Not Fade Away

by Jim Dodge

A road trip novel from the author of Fup that “reads like Kerouac’s On the Road as it might have been written by Hunter S. Thompson” (The Plain Dealer).   George Gastin is a Bay Area tow-truck operator who wrecks cars as part of an insurance scam. One of the cars he is hired to demolish is a snow-white Cadillac that was supposed to be a present for the Big Bopper, who died in the Iowa plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. Gastin has a change of heart and takes off in the car, heading for Texas where the Bopper is buried. Armed with a thousand hits of Benzedrine and chased by adversaries real and imagined, Gastin navigates a road trip that covers many miles and states of mind.   Traveling in time from the Beat era to the dawn of the sixties, from the coffeehouses of North Beach to the open plains of America, Gastin picks up some extraordinary the self-proclaimed “world’s greatest salesman,” the Reverend Double-Gone Johnson, and a battered housewife with a box of old 45s. As the miles and sleepless hours roll by, Gastin’s trip becomes a blur of fantasy and reality fueled by a soundtrack of classic rock ‘n’ roll.   “His surreal voyage into the chaos of night carries him into the heart of America’s darkest psychological landscapes. Not Fade Away shakes, rattles, and rolls.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Genres: Fiction, American, Literature, Contemporary, The United States Of America, United States, Novels

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Jim Dodge is an American novelist and poet whose works combine themes of folklore and fantasy, set in a timeless present. He has published three novels, Fup, Not Fade Away and Stone Junction and a collection of poetry and prose, Rain on the River. Dodge was born in 1945 and grew up as an Air Force brat. As an adult he spent many years living on an almost self-sufficient commune in West Sonoma County, California. He has had many jobs including apple picker, a carpet layer, a teacher, a professional gambler, a shepherd, a woodcutter and an environmental restorer. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing/Poetry from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1969. He has been the director of the Creative Writing program in the English Department at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California since 1995. He lives in Manila, California with his wife and son. (from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[El Biblionauta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soy un tipo con suerte. Si mujer ve un objeto que le hace pensar en mí, me lo regala. Sí, lo sé. Doy envidia. Gracias a este hábito disfruto de una réplica de un coche Bond en miniatura, de una Estrella de la Muerte que es una lámpara de mesita de noche, de figuras del Doc. Doom o de una Telecaster roja. Sí, ya. Rabia y envidia de la fea.

Ella sabe que Jim Dodge es uno de mis escritores favoritos. Por eso el otro día Marta llegó a casa con una media sonrisa de pícara, de madre de familia la mañana del Día de Reyes. Llevaba un paquetito en el que había un libro con un título que yo no había leído de este escritor yankee. ¿Una nueva novela de Jim Dodge? Me dieron palpitaciones, porque Dodge ha dejado de escribir y ha asegurado que no publicará nada más.

Puedes leer la reseña completa en español en http://elbiblionauta.com/es/2017/04/0...
Pots llegir la ressenya sencera en català a http://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2017/04/0...

[Israel Montoya Baquero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delirante road movie, donde se nos cuentan las peripecias de un bueno para nada que, en un arranque de delirio depresivo, alcohólico, y anfetamínico decide recorrer parte de los Estados Unidos para hacer entrega de un coche a un músico de rock muerto.
El caso es que hasta la mitad, más o menos, el libro es divertido, en base al delirante comportamiento del protagonista y, sobre todo, a los estafalarios personajes que va encontrando a lo largo de su viaje.
Pero, lamentablemente, eso no es suficiente para mantener más de 400 páginas de novela, y al chorropocientos encuentro, desventura y delirio paranoide todo empieza a ser más que repetitivo.
Una lástima, ya que, y eso hay que reconocerlo, el libro tiene algunos momentos realmente notables.

[Bob Malone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goddammit I love this book! From the moment I discovered it in a bookstore in Boston in the late 80s, and bought it just ‘cuz I liked the cover, it has traveled with me from apartment to apartment to condo; from state to state, and city to city. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read my tattered mess of an copy. In all those years I only met one other person who had read this book and loved the tale of George “the Ghost” Gaston and Rock & Roll redemption as much as me. I married her.

