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A review by jgn
Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta
3.0
Roughly, the story is told by a sister about a brother who is one of those "lost" cult rock artists. In this case, her brother has not only been recording in obscurity, but he has created a personal mythology around his works, with his own archive of fake bands, fake reviews, fake interviews. It is very plausible, for good reason: Spiotta got the idea of the story from the creative (non-)career of her stepfather. It's good stuff. I enjoyed reading it.
Dana Spiotta is a great writer of words, but I'm afraid this has some writerly tricks to create closure where there isn't much.
So, without doing spoilers: A classic writer's trick to create a sense of closure / finish / "ending"by shifting the narrative in some way at the end. Spiotta does it twice. Toward the end she has her narrator revisit a relatively minor incident; and then at the end there's a time-shift. These are supposed to provide some "ahas" for the reader, or at least puzzles -- but I don't think she pulls it off.
I think the thematic continuities between the bulk of the story and the ending(s) are pretty weak, and that in some sense this novel is a bit of a placeholder in a distinguished career.
Having said that:
If you're interested in any of the following: the history of rock and its cult heroes; the 1970s and 80s; California; family relationships; menopause . . . read it.
Dana Spiotta is a great writer of words, but I'm afraid this has some writerly tricks to create closure where there isn't much.
So, without doing spoilers: A classic writer's trick to create a sense of closure / finish / "ending"by shifting the narrative in some way at the end. Spiotta does it twice. Toward the end she has her narrator revisit a relatively minor incident; and then at the end there's a time-shift. These are supposed to provide some "ahas" for the reader, or at least puzzles -- but I don't think she pulls it off.
I think the thematic continuities between the bulk of the story and the ending(s) are pretty weak, and that in some sense this novel is a bit of a placeholder in a distinguished career.
Having said that:
If you're interested in any of the following: the history of rock and its cult heroes; the 1970s and 80s; California; family relationships; menopause . . . read it.