tuned in (!) to what happens between bands, their fans and their families that I still have to remind myself that the narrator is a creation.
Litt's taken a tale about music and made it the vehicle for a story that's really about maturity - or coming to terms with the struggles that face one on the path to it. There's deep meaning - or the search for same - inside these tales of excess and 4/4 beats.
If you're a music nerd of any sort, then you MUST read this book. Must. Particularly if you're an Indie music nerd. Or Canadian.
whatkatyreads's review
3.0
Clap is the drummer in a band called okay. This book is full of short stories of the band while on tour, with family, relationships, births and deaths. I found it a bit slow at first and couldn't really see the point of the stories as I didn't know where they were going. But after a few more chapters I began to warm to the characters. The band are great. They're a proper rock band, each with a problem whether it be drugs or alcohol or both. I did find it hard to follow at times with it being short stories and it not seeming to be in a proper order and I found myself confused as to what was happening at times. Maybe that was the late night reading though!
I'd read another of Toby's books as I did enjoy this one. It wasn't a favourite but I'd probably pick it up again as a quick read.
I'd read another of Toby's books as I did enjoy this one. It wasn't a favourite but I'd probably pick it up again as a quick read.
opalthefruit's review
4.0
I liked that it wasn't your typical 'rock n roll memoir', there's the drugs, the women, the trips to rehab, the bad ideas, but mostly these were told by the narrator as they happened to the people around him, and I like that. I like that it was written from the perspective of the drummer, not the frontman, the star. There's bits that make you laugh, bits that make you want to cry a bit, but mostly it's relatively believable. A few of the stories were not so much in keeping with the other, and I'm not sure I was fond of these surreal snippets, but I really liked this, on the whole. It was nice, and I know nice isn't an adjective people like to use, but that's how I feel about it.
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