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Static
★★★★★ “Reverberates with the drumbeat of why we make art.” Will Musgrove, author of Asphalt Dreaming
For Paul, stealing is easy. When he's hungry, he strolls into a bodega and steals lunch. When rent’s due, he steals records and flips them for cash. As a lonely kid growing up in Ohio’s Rust Belt, stealing was the only way he could score the hip hop records and production equipment that fueled his musical dreams.
Now he’s in NYC fighting to keep his once-ascendant band alive and his life from falling apart. His bank account is flatlining. The love of his life has broken his heart. Bunky, his bandmate, is ditching him for Eloise, a soulful vagabond with an intoxicating voice. When financial trouble forces his parents from their lifelong home, Paul ramps up his stealing to save his family from collapse. And in a fever of creativity, he begins to steal from the voices in his life to make the music he’s sure will save his soul.
Set against the modern music industry, where a single social post can change your destiny, STATIC is alive to the weight of familial expectations, the pursuit of our deepest hopes and dreams, and the struggle to make meaningful connections in the anxiety of the digital age.
For Paul, stealing is easy. When he's hungry, he strolls into a bodega and steals lunch. When rent’s due, he steals records and flips them for cash. As a lonely kid growing up in Ohio’s Rust Belt, stealing was the only way he could score the hip hop records and production equipment that fueled his musical dreams.
Now he’s in NYC fighting to keep his once-ascendant band alive and his life from falling apart. His bank account is flatlining. The love of his life has broken his heart. Bunky, his bandmate, is ditching him for Eloise, a soulful vagabond with an intoxicating voice. When financial trouble forces his parents from their lifelong home, Paul ramps up his stealing to save his family from collapse. And in a fever of creativity, he begins to steal from the voices in his life to make the music he’s sure will save his soul.
Set against the modern music industry, where a single social post can change your destiny, STATIC is alive to the weight of familial expectations, the pursuit of our deepest hopes and dreams, and the struggle to make meaningful connections in the anxiety of the digital age.
292 pages, Paperback
Published July 16, 2024
2 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Brendan Gillen
2 books4 followersOriginally from Charlottesville, Virginia, Brendan Gillen lives in Brooklyn and earned his MFA from the City College of New York. His short stories have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions, and have appeared in the Florida Review, Wigleaf, X-R-A-Y, Necessary Fiction, Maudlin House, Taco Bell Quarterly, New Delta Review, and elsewhere. STATIC is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2024
On the surface Paul, the protagonist of Static by Brendan Gillen, is living the life he wants; in other words not the life his parents want for him. He's a young, free artist in New York City, with a job in his ideal version of a record shop, a sampler with a drum machine in a two-person band called They Is. However, it was a three-person band before Sara, violinist and love of his life, joined a symphony in California to establish a stable musical career. Also, neither Paul's music nor job pay enough to cover his rent—he's facing eviction—or sustenance. He steals from bodegas for food and, as the story goes along, virtually anyone for everything else.
It opens with him redeeming a five-finger-discount meal before heading to work at the record store. There he gets a call, an invitation to a last minute gig to headline at a club called The Farm. He and bassist/singer bandmate Bunky jump at the chance. But as their music flows, Paul scans the crowd and sees a girl he thinks is Sara. It throws off his timing and the performance suffers, turning the opportunity into a setback.
Bunky's upset with Paul who resorts to lying (which he does as readily as stealing), saying he's got some creative ideas that will get their band out of its rut. This doesn't mollify a sceptical Bunky whose frustration will subsequently be exacerbated by Paul's hedging on an offer to open for a band called Feathers. That band is on its way to stardom and is led by envious Paul's former roommate and high school bandmate, Dee Gallo.
Another opportunity-setback combination occurs when Paul meets the distracting girl he saw in the audience—she's Cassie, not Sara—who's enamoured by Dee Gallo. Paul uses his former connection to get her to take him home. But he's unable to perform and misses out on a potential relationship with a girl he genuinely likes, while also losing the opportunity to open for Feathers.
Paul's personal life is further complicated by family troubles with his brother and parents, and his continuous resorting to deceit and theft to defer or get out of situations. Not only does he steal merchandise but also music samples for his songs. He gets away with most of this long enough to turn a corner musically and financially and start seeing some success, aided by the lucky recruitment of busker Eloise as a third member. But he's taken so many chances along the way, it could all crumble at any time.
