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j2fs 's review for:
Master of Reality
by John Darnielle
As it does often in his songs as the Mountain Goats, empathy just flows off from John Darnielle's words in waves. What he accomplishes here is quite impressive technically: he creates a plausible voice for the sort of sad, misfit teen whose frustrated parents end up knowing nothing else to do with him but send him to a mental institution - but while that voice seems genuine, in its broad-brush strokes and teenage exaggeration, it's also clear that Roger Painter, his narrator, is in some ways an exceptional and perceptive person. It's there in some of Roger's descriptions of the way Black Sabbath makes him feel: he'll dig into the music or the sound or impressions Ozzy Osbourne gives him, or he'll come up with an astonishingly apt yet plainspoken phrase - yet Darnielle never overplays his hand here: Roger isn't some genius, just a pretty smart kid whose circumstances have never let him find a real way to express it, or even to know it.
The other technically impressive feat Darnielle accomplishes here is creating a second voice: Roger, the same narrator, but ten years older, barely hanging on as a restaurant manager, living in a crappy building after having broken up with his girlfriend. Even though ten years of maturing, and a bit more education, differentiate the voice of older Roger from younger Roger, it is quite clearly the same person speaking to us.
The two halves of the book, then, consist entirely of diary entries and letters ostensibly addressed to Gary, the social worker in charge of Roger at the institution he's confined to as a teen (the older Roger finds a box of his old stuff and decides to write to Gary).
Darnielle is brilliant at demonstrating how important music can be, especially to a fucked-up teen who sees no future at all, and how music that seems to be all darkness and negativity can feel, to such a person, like the only thing that makes any sense in the world. (He also correctly points out that a lot of Black Sabbath lyrics are actually as strictly moral-minded as any of the unwitting social critics, who'd ban such music given half a chance, could hope for.) Darnielle also allows just enough air in so that we can, at times, see the absurdity of some of Roger's ideas - but we're never laughing AT Roger so much as, perhaps, offering a glimpse of recognition at our own teen foibles.
More than anything, Darnielle shows how much music can mean to teens - and how wrongheaded attempts to keep teens from this music can be, especially deeply troubled teens. Darnielle implies that the infamous media frenzy over "heavy metal suicides" was woefully misdirected: far from causing suicides or suicide attempts, the way dark, heavy music speaks to such teens was probably the last thing keeping them from killing themselves.
Along with the character-based novella, Darnielle also neatly tucks the more typical brief of a 33 1/3 book: through Roger's attempts to explain to Gary why 'Master of Reality' means so much to him, Darnielle provides descriptions of each of the album's songs.
But you absolutely do not need to be familiar with, or even interested in, the Black Sabbath album in order for this book to be powerfully moving. You only need to be willing to open your heart and recognize - or remember - just how desperately important it is for teens (and not just teens) to grab hold of something that helps them make sense of a world that seem hostile, chaotic, and utterly inhospitable.
The other technically impressive feat Darnielle accomplishes here is creating a second voice: Roger, the same narrator, but ten years older, barely hanging on as a restaurant manager, living in a crappy building after having broken up with his girlfriend. Even though ten years of maturing, and a bit more education, differentiate the voice of older Roger from younger Roger, it is quite clearly the same person speaking to us.
The two halves of the book, then, consist entirely of diary entries and letters ostensibly addressed to Gary, the social worker in charge of Roger at the institution he's confined to as a teen (the older Roger finds a box of his old stuff and decides to write to Gary).
Darnielle is brilliant at demonstrating how important music can be, especially to a fucked-up teen who sees no future at all, and how music that seems to be all darkness and negativity can feel, to such a person, like the only thing that makes any sense in the world. (He also correctly points out that a lot of Black Sabbath lyrics are actually as strictly moral-minded as any of the unwitting social critics, who'd ban such music given half a chance, could hope for.) Darnielle also allows just enough air in so that we can, at times, see the absurdity of some of Roger's ideas - but we're never laughing AT Roger so much as, perhaps, offering a glimpse of recognition at our own teen foibles.
More than anything, Darnielle shows how much music can mean to teens - and how wrongheaded attempts to keep teens from this music can be, especially deeply troubled teens. Darnielle implies that the infamous media frenzy over "heavy metal suicides" was woefully misdirected: far from causing suicides or suicide attempts, the way dark, heavy music speaks to such teens was probably the last thing keeping them from killing themselves.
Along with the character-based novella, Darnielle also neatly tucks the more typical brief of a 33 1/3 book: through Roger's attempts to explain to Gary why 'Master of Reality' means so much to him, Darnielle provides descriptions of each of the album's songs.
But you absolutely do not need to be familiar with, or even interested in, the Black Sabbath album in order for this book to be powerfully moving. You only need to be willing to open your heart and recognize - or remember - just how desperately important it is for teens (and not just teens) to grab hold of something that helps them make sense of a world that seem hostile, chaotic, and utterly inhospitable.