[Max Nemtsov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Не спрашивайте, почему я дочитал его только сейчас. Время пришло.

Первый из двух крупных романов великого пост-битника и около-хиппи, одного из немногих еще живых мудрецов современной мировой литературы (да, это честь — жить на одной планете и в одно время с Джимом Доджем) — скорее исторически-культурологический, нежели «сигнально-опорный». Он примерно идеален — рок-н-ролльно-наркотический роман дороги, основанный на мифологии середины ХХ века, что нужно еще? Додж увязывает в одном повествовании (линейном, как дорога, — но и таком же причудливым, как поездка Призрака, со вставными новеллами и обрамляющей это путешествие историей, которая несколько обманка, хотя призвана быть реальнее некуда в этом пространстве) «эпоху битников» с концом 60-х (при том, что основное действие происходит в 1965-м) и всеми вытекающими. Распад «бит-поколения», к которому автор сам опоздал родиться, показан как бы изнутри, но с нужной долей отстранения, чтобы не тонуть в мелких деталях. Керуак здесь — набор клише и имя, которое может взять себе буквально кто угодно, а Кэссади и вообще обратился в миф. Хиппи только начинают бродить (не в смысле перемещений — перемещаются они только по Хэйт-Эшбери; в этом смысле присовокупленный блёрб «Гардиана» — очень смешной: «“Беспечный Ездок”, только без хипья»). Но пунктиром прочерчены все основные силовые линии, намечены основные (и важные) притяжения идей и, гм, культурологем.

Но и это, как мы понимаем не главное. Хорошие романы дороги — это наглядные развертки романов взросления и поисков а) себя, б) свободы в себе (а плохие трогать мы не будем) — ну и то, конечно, что мы сами в них вчитываем. Душа, транценденция, человек в мире, любовь — все это там есть. Он грушевиден, в нем вообще есть почти все. Хотелось бы, чтобы у романа на русском сложилась и дальнейшая судьба.

[Piesito · Rating 5 out of 5]

JIM DODGE entra en el cículo de culto formado por Vonnegut y compañía. Uno de los mejores libros que he leído en mi vida. UNA LOCURA, pero de las buenas, llena de vida, emotiva, excitante. El final es un WTF, pero cuando termina sólo quiero reirme, reirme mucho, de esa risa cuando para colmo algo te sale mal y dices "pss que hago me mato? pues me río" y te lo pasas bien, porque bah qué más da. Una jugarreta de los Dioses.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not Fade Away by Jim Dodge (www.canongate.net)
Several years ago I read Jim Dodge's Stone
Junction after my old friend Gurbs had recommended
it and loved every word of it which is why it's
strange that it took me so long to getting round
to getting Jims other books, well this xmas just
gone Santa delivered them to me.
Damn Not Fade Away is a great read and like the
books narrator Floorboard George it is soaked in
Benzedrine and flashes by at great speed so you
feel like your gobbling down the bennies as
quickly as the story unfolds.
The basic core of it is a guy totals his car and
is picked up in the tow truck of the mysterious
Floorboard George who tells him the story of how
he once tried to deliver a present to the big
Bopper, from one if his biggest fans. of course
the Big Bopper was already dead as was the woman
who wanted to gift him a 59 Cadillac. But if
you've been hanging out in the San Francisco North
Shore poetry scene digging the beats up close this
sort of mission makes sense and we follow along on
a roadtrip of Kerouac style proportions as he
meets all sorts along the way including the great
double gone Johnson.
Does he deliver the car and if so where to and why
is the core of this tale and how he got to drive
the car in the first place a great rip roaring
ride with an old school rock and roll soundtrack
that make this book more than worth finding. I now
look forward to reading the other Jim Dodge book I
have in the pile and trying not to want to take
drugs at the rate Floorboard George does while
driving his way into the legends of great road
books.

[Pistol Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another extremely fun book. It's just so entertaining. Much like Richard Farina's "Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me." Like Farina's book, I really believe it's best appreciated by 16-23 year olds, who possess a restless curiosity and penchant for playful mischief making. It's also a great read for those that enjoy a good bit of nostalgia every now and again. I read it years ago, but it's easy for me to remember how much I enjoyed this lively little read. I can still remember being 18, on my own, hitchhiking across the country with a pile of books in my rucksack. To this day I'm glad Dodge's "Not Fade Away" was one of those ragged paperbacks, because it was such an easy story to relate to at the time. Hey, there's that nostalgia again. I guess it's time to dig out that old paperback so I can read it again!

[Bouman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jim Dodge se hace valer de referencias populares y musicales, y sobre un hecho verídico, para narrar la radiografía de una época rica en sueños, drogas y personalidades auténticas. No se desvanece muestra la introspección de George en un momento en que ser sincero consigo mismo es incluso más importante que cumplir con sus obligaciones. Sin llegar a la meticulosidad de Stone Junction tenemos una novela llena de detalles que ...more

[Tlingit · Rating 2 out of 5]

*******************Spoiler*****************

It was alright but at the end of the book I asked myself why I'd read it. Sometimes the author had writer's diarrhea. I guess he was trying to get across a point to the reader to help with the story. Many of these times I heaved a mental sigh of boredom and wondered when it would be over. In the end I didn't get the point of the book. Why write about a road trip like this? Who cares? I didn't care when I began and it didn't change by the end of the book.
It wasn't a horrible book though. It did catch some of my attention but that was because of some of the small details like the Big Bopper et. al. I wanted to see how much they were involved and if the old woman had left just more than a stinky letter and an old car. No the book was about this "Phantom tow truck driver" (see the end, that little detail didn't come out to much either,) who thought an awful lot about himself.
All of the characters were throw aways. I learned nothing about any of them beyond their little cameos in the story. This story was akin to a fart in the wind: vaguely interesting when you hear it but gone before there is any punch line or interesting details revealed.
At least it wasn't a romance.

[Blair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hellloooo Bayyy-bee! Being a rabid fan of Dodge's "Stone Junction" I was eager to slip my mind into another one of his works. This book is a wild romp along the highways of the U.S. of A., set in an era where music along with the country it inspired were still trying to figure things out. We are given another memorable character in George Gastin with whom the book rollicks along with at a feverish pace. The novel is a speed-fueled, beer guzzling, pursuit for the truth behind love, friendship and rock music. The quest takes the form of George deciding to deliver a 59' Cadillac El Dorado destined to be destroyed for insurance money to the final resting place of the Big Bopper for whom it was intended. The Caddy was a gift from a wealthy old spinster rocked out of her socks by the (then) lurid sounds of "Chantilly Lace. George meets some odd characters along the way. Each of them share some sad stories, crazy situations and sometimes deeply philosophical theories out on the highways and by-ways. This book is a loving tribute to a time and place in America's past and three of the most disappointing losses to rock 'n' roll. Great book.

[Rebecca eley · Rating 5 out of 5]

More jim dodge. Love this too and I didn't expect the end. It's like road trip with a twist. It spoiled on the road for me couldn't even finish it all seemed a bit dull. Even more randomness than hunter s thompson

[McCutcheon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed most of the novel very much except when it went into a sorta hippie hallucination side track that is prevalent to certain US writers of a certain age ( and drug intake.)

[wally · Rating 5 out of 5]

3rd from dodge for me...all recent...the other two his Stone Junction and Fup...don't recall the stone junction pub-date...but i think fup is from 1983...yep, from when dodge was 38

this one, 1987 and there's a...8-line dedication...mom, brother bob, a whole slew of people...slew? seems to fit.

followed by an acknowledgments page...another big long list of folk...not enough he'd need to buy obama-insurance...but almost

the title
i take it the title comes from a buddy holly tune..."not fade away" that the rolling stones must have also recorded.

a quote: "...music, sweet music..."
--martha and the vandellas, "dancing in the street"

a prologue...w/another quote
"to the understanding of such days and events this additional narrative becomes necessary, like a real figure to walk beside a ghost."
--haniel long, interlinear to cabeza de vaca

which begins:
the day didn't begin well. i woke up at first light with a throbbing brain-core headache, fever and chills, dull pains in all bodily tissues, gagging flashes of nausea, a taste in my mouth like i'd eaten a pound of potato bugs, aching eye sockets, and a general feeling of basic despair.

hmmmm, okee-dokee, then...could say better him than me...if you didn't want to despair your own self...(i'm thinking of the tender-hearted here, those who allow a story to get them down)

heh! there's a quote about 4-pages in that ought to do it:
you're a mess now, but you'll be laughing about it in fifty years.

update at the page-77 mark, 25 jan 13
yeah so the prologue is told eye-narrator p.o.v. doesn't say, as yet, who that eye-narrator is...but he has trouble making a meeting at the kozy korner kitchen in monte rio w/jack strauss from napa. this eye-narrator lives deep in the coastal hills of sonoma county and after crashing his '66 ford pickup, george gastin--who spoke the words above--stops and lends him a hand, tow-truck driver...and it is george who tells the eye-narrator about his pilgrimage and that begins:

part one: floorboard george: coast to coast & gone again
w/this quote: "it is good to know that glasses are to drink from. the bad thing is not knowing what thirst is for."
--antonio machado

and this section begins:
i'm glad you want to hear about my pilgrimage, but i should warn you it's a real ear-bender. threw me at first, not paying attention, that shift in eye-narrators, so you can thank me later or not at all.

another update
yeah and so this here part one is george telling the other eye-narrator about the pilgrimage, details of his life prior to starting that event...

and then there's this thing called a mesologue...which is greek i think and i'm not going to look it up as i doubt i'll ever have opportunity to use the word. but this part here is back to the original eye-narrator, (still unnamed) george delivering him to the place they were going w/the '66 ford pickup attached to the tow...george squares him away in a cabin, fires up the cabin's fireplace, and sets down to begin the second part of the telling:

part two: doo-wop to the bopper's grave

part three: the pilgrim ghost

epilogue
that delivers us back to the original eye-narrator, george's telling over with...we never do learn who this original eye-narrator is...maybe jim dodge maybe not and i don't guess it matters much.

update, finished, 27 jan 13, sunday morning, 6:53 a.m. e.s.t.
yep...great story...a kind of journey...there's a line spoken by this 97-yr-old woman in the telling...there in iowa, gladys norgardam..."if you want to discuss philosophy...i suggest you try the university--they've made an institution out of mistaking the map for the journey." yeah...and so every story is a kind of journey and this one is worth taking.

what else?...ummm, well once upon a time i took up space in a room w/others...reading the major statements, those who have tried to tell us what art should do be accomplish...all the big heads, those long-dead holy guys of art...aristotle, plato...some other greek guy...on through the ages...pope, dryden...sydney...james...others i can't think of at the moment...he of the "willing suspension of disbelief" fame...the other of the "touchstone" moment...

...and...so anyway, there's things that george does in the telling that aren't something one should try at home. the insurance scam the biggie, i guess....and why should i feel the need to apologize for thinking that wrong? have we lost our touchstone? have we ever had one? or maybe it's today, this moment...the snow falling and piling up outside...the temp on the rise, hallelujah--it's been hovering around the zero-degree mark on the f-scale.


time place scene setting(s)
*deep in the coastal hills of coastal sonoma, eye-narrator's home
*his '66 ford pickup
*kozy korner kitchen in monte rio...where the meeting was to be
*the chuckston's place
*itchman's garage in guerneville...or bailey's
*tow-truck..."the ghost" on the door
*anchor bay to albion
*seaview
*redding...where roger armature built george's truck to spec
*tolan flat
*october of '56, george went to san francisco at eighteen years old
*his apt above an italian bakery, north beach/san francisco
*cravetti's shop/garage
*san francisco street names: broadway, mission, folsom, lombard
*jackson cafe
*gino & carlo's
*p. 26...george is almost 21
*february 1, 1959, 2 days before 21st birthday of george
*1st car, a merc parked just off folsom
*hwy 1 up above jenner (russian river) north on 101, 116 thru sebastopol to guerneville
*lombard street shell station pay phone
*the bay bridge...oakland...580...past san leandro....99/bakersfield, 58/barstow....247/yucca valley...62 to i-10...modesto/95
*fresno library
*bakersfield, a texaco station
*barstow, a gas-n-go ($8 to fill up a cadillac eldorado...yeeesh!)
*a drive-in joint down the road
*bradley's burger pit, barstow
*indio for gas...to arizona border
*a long stretch of empty hwy about 5 miles out of quartzite, arizona
*trailer in quartzite, arizona



characters & other things
*eye-narrator of the prologue, the mesologue, & the epilogue
*jack strauss from napa
*eye-narrator of the telling, george gastin, born & raised near miami, florida, only boy of three children, the youngest. oct of '56 moves to san francisco at 18, just shy of 20 gets a job after some years of truck driving...job at cravetti's garage.
*his father, a trucker, took the boy w/him, harry his name
*his mother...not named as yet
*johnny strafe/pardoo brothers, tow truck competition
*cops...older sergeant
*bill frobisher, tow-truck competition
*'54-'55, north beach is the happening place/beats
*snyder, ginsberg, whalen, corso, kerouac, cassady
*john seasons, a poet friend, gay, hallelujah & amen...should we assume he is white? it doesn't say, one way or another...his poetry, a true attempt to forge the real by creating facsimiles of the fraudulently real
*big red loco, a mulatto cat (see?) w/rusty red hair, can play the sax like no other, verily
*lou jones--loose lou
*freddie cravetti, old man cravetti's son & swing-shift garage manager
*scumball johnson...wreck a car and walk away w/$400
*"mercury falling"...tune by big red
*a woman sitting alone at a corner table
*a black bass player named bottom
*katherine celeste jonasrad, 19-yr-old, takes off her clothes, walks out
*her father, the largest medical supply company in pennsylvania
*her mother, a frustrated novelist
*buddy holly, ritchie valens, & the big bopper, jiles perry richardson, from sabine pass, texas, mouth of the red river on border w/louisiana
*a trooper...ticket
*matt stoker/advice
*a gas station attendant...a tall sharp-boned librarian
*bobby, the relief for the attendant, a chubby red-haired kid
*mr hoffer, owner of the station
*natalie hurley (and her man)...322 bryant street
*allen pound..."lsd" opine
*w/a psychiatrist in berkeley
*a tiny orange man maybe 3" tall, naked, puzzle piece
*donna walsh, a figure walking east on the shoulder
*her two boys, allard 7 and danny 6, warren husband, air force germany
*the uncle's trailer in quartzite, arizona


a sentence i like
he was obviously lost in something, but, though i hated to interrupt, it didn't seem wise to hang around appreciating the sonic clarity of a new mercury meeting ancient stone in the middle of a felony.

[Lucas Sierra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Estática en el surco de la eternidad (Comentario, 2025)

Hay ideales que embriagan. La libertad quizás sea el más fuerte. El camino y el delirio, el horizonte abierto, la vida como un viaje infatigable. Y esa búsqueda de éxtasis en los días, y el arrebato total del vértigo. "No se desvanece" es una novela que celebra eso, que le hace loa sin desconocer su absurdo, que se sumerge en el despilfarro sabiendo que sólo allí, en esas aguas germinales, vale la pena ahogarse.

En términos estructurales estamos ante un narrador poco fiable hermosamente presentado. Una historia A: la del vendedor de madera que se vara al borde del camino una madrugada lluviosa; contiene una historia B: la del Fantasma, dueño de la grúa que lo rescata de su accidente y que le narra, en los límites de la fiebre, su vida como conductor experimentado de todo tipo de vehículos. Sabremos al final que sobre su figura hay versiones tan diversas como contradictorias, y que nadie sabe, ni es posible saber, cuál de ellas es la verdadera.

Y no importa. Su narración tiene en el centro el vértigo de vivir, el correr al encuentro de las aventuras, de las últimas palabras gritadas por los poetas beat en la cima de un monte, del silencio que hace del jazz una música mística, de la desnudez que resplandece de sensualidad en las calles de una ciudad congestionada. Inventar, fabular, es otra forma de vivir, y no es menos quien crea para sí vidas disparatadas que quien efectivamente las vive.

Esa certeza es parte de la prosa de Dodge, que consigue en ambos narradores (el de A y el de B) diferenciar los tonos pero hermanar los sentidos profundos: somos seres en búsqueda, nos dice, en búsqueda de una pureza que nos redima de la soledad, de la infamia, de la mugre cotidiana que está atravesada en mezquinas supervivencias, en torpes glorias monetarias, en cadenas relucientes.

Esta es mi segunda novela de Dodge, y creo que su preocupación es esa: la libertad, el mito de la libertad, la pregunta por la libertad. Lo hace bien. Leyéndolo fui libre, y desquiciado. Quedan tentadas, quedan advertidos.

[stevekeiretsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fairly sure I read this 15-20 years ago, but remembered very little of it. Perhaps just a general sense of an offbeat, Americana, road-trip, drugs and rock'n'roll type of book.

Upon a re-read I encountered a completely different dimension to the book which I either hadn't previously noticed, or had somehow forgotten about. Either one would seem surprising to me because the impact of this aspect toward the end of the book, during this second reading, was so huge in making me re-consider the framing and meaning of the entire novel - how could I possibly have missed it or forgotten!?

But judging by a skim of the reviews here, with critical talk of it going off into a 'random blather' of 'hippie hallucination stuff' towards the end, and zero discussion of this interpretation even in spoiler tags - I wasn't alone in missing this interpretation on my first reading. In fact, it seems like I may be alone in percieving it! But let's put it out there...

There is little further I can say without major spoilers. Essentially, we know George is something of an unreliable narrator because he is increasingly drug-addled, but he seems like a self-aware-ly reliable unreliable narrator, because he at least notices and tells us how high or drunk or tired he is getting. But towards the end, the book increasingly suggests he is a whole different level of unreliable narrator. Specifically, that at some point, though he hasn't realised or accepted it yet, George has died, or is perhaps in the very process of dying.

He hears his poet friend, dying/comatose in a hospital, on the radio, and speaks to his ex-girlfriend who tells him she (too) has died in an accident. He is increasingly speaking (only) to the dead - including, indeed, to his own ghost - and encountering a rapid succession of intense sensory and emotional flashbacks (the train sound, the sax improv, Kacy, etc) - all suggesting that somewhere along this reckless, drug, drink and speed-heavy journey he has crashed and died and we are living out his final, hallucinatory, life-flashing-before-his-eyes moments, and perhaps his first moments beyond...

In other words this increasingly detatched-from-reality story, with its increasing communication with dead/dying characters, is not just a descent into drug-induced madness, but the story of him crossing over after death. This is the ultimate 'transformative' road-trip. Every road-trip tale is about the character facing up to some challenge, some step they need to take, some lesson they need to learn - and in this one the step George has to take is, quite literally, the ultimate one in life. The last one, into death / the afterlife.

But then, of course, you start wondering - when exactly did he die? Is it only at the end, around the time he tunes into Captain Midnight, but the rest of the road trip actually happened? This is the point where Dodge's narrative style most clearly implies George having a total break from reality, but it could have been much earlier. For all we know, perhaps almost the entire Bopper road trip occurs only in the natural DMT trip of George's death having wrecked the Caddy soon after picking it up? That might explain why his hitch-hiking companions like Double-Gone are so surreal. Or perhaps even earlier - in fact, perhaps George never existed, and exists only in the DMT trip of our original narrator's death instead, because, well...

Perhaps even more crucially, this interpretation also forces us to completely re-evaluate the narrator of the intro, mesologue and epilogue as well. If George died on his caddy road trip, then he cannot actually be a helpful old tow-truck driver rescuing a man who was lucky to survive a car accident, and even comes with a bonus colourful story to tell. He is rather some kind of fresh version of the Grim Reaper archetype, anthromophised to suit the 20th century, automobile-loving, Americana, road-trip storytelling that this book embodies.

And therefore our narrator did not survive his crash, and was not taken by George to a nice motel to recuperate with a cup of the homely owner's "cure all" soup. Our narrator is dead. When he wrapped himself around a tree in the first couple of pages it was fatal, and the reason the help he encounters from both George and don't-worry-about-paying, enjoy-the-magic-soup Dorie is so fantastic (in both senses: very welcome and luridly reality-bending) is because he is in the afterlife now, and they are personifications of the help he encounters in travelling/arriving there. Again - the ultimate road-trip story.

In a way, this whole "twist" really blew my mind and made me reconsider the entire narrative in all sorts of funs ways, so that was great, and makes me twitch towards a five star rating. But in a way, I also felt it wasn't handled brilliantly, I didn't like that the book almost tells us outright that George is a ghost, while apparently denying outright that the narrator has reached a similar end. For both, I wish things had been left slightly more ambiguous - just a matter of a few words and sentences.

Anyway, maybe some people will think that entire theory is a load of nonsense, reading too much into it, but I definitely felt there was an intended dimension here beyond simply a stream-of-consciousness ramble of drug-addled random hippie stuff.

[Julien L · Rating 4 out of 5]

weird, post-beatnik, post-60s (published in 87) psychedelic love-letter to rock 'n' roll, road trips, and strange characters we meet in life. Great characters thrown in amongst heady philosophizing. Book peters out towards the end when it starts devolving into incoherency but rest of the novel is tightly wound and enjoyable as hell. Jim Dodge is a treasure.

[Book_Worm_Jim.83 · Rating 2 out of 5]

George Gastin is the main character in Not Fade Away. George runs a tow truck in San Francisco and occasionally does jobs for some unsavoury people, wrecking cars and making them disappear for insurance frauds. He takes on a job but this job is like no other, it’s a job to get rid of a brand-new Cadillac Eldorado, the car was bought by an eccentric old lady and was to be a gift to the Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson Jr), who died on February 3 in the plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens before the fan could eccentric old lady could pass the Cadillac Eldorado him.

The eccentric old lady passes away and the heir to her estate wants the car to disappear and cash in on the insurance. Georges has a habit; he pops Benzedrine as if they were smarties and we also like a good drink with them. He starts driving and, in his drug, infused state of mind he decides that the car should be given to The Big Bopper and not wrecked. George has some clothes, some cash as the job he is on is paid half before and half on completion of the job, and massive bag of Benzedrine.

George decides to drive to Texas where the Big Bopper is said to be buried, so the reader is taken on a road trip from San Francisco to Iowa. Early in the trip, he meets Donna, a mother with young kids who struggles to stay afloat and is married to a useless husband. She married young, didn’t really know what she was getting into and is now struggling with motherhood, trapped in a life on a trailer park in a small town.

She has a collection of old records from the 1950’s and George wants to help Donna out financially, so he decides to buy them from her. The 1950’s songs become the soundtrack to this epic road trip. Donna is the first-person George meets on his road trip, but she is not the first. He will meet other colourful characters during his travelling. There is Reverend Double-Gone Johnson who talks about setting up his own church, then there is an eccentric old man who happens to be the world’s greatest salesman!

George is a lonely guy who is searching for his place in society after his girlfriend Kacy, abruptly leaves him to embark on a trip to South America, so he takes on the Cadillac Eldorado job. George’s drug induced trips, his hallucinations and his crazy driving goes on and on for too long and I started to lose interest in the book around the halfway point.

I did however, like the history with regards to the plane crash that killed Big Bopper (Jiles Perry Richardson Jr), Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, I found myself taking to google to read up about the plane crash that ended their lives. I will not say this is a must read if I’d have not read FUP first and enjoyed it so much I’d have not bothered to read Not Fade Away so for me a lowly two stars!

Not Fade Away

[Just This · Rating 3 out of 5]

a druggie 'wrecker' for insurance scams decides to 'save' a classic car. adventures & hilarity ensue.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've sometimes struggled slightly to relate to the whole road trip thing. Maybe it's living in a pretty compact country. I mean, a road trip in the UK generally consists of a couple of hours up the motorway, maybe stopping off at a service station for a cup of tea and a muffin if wanting to drag things out a bit.

That said, this is largely pretty engaging stuff, picking up pace as it goes. Floorboard George seems a likeable if somewhat drug-addled character and narrates the main body of the story, on the whole, quite compellingly. It did seem to lose focus at times though, drifting off into unnecessary tangents (some of which were interesting or amusing in their own right, some less so), and Dodge's turn of phrase just occasionally felt a little clumsy.

Overall, not bad, and hard not to like. Best read whilst listening to 'Chantilly Lace' on repeat.

[José Gutiérrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Kerouac eat your heart out. This is the book On The Road wanted to be but lacked the hairy balls. Flatboard George is just one of a dozen memorable maniacs you'll meet on this odyssey. Dodge writes like a lysergic angel with two fistful of bennies. Like the song of the title, this book delivers the laced goods with an arsenic wit and a whole lotta heart. His asides on music, poetry and jazz are just a few of the treats along the way. Also highly recommend Stone Junction and his excellent collection of poems Rain on the River.

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Americana, but not in an annoying Eagles-type way - endless highways, diners, the golden age of rock 'n' roll. Some guy trundling around in the Big Bopper's old car. Not earth-shattering, but entertaining enough. Apparently that wee book Fup is meant to be quite good, but reckon I'll wait til I have a comfy seat in a bookshop rather than buying it.

[Nate Jordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

For thesis research...

Follows the archetypal road novel trajectory; the tall-tale yarning protagonist eventually picks up various hitchhikers and travelers with their own tales to tell, each with a philosophical bent, on his journey through the late fifties and sixties to reach the grave of the Big Bopper.

[Sterling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff, like Fear And Loathing...but more spiritual. Like watching Yosemite Sam run up into the rolling hills only to be exploded by a menacing trail of black powder.

[Leon Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. After going through a rough patch in my life, this book helped me find my mojo, my confidence and helped me find my unique outlook on life again.

Its fast paced while being deeply profound and contemplative. I chuckled gasped cried and at the end felt like i'd read a book that'll stay with me for a longtime!

George Gastin is my new hero!

[Seenepoiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic tale,(apologies for using the unfortunate most suitable descriptive) of finding yourself after helping others find what they are looking for. Loved it and suggest it to anyone who should have been born in the 50's or 60's. Great intertwining of actual history and painting a picture of a decade where all was lost and then found again.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't drink, take drugs and drive people; unless you are a devil-may-care literary character in a stolen car. In which case, just keep on trucking with your adventures peppered with strange characters. My slightly longer review can be found here: http://fictionalfix.blogspot.com/2018...

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great hitchiking adventure! A bit aimless, but it moves like a leopard with the soul of Kilimanjaro. Like a potato its got lots of good bits, but the whole is maybe a bit beige. Reads like loads of short story ideas, so maybe its more like crisps.

[sandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this one nearly as much as Stone Junction. I skimmed a lot toward the end when I realized it was just the author blathering on in a non-entertaining stream of consciousness method. bleh.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have liked this book more when I was younger... not much more than a drug-addled race across the country with less poetic notions or wisdom than keruac wrote 2 decades prior. Zany story, but lacks the flair of Tom Robbins.

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best road book since On The Road. Jim Dodge is one of the best story tellers ever. Enjoy this, delight in this and as the story drives on you find yourself wishing that you were in THAT car too...and d'you know what? you are.