It's hard to pull for a character like Paul but you do because you feel for those around him, those hurt by him, even those who hurt him. Only to a point, though, because Paul is always at centre stage and the other characters seem secondary. It helps that his kleptomania is driven by his own needs, or his need to help others. His altruistic side contrasts his general self-absorption to make him a small time, shameless, and somewhat clumsy Robin Hood.
Yet he's different when he applies his energy to music, making it, playing it, or even listening to it. These scenes are full of artistic passion and one easily gets lost-in-the-(prose)sauce as Paul does. The many musical references, many I don't know, but many I do, provide context as we follow Paul's travails as an artist, friend, and family member. For me, it wraps up a little too neatly, but that doesn't take away from a light, pleasant read.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
It opens with him redeeming a five-finger-discount meal before heading to work at the record store. There he gets a call, an invitation to a last minute gig to headline at a club called The Farm. He and bassist/singer bandmate Bunky jump at the chance. But as their music flows, Paul scans the crowd and sees a girl he thinks is Sara. It throws off his timing and the performance suffers, turning the opportunity into a setback.
Bunky's upset with Paul who resorts to lying (which he does as readily as stealing), saying he's got some creative ideas that will get their band out of its rut. This doesn't mollify a sceptical Bunky whose frustration will subsequently be exacerbated by Paul's hedging on an offer to open for a band called Feathers. That band is on its way to stardom and is led by envious Paul's former roommate and high school bandmate, Dee Gallo.
Another opportunity-setback combination occurs when Paul meets the distracting girl he saw in the audience—she's Cassie, not Sara—who's enamoured by Dee Gallo. Paul uses his former connection to get her to take him home. But he's unable to perform and misses out on a potential relationship with a girl he genuinely likes, while also losing the opportunity to open for Feathers.
Paul's personal life is further complicated by family troubles with his brother and parents, and his continuous resorting to deceit and theft to defer or get out of situations. Not only does he steal merchandise but also music samples for his songs. He gets away with most of this long enough to turn a corner musically and financially and start seeing some success, aided by the lucky recruitment of busker Eloise as a third member. But he's taken so many chances along the way, it could all crumble at any time.
It's hard to pull for a character like Paul but you do because you feel for those around him, those hurt by him, even those who hurt him. Only to a point, though, because Paul is always at centre stage and the other characters seem secondary. It helps that his kleptomania is driven by his own needs, or his need to help others. His altruistic side contrasts his general self-absorption to make him a small time, shameless, and somewhat clumsy Robin Hood.
Yet he's different when he applies his energy to music, making it, playing it, or even listening to it. These scenes are full of artistic passion and one easily gets lost-in-the-(prose)sauce as Paul does. The many musical references, many I don't know, but many I do, provide context as we follow Paul's travails as an artist, friend, and family member. For me, it wraps up a little too neatly, but that doesn't take away from a light, pleasant read.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
November 29, 2024
Brendan Gillen's story of a musician down to his last chance--a chance he may already have blown--is engaging from the opening beats. Over the course of the novel, Paul tests the patience of every person he has ever known, but he has just moments of insight and engagement that we never give up on him, even when we don't like what he's doing.
What elevates the book from being a solid kind of late-coming-age novel is the music. The descriptions of Paul creating the sonic beds for his group, and of the three people in his group playing together--in and out of sync--are vibrant. Those moments convince us that this is something Paul needs to do to survive, and that the music also might just save his life.
What elevates the book from being a solid kind of late-coming-age novel is the music. The descriptions of Paul creating the sonic beds for his group, and of the three people in his group playing together--in and out of sync--are vibrant. Those moments convince us that this is something Paul needs to do to survive, and that the music also might just save his life.
August 9, 2024
This was a great read. Gillen's knowledge and passion for music comes across in the specificity of the music scene and his feel for the artists' life in New York City is evident on the page. If you've ever had a dream to make it as a musician, or a dream to make it in the Big Apple, or any kind of dream really, this novel will resonate. The characters drew me in from the jump. I felt for them as they navigated their friendships, family struggles, substance abuse, ambition, and an industry that can break your heart or make dreams come true. It read like a grittier "High Fidelity," or a modern-day, fictional version of "Just Kids" by Patti Smith or "Chronicles" by Bob Dylan. Highly recommend and can't wait to read whatever Gillen writes next!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews