Long Players: A Love Story in Eighteen Songs

by Peter Coviello

ARTFORUM Ten Best Books of 2018
 
“Sad, joyous, funny, heart-cracking: I can’t remember the last time I read a book that rendered such raw feeling with such intricate intelligence.” —Gayle Salamon, ARTFORUM

“A beautiful book. Deeply personal and yet entirely universal. . . A travelogue through the landscape of a broken heart.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of  Eat Pray Love
 
A passionate, heartfelt story about the many ways we fall in love: with books, bands and records, friends and lovers, and the families we make.

Have you ever fallen in love—exalting, wracking, hilarious love—with a song?  Long Players  is a book about that everyday kind of besottedness—and, also, about those other, more entangling sorts of love that songs can propel us into. We follow Peter Coviello through his happy marriage, his blindsiding divorce, and his fumbling post marital forays into sex and romance.
 
Above all we travel with him as he calibrates, mix by mix and song by song, his place in the lives of two little girls, his suddenly  ex -stepdaughters. In his grief, he considers what keeps us alive ( sex, talk, dancing ) and the limitless grace of pop songs.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography

272 pages, Paperback

Published June 5, 2018

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s not really a book about music despite the cover art. One of the background themes though Is music 🎶 which captures the mood and the mixtapes that were so ubiquitous in the eighties and nineties. We all made mix tapes in the eighties although they kind of went out of style long before Jack Nicholson’s offbeat character in “As Good As It Gets” showed up on the road trip with a tape for every mood.

This book, which has the feel of being more a journal than a novel, is a sort of an ode to every lovesick person whose had their heart torn out. It focuses on a main character who metaphorically drowns himself in a deep depression and contemplates life the universe and everything. It is a flavor of melancholy and inward-looking.

But don’t open this up expecting mad action. It’s just not that kind of thing.

[Emilie Sommer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's only February, but this is certain to be one of my favorites of 2018. It's Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mixtape and Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, but smarter and sexier; it's Dave Holmes' joyous memoir Party of One filled also with deep grief and reckoning. It is a gift. You need not be divorced or a stepparent to find yourself in these pages -- every talker, every enthusiast, every devoted friend, and most of all every music lover will find themselves here and be grateful.

[Alex V. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Normally, when I hate a book, I just walk away without comment, but in this case, I feel a warning is needed. It is not what it purports to be.

This looked like my kind of light reading - litty dude pressing his life through the cheesecloth of a handful of records, hopefully coming up with the essence of both.

Instead, this is a guy who is so-f*cking-in-love and then so-f*cking-devastated when it falls apart and you feel after reading his nth tale of suffering and crying on some friend's couch that he is actually on YOUR couch and you are going to just have to be patient until you can hold his hand at the airport and wave a teary farewell.

At first, I thought the book brave, breaking down the emotional walls men build up to not feel anything uncomfortable. When it goes wrong, he is a naked supernova of confusion and suffering. Feel it, man! Yeah! Now, put your clothes back on.

I could not make it far enough to see if he came to the realization that he was indeed done wrong but also that maybe he was the dalliance he dances (literally, he does a lot of dancing) and talks about in the bit about seeing The Wedding Present in Madrid while on his grand tour of misery. They have a really good song titled "Dalliance," he explains.

His writing is good, incandescent at moments but like everyone in loss, he doesn't know what anything is about. And sure, your old R.E.M. tapes are there for you and the National was created to illuminate this very experience, but he misses the real cruelty of this kind of very real suffering - you become tedious and whatever made you attractive in the light is now bent inward to your darkness and you are frankly, hard to love for a while.

This book feels like the Moleskine he filled with dense, electric despair that he needed to write his way out of this mess, which, again, I commend. And I'm being a jerk for slamming it. But, if you are going to put your suffering journal out in the world with the post-colon promise of a book-as-playlist, you need to talk about the songs a little more and you less.

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

For the first 30% of this book, I thought this was the most pretentious thing I had ever read.

From 30%-50%, I thought it was stunningly beautiful.

From 50%-the end, I just couldn't wait for it to be over.

There's a lot to appreciate about this book. It's beautifully written. It's deep and sad and mournful in a really lovely way. And it is so honest.

But honesty and deepness get old after a while. After one hundred pages, discussing your sorrow at length stops being deep and just turns into whining. By 200 pages, it's nearly unbearable. Won't there be a happy moment somewhere? Or is this man's whole life just ridiculously tragic?

From reading this, the author felt like a dark and brooding hero from classic lit. And I long ago stopped falling in love with men like that and started favoring something a little more genuine and realistic.

There were some places where I could really identify with the author. He talked endlessly about the mixes that he made people and the songs that mattered to him. And that's something I could really understand and connect with - I feel the same way about music. I spend hours making people mixes they aren't that excited about. I get it. In fact, I picked up this book hoping for a connection on music and praying for music suggestions from someone who could understand my love of pop music. And even on that front, this book disappointed. While the author definitely shares a LOT of music, most of it wasn't interesting or special to me. Since my entire motivation for reading this book was to learn more music and connect with someone on a musical level, I feel like I wasted some time. Why didn't he just make a Spotify playlist with a long description? This book was too much and far too redundant.

People who loves slow, long, drawn-out discourses on the human condition will really enjoy this book. Lovers of underground indie rock will rejoice in his musical choices. But for me, this book was a waste of time.

[Jesse Ortiz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm incredibly biased, because Coviello taught my favorite class in college. Reading this book felt a lot like that class!

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Jill Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could NOT get into this - despite really wanting to and loving the idea. I am a firm believer that music is a great way to deal with emotions that we often have trouble expressing/understanding/working through, and loved the concept. But the author's writing style was just not for me. I appreciate that he has a great vocabulary, but I don't need to be reminded of that fact in every sentence... It made the writing feel stilted and took away from the emotion and human connection that I expected to experience. Here's an example: "Inside the normative frame of daily life, this is a happy enough microevent" - I expected a memoir about life, love, and music, not a clinical exegesis on psychoemotional wellness... The formality of the writing style just didn't work for me, given the topic, and I am afraid I couldn't read it through.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 5 out of 5]

One day in the midst of what he thinks is a perfect marriage, Peter Coviello finds out that his wife is cheating on him and looking for a divorce. Sent spiraling head-first into depression and loneliness, he reckons with the new life he finds himself in, as an ex-stepdad to two adolescent girls and a college professor whose primary interests lie in literature and music. Can his favorite songs save his life? Will his new status as a single man enhance his life, or make it worse?

"Long Players: A Love Story in Eighteen Songs" is very much in the mold of Rob Sheffield's music-themed memoirs (especially the first, "Love Is a Mix-Tape"), but it's also its own beast entirely. Profoundly raw (sometimes uncomfortably so), Coviello's book is an examination of someone unmoored from the life that he thought he led, searching for meaning and love and worrying that he won't be able to help his stepdaughters now that he's no longer an everyday presence in their lives.

I've long been a believer in the notion that art can enhance life and even save it, to an extent. This book is all about how much that notion can be tested by extraordinary circumstances. It's a personal story on Coviello's part, and he's willing to share moments in his life where he doesn't exactly come off in the best light. It's a real and honest look at heartbreak and recovery, and it's not an easy read but a worthy one.

If you've ever heard a song on the radio at the right time in your life, you know how it feels to share that love with someone else, a soundtrack to life, love, pain, heartbreak, and forgiveness. "Long Players" is just a beautiful, wrenching, but ultimately hopeful memoir about the power (and limits) of art, and how love doesn't end just because of legalities.

[Sue Dix · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC from First to Read, Penguin Books. This book is not at all what I was expecting. I was disappointed. I kept waiting for it to evolve into something other than a man spectacularly falling to pieces, over and over and over. I was expecting his music to be central to the story, but it was more of an afterthought. Toward the end of the book, I found myself rolling my eyes and thinking, “pull yourself together and quit crying, already. Good lord.”

[Adriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Coviello can certainly turn a phrase and write some lovely sentences, unfortunately, he decided to do this on 200+ pages of misery and sadness that sometimes bring music into the mix.
I came into this looking for a memoir centered around music and love... What I got was a drawn-out, depressive tale of heartache and loss that draws the reader deep into the author's depression and obsession with finding the most negative and sad aspects of pretty much everything.
Music does make an appearance, but so do literature and travel in much the same scale. It's the random soliloquies about a certain band or song that make up the musical aspect promised in the title, but they constantly get lost in the exploration of the author's confusion.
It is incredibly personal and I sometimes felt like an interloper looking in on things I had no reason to. It might help some people see that there are others sharing in their sentiments, just not this reader.
Honestly, between the depressing way it's presented and the sometimes overwrought wording, I considered giving up on reading this. It was an effort to get thru it, but I got a review copy from Penguin's First To Read and felt I'd made a commitment. I don't feel like I wasted my time with it, yet I do feel like there are other books that deal with the topics of music and love (even heartache) in less depressing ways.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

“But, like songs, books do have the virtue of not sitting still. Leave them alone for a while— a few errant meandering years, say— and they grow, in secret, into different creatures. They hold on to you, they steady you as you pour yourself into them, but sometimes, also, they talk back. Sometimes they start fires." - Peter Coviello, Long Players

Peter Coviello tells the story of his marriage and divorce from a hardhearted woman named Evany. He writes of falling in love over and over, whether it be with Evany and her daughters, friends from college or strangers on the street. Each chapter is also a love letter to songs that encapsulated his euphoria, desperation, sorrows and tenderness. Through multitudes of metaphors and references to obscure pop songs, his adult life is unfurled over 260 pages of stilted beauty.

Overall, I like this book and I hold a great amount of admiration for Coviello. His writing is absolutely superb and passionate. Frankly, when I picked up this book (or rather opened the PDF), a lot of this book seemed to drip pretentiousness. It seemed a tad reminiscent of the writing style in Diary of an Oxygen Thief but with a much broader range of vocabulary. Speaking of vocabulary, it took me quite a while to get completely into Coviello’s writing style. He has an extremely wide vocabulary that I could have appreciated if it were drizzled into every few paragraphs, but almost every sentence was drawn out with unnecessary words. I’d like to think I’m intelligent to some degree but while reading this, I was left thinking, “Huh?” after every sentence. I probably had to reread every paragraph twice. But hey, at least I learned some new words. I know he's an English professor, and sometimes it seemed like he was just showing off his literary finesse. Other times, it was a bit boring and drawn out and it took a while for the story to get going but once it hit its climax, it was totally captivating (after, it was a slow and steady decline). I found Long Players tedious at some points (but I hate not finishing books so I kept with it!), so if you don't have a lot of patience when reading, you may have some difficulty with this one.

This book was, for lack of a better word, deep. For much of the book, I found myself having to reanalyze the way I thought about love and sadness. In the first thirty pages or so, I felt myself sinking into a hole of brooding, hoping there would be some lightheartedness somewhere. In small ways, I did get what I wanted; Long Players did have its few moments in which I found myself smiling and nodding and others in which I found myself to be haunted and aching for the author. I haven’t read another book that has made me want to hug the author more than this one. After I got used to his writing style and stopped getting lost in his never-ending sentences, I finally saw the beauty in his writing and his humanity.

Coviello wrote about falling in love in a way I’d never seen before and I’ve read hundreds upon hundreds of books. It wasn’t just provactive and romantic but also completely ordinary and domestic. It seemed real and not over-sensationalized. We don’t usually read much about falling in love with friends or books or music and it was so refreshing to read his take on it. I’m extremely passionate about music (which is one reason why I picked up this book in the first place) so I’m usually overly critical on books that focus on it but Coviello wrote about music much better than I’ve seen other authors do. It wasn’t corny or worth a few eye rolls but rather very real and relatable. As a musician of about 8 years, it was totally heartwarming to see someone write about music with so much overwhelming love and fervor. He mostly wrote about songs I’d never heard of; it was actually really fun listening to the songs as he was describing them and deciding whether or not I agreed with him. Likewise, his description of heartbreak and loss was so genuine; it almost felt like I’d lost my wife and daughters.

Surprisingly, I was able to really find myself in this book, which is weird to say because I, a sixteen year old girl, am somehow relating to a middle aged ex-step dad’s loving marriage, tumultuous divorce and rampant anxieties. On a side note, I actually really appreciated his description of panic attacks; they’re like “an audition for death” (It was the most accurate I’ve seen, most books overly exaggerate them; I’m looking at you Highly Illogical Behavior!)

TL;DR If you like monologues on what it’s like to be human or are a lover of emotional stories that are a little light on happy moments, you might love this book! But if you’re looking for something sunshiney and happy or you’d rather not read about anxiety and sadness, you should probably hold off on reading this one. Overall, good read!

[David Gurney · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are many books that deal with loves gained, loves lost, and all sorts of messiness in between, but in Long Players, Peter Coviello not only waxes poetic on his personal experience with a series of particularly sticky versions of these sometimes blissful, sometimes agonizing entanglements but also offers us some compelling insight into how the pleasures of family, friends, and pop music (as well as travel, drinking, and drugs) can serve as harbors in the swells of love's squalls. The author's zeal for connecting with others is unabashed and infectious, making it all the more devastating when his marriage comes apart rather unceremoniously and protractedly. Much of the memoir chronicles his personal quest to redefine his relationships, particularly with his stepchildren to whom he is clearly devoted, and build back the ability to love and trust, most importantly, himself.

That his cultural coordinates are of the aging male Gen X hipster, with all the trappings that entails, made the book very readily accessible to this reader, though I recognize that it could be a turn off for some. However, if you had/have a critical inclination and fondnesses for indie rock, dance pop, English lit, and even some dad/yacht rock, you will find a lot that will resonate here.

One other small warning: The third part/act does have a fairly dark turn to it. Spoiler warning: Coviello comes close to suicide and, though he does not label it as such, seems to be mired in something close to clinical depression. He does find his way through ultimately, but the uplift does not wash away the darkness entirely. Anyone who might be adversely affected by a view of someone else's self doubt and hopelessness, may want to tread cautiously.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this book briefly reviewed somewhere and thought its subtitle would feed into my musical interests. I should have looked at Goodreads's reviews first. Instead I read some, skimmed some, got hooked in again, and skimmed some more. Coviello is an academic who writes at the intersections of literature, music, and culture. This memoir attempts to get at loss and love during his early years of teaching. It is a very sad book.

Although the artists he mentions were mostly names I knew, they really form a soundtrack for Coviello's own feelings and searching in this book. For me, the best takeaways were his attempt to maintain a relationship with his stepchildren after divorce from their mother, and these lines about the songs, found on page 165:
"When thought buckled, [the songs] wrenched it out of it direst patterns. When the days turned dark, they shook the world out of its sense of airless impossibility. For three or four flashing moments, they somehow made it seem that even a world whose truest, least negotiable facts were bereavement, sorrow, and loss might also be something luminous, unfinished, a scene of transformation. When we needed to hold ourselves together, the girls and I, songs--. . . songs, of all trivial things--made a place where all that had seemed to be voided between us, all the nameless aspects of our devotion to one another, could find traction, presence, a way to be held to the world."

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5. I received a copy of this book from the publisher via the Goodreads giveaway.

“Long Players” tells the story of Pete and his marriage and eventual divorce from his wife. In the aftermath of the divorce, a broken hearted Pete questions and analyzes his marriage and his place in the lives of his young stepdaughters. Somewhat interspersed throughout is Pete’s love of music, with mentions of various songs and concerts their parts in his healing process.

While this book had potential with a great premise, it ultimately fell flat for me throughout most of the book. Pete is a somewhat sympathetic character at first who ends up often just pathetic. With a whole book centered around Pete and his thoughts and feelings, this becomes an issue.

In all, this book may appeal more to readers who enjoy the music references throughout; however, for others, I’d recommend looking elsewhere for a more enjoyable main character.

[Jenny Houle]

So you know when a book's description hits every single one of your "must haves" or connects to the topics that are nearest and dearest to your heart and you think "There's no way I won't love this?"... Only to not quite get there and be so sad you can't quite get through the book?

I love memoirs and music, and use both to relate to every person and scenario in my life, so I fully anticipated absolutely falling in love with Peter Coviello's LONG PLAYERS. Maybe it's in part because of how personalized connection to music is but I didn't particularly find him relatable and I really struggled to connect with the book. It wasn't that the book itself wasn't well written because it was I just couldn't quite make the connection I need to make to give it more than three stars. I have tried on and off for the last 4 years to actually read the book in it's entirety and I'm only now just giving up on it.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

“And then I ask her if she thought it would be better for her, for her life and the girls’, if I was dead.” -This is pretty much where I gave up on this book. Coviello comes off as emotionally immature and manipulative in the first half of this book, so I couldn’t empathize with him and had zero desire to slog through the rest of this pity party.

I suspect Coviello’s ex was attempting to let him down gently when she said he wasn’t “creative” enough for her. The break up, likely, had more to do with the fact that he likes to hear himself talk, and has zero issue bawling to anyone who will listen. *rolls eyes*

I felt embarrassed for the author the entire time I was reading this journal turned memoir. Maybe it was cathartic for Coviello to put this book out into the world, but honestly, he probably should have kept all of this private. However, the writing wasn’t terrible, thus I gave it 1.5 stars. DNF

[Casey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free Kindle copy of Long Players by Peter Coviello courtesy of Net Galley  and Penquin Books, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I was looking for something different. This is the first book by Peter Coviello that I have read.

To put it briefly - this book is an utter waste of time. The author wallows in self pity throughout the book to the point that you want to throw it in the trash and never look at it again. The subtitle is alo misleading.

That said, some other reviewers (perhaps friends and family) found the book so fascinating that they gave it five stars. I feel like I wasted fours of my life on a piece of trash.

[Gayle Slagle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long Players: A Love Story in Eighteen Songs by Peter Coviello is a memoir that reads like a novel. Using the power of songs and literature, Coviello weaves a story of love and delves into many kinds of love in many different relationships. The book tells the story of a happy marriage that ends in a divorce that he doesn't see coming. It tells the story of his love for his two step-daughters who are suddenly no longer his step-daughters. It tells the story of friendship and how it saves him, often from himself. Song by song, he explores what it means to fall madly in love, to lose that love, and to learn how to live without it. It also explores the dynamics of family and what makes a family. Insightful and well-written, Long Players is an honest look into one man's heart and is both deeply personal and at the same time universal.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a free copy of "Long Players" by Peter Coviello, through "Good Reads First Reads Giveaway."

There is much in this book that would offend the conservative, older reader. This includes a somewhat Liberal political attitude and a cavalier description of alcohol and drug induced sex. The author has no problem with 4 letter words and an occasional blasphemy.

I think as a professor he exemplifies what is wrong with higher education in our country today. On the other hand, the author is extremely sincere in exploring his emotions and even the complications of affection in a blended family. His musical preferences are meant for a younger, hip, generation.

[Marisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to First to Read the publisher Penguin Random House for this ARC in return for my honest review. Hip hip hooray, finally a story that had me intrigued from start to finish, I hope Hollywood buys the rights to make this book into a movie, it was that good. The writing, the characters were authentic so realistic I felt I could reach out and have a conversation with Peter, maybe even give him a shake to wake him up and figure out something's can never be put back together. Fantastic read, it had me comparing it to This is Where I Leave you by Arthur Jonathan Tropper. Well done.

[Nada · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the cassette tape on its cover and its subtitle A Love Story in Eighteen Songs, I expect Long Players by Peter Coviello to be a book about grief and the ability to music and songs to say what we are unable to sometimes find the words to say. That I relate to. Unfortunately, in reading it, I find that I am not the reader for this book. For several reasons, the vision I had upon reading the description is not the vision I end with.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018...

Reviewed for Penguin First to Read program.

[Joseph Keebler · Rating 4 out of 5]

One Wedding and Oh So Many Tears

This book cross breeds Four Weddings and a Funeral familiarity with an impish High Fidelity aural obsession. It reads at once like a Hornby novel if your lead character cannot unburden himself from an early love. Naked and spare, the writer twists phrases into technical marvels now and again. I recommend this book for a hipster middle aged music fan with a penchant for life’s little volcanoes and seismic rumblings.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long espoused “The power of pop music” as a mode of distraction from grief. While I hold a different kind of grief than Peter Coviello makes the center of his book, I found myself turning down the corners of page after page as I found his path toward a companionable relationship with loss similar and a welcome illumination to mine.

[Terri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I could not get into this book. I really really tried. I tried twice to get into it. I got about 50 pages into it. He just goes and on and on, but goes nowhere. I’m sorry, but this is just not a book that I can recommend.

[Erica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t think this was necessarily a bad book. It was not what I was expecting as a fan of Rob Sheffield’s “love is a mixtape.” It was mostly about the misery and drudgery of divorce which sounds absolutely horrible as it went down for this poor man. You could literally feel the heartbreak and loss of this book. It’s not about music as I hoped but mostly about heartbreak.

[Martine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five things:

- Self-reflection
- Music
- Divorce
- Stepparenting
- Beautiful prose

At times self indulgent, on the whole just beautifully articulate, I read this book a lot faster than I expected to given the density of thought in every sentence. Definitely not for everyone but 100% for me

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this book. The back of the book made me believe that it was like “Love is a Mixtape” than what it actually was. Not to say it was a bad book however. It was well written but it was not what it marked itself to be

[H. M. Cushman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A moving story and beautifully written. Points deducted for a very bad take on the relative greatness of The Go-Go’s and The B-52’s.

[Jehnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe a 3.5
This is the story of divorce and step-parenting and the roll of music in love and heartbreak. It's good but not great with a heavy dose of navel-gazing.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just didn't grab my attention - tried multiple times to start, and never felt the urge to continue.