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Glimpses
Ray Shackleford is trying to deal with the death of his father and the collapse of his marriage when the impossible happens. Music that no one has ever heard before begins to play from his stereo speakers. It is only the first step on a journey that will take him to Los Angeles, London, Cozumel, and points far beyond, and bring him face to face with Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix-and his own mortality.
314 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
February 16, 2020
I was already on board with this novel when I knew it was an exploration of music nostalgia and What-Could-Have-Been with certain albums by giants, from Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, or Jimi Hendrix.
Let's skip big events in the whole time-travel setup and move right into ART. Culture. The meaning of what particular pieces could mean for us all. How music still has the power to change the world.
If ONLY some of these ALMOST albums had been made...
Yeah. I was right there. Totally on board.
But if that had been all there was to this novel, I'm absolutely sure that it wouldn't have been half as good or as emotional or self-reflective if we hadn't gotten to know Ray... the man working on the old demo sessions, his failing marriage, his alcoholism, and his relationship with his dead father.
This IS a nostalgia novel, by all means, but it's also a rather awesome novel of obsessions, working through issues, and learning to grow. And I don't think that could have happened without his music obsession. The whole time-travel, helping the young musicians work through their own problems or nudge them in just the right way to help them MAKE those lost albums and even make some money by "restoring" them in the present-day early '90s is only a side-story.
I loved the mirroring of self-to-artist and the push to grow despite all the baggage that holds us back. It was not only charming... but edifying. :)
Let's skip big events in the whole time-travel setup and move right into ART. Culture. The meaning of what particular pieces could mean for us all. How music still has the power to change the world.
If ONLY some of these ALMOST albums had been made...
Yeah. I was right there. Totally on board.
But if that had been all there was to this novel, I'm absolutely sure that it wouldn't have been half as good or as emotional or self-reflective if we hadn't gotten to know Ray... the man working on the old demo sessions, his failing marriage, his alcoholism, and his relationship with his dead father.
This IS a nostalgia novel, by all means, but it's also a rather awesome novel of obsessions, working through issues, and learning to grow. And I don't think that could have happened without his music obsession. The whole time-travel, helping the young musicians work through their own problems or nudge them in just the right way to help them MAKE those lost albums and even make some money by "restoring" them in the present-day early '90s is only a side-story.
I loved the mirroring of self-to-artist and the push to grow despite all the baggage that holds us back. It was not only charming... but edifying. :)
December 21, 2008
The first three years after discovering Glimpses by Lewis Shiner I read it once a year, which doesn’t happen to me very often in reading a book.
Ray Shackleford is a stereo repairman with problems. A father with whom he had a contentious relationship has died under mysterious circumstances, his marriage is unraveling like a ball string in his fingers and he can’t quite grasp the threads to pull it back together, a burgeoning drinking problem, and a career as a rock star that never got started much less going anywhere. But he has discovered a means of escape, by retreating into the past, and not just any past, he retreats to the 60’s to help the idols of his Rock ‘n’ Roll dreams reclaim what they’ve lost, their lost albums. Brian Wilson’s Smile, Jim Morrison and The Celebration of the Lizard, and Jimi Hendrix’s The First Rays of the New Rising Sun.
I first read this book because I was looking for a nice escapist book to lose myself in for a few hours. I found that. The more I read the more I found myself drawn in, especially to Ray’s trips to the past, his getting drawn into Brian Wilson’s family, living the Rock ‘n’ Roll lifestyle with Jim Morrison as his guide, and Ray’s truly heartbreaking attempts to keep Jimi Hendrix from dying. The question is will these trips to the past help Ray heal the same issues he has in his life?
There is the element of time travel in this book. Is Ray really going back into the past and meeting his idols? Or is he suffering a series of strokes? Glimpses offers evidence of both, giving the reader the choice of which is truly occurring.
On each reading of Glimpses, I found something new in it, some nuance previously undiscovered. I guess one could say that is due to the changing circumstances of my life. But isn’t that the mark of any good book? That we can find something new in it from whatever perspective in life we are coming at it?
Ray Shackleford is a stereo repairman with problems. A father with whom he had a contentious relationship has died under mysterious circumstances, his marriage is unraveling like a ball string in his fingers and he can’t quite grasp the threads to pull it back together, a burgeoning drinking problem, and a career as a rock star that never got started much less going anywhere. But he has discovered a means of escape, by retreating into the past, and not just any past, he retreats to the 60’s to help the idols of his Rock ‘n’ Roll dreams reclaim what they’ve lost, their lost albums. Brian Wilson’s Smile, Jim Morrison and The Celebration of the Lizard, and Jimi Hendrix’s The First Rays of the New Rising Sun.
I first read this book because I was looking for a nice escapist book to lose myself in for a few hours. I found that. The more I read the more I found myself drawn in, especially to Ray’s trips to the past, his getting drawn into Brian Wilson’s family, living the Rock ‘n’ Roll lifestyle with Jim Morrison as his guide, and Ray’s truly heartbreaking attempts to keep Jimi Hendrix from dying. The question is will these trips to the past help Ray heal the same issues he has in his life?
There is the element of time travel in this book. Is Ray really going back into the past and meeting his idols? Or is he suffering a series of strokes? Glimpses offers evidence of both, giving the reader the choice of which is truly occurring.
On each reading of Glimpses, I found something new in it, some nuance previously undiscovered. I guess one could say that is due to the changing circumstances of my life. But isn’t that the mark of any good book? That we can find something new in it from whatever perspective in life we are coming at it?
June 12, 2022
Sometimes I read a book, and it is so different from anything I’ve read before that I need a week or so to digest before reviewing. Glimpses, by Lewis Shiner, is one such book. I just happened to stumble across a review on Goodreads, and it struck me as interesting. I’m so glad I stumbled!
Let me start by saying that I am a music lover, born in 1963, living long enough to see music morph over and over again as it takes on the ideas and ideals of each era. Shiner shares that there is “something about the thought of life without music, and that would truly be hell.” And I agree. I could not live without music of today, or music of yesterday. But what if we could go back in time and change moments in musical history that could affect the world and, ultimately, our own lives?
Glimpses is time travel with a twist: A nearly middle-aged man who fixes stereos for a living– partly because he adores rock and roll and partly because he missed his own opportunity to be in a successful band– is listening to an old recording of a famous band. As the song ends, something strange happens, catapulting Ray into a past world of 60’s and 70’s music icons. The story, obviously, does not end there, as the main character finds himself dealing with the death of a loved one, a stagnant marriage, and his somewhat obsessive ideas of mortality. Ray is searching for answers but tries to find them through the lives of dead (and living) musicians. Ray gets to “meet” some of these icons, and in so doing decides he is going to help them, thereby helping to resolve his own issues. Glimpses (aptly titled, I will add) is a book filled with common metaphors about life, but the author has an original way of sharing these metaphors. It discusses how we are always wishing to go back again, but this is an impossibility, and even if we could, what could we really change? And if we had the power to change the past, why would we, really? Would we be doing it for the world? Or would we be doing it for our own selfish reasons?
Here is one of my favorite Glimpses quotes with regards to music from the sixties: “The problem was greed and hatred. The answer was peace and love. The way to get there was music and drugs. We knew we could change the world.” But that was not to be the case. “[By the end of 1970] It was hope and promise turned to ashes, grass and LSD turned to coke and heroin, heavy music and acid rock come to mean songs that weighed you down and burned to the touch…What happened to us? Where did we go wrong?” He then goes on to say, “Music is easy, it isn’t even that important what the words say. The real meaning is in the guitars and drums, the way a record sounds. It’s a feeling that’s bigger than words could ever be.”
There were some quibbles I have with this book, and for these reasons I give it 4.5 instead of 5 stars. The author does a little too much info dumping in some places; Ray is down in the dumps through the entire story, which gets a little tiring; and the book felt like a sort of diary, or more like an atonement, which dragged the story down a tad. Those minor things aside, Glimpses is a reminder that music is what every human needs. It brings back a mood, a memory, a time; a kind of hope that if we drop ourselves into the music of our past, we can find happiness–as if everything in the past was perfect. And maybe it was.
I compare Glimpses to Mitch Albom’s “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and the movie “Yesterday.” And if I were to give the book a theme song, it would be Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street,” from the lyrics all the way down to the sad bluesy saxophone for its hopeful message but sad undertone.
If you are looking for something different, or if you enjoy a little fantasy mixed with realism, then Glimpses might be the book for you. It is an interesting perspective on music, self-love, and mortality, and gives the reader much to think about.
Let me start by saying that I am a music lover, born in 1963, living long enough to see music morph over and over again as it takes on the ideas and ideals of each era. Shiner shares that there is “something about the thought of life without music, and that would truly be hell.” And I agree. I could not live without music of today, or music of yesterday. But what if we could go back in time and change moments in musical history that could affect the world and, ultimately, our own lives?
Glimpses is time travel with a twist: A nearly middle-aged man who fixes stereos for a living– partly because he adores rock and roll and partly because he missed his own opportunity to be in a successful band– is listening to an old recording of a famous band. As the song ends, something strange happens, catapulting Ray into a past world of 60’s and 70’s music icons. The story, obviously, does not end there, as the main character finds himself dealing with the death of a loved one, a stagnant marriage, and his somewhat obsessive ideas of mortality. Ray is searching for answers but tries to find them through the lives of dead (and living) musicians. Ray gets to “meet” some of these icons, and in so doing decides he is going to help them, thereby helping to resolve his own issues. Glimpses (aptly titled, I will add) is a book filled with common metaphors about life, but the author has an original way of sharing these metaphors. It discusses how we are always wishing to go back again, but this is an impossibility, and even if we could, what could we really change? And if we had the power to change the past, why would we, really? Would we be doing it for the world? Or would we be doing it for our own selfish reasons?
Here is one of my favorite Glimpses quotes with regards to music from the sixties: “The problem was greed and hatred. The answer was peace and love. The way to get there was music and drugs. We knew we could change the world.” But that was not to be the case. “[By the end of 1970] It was hope and promise turned to ashes, grass and LSD turned to coke and heroin, heavy music and acid rock come to mean songs that weighed you down and burned to the touch…What happened to us? Where did we go wrong?” He then goes on to say, “Music is easy, it isn’t even that important what the words say. The real meaning is in the guitars and drums, the way a record sounds. It’s a feeling that’s bigger than words could ever be.”
There were some quibbles I have with this book, and for these reasons I give it 4.5 instead of 5 stars. The author does a little too much info dumping in some places; Ray is down in the dumps through the entire story, which gets a little tiring; and the book felt like a sort of diary, or more like an atonement, which dragged the story down a tad. Those minor things aside, Glimpses is a reminder that music is what every human needs. It brings back a mood, a memory, a time; a kind of hope that if we drop ourselves into the music of our past, we can find happiness–as if everything in the past was perfect. And maybe it was.
I compare Glimpses to Mitch Albom’s “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” and the movie “Yesterday.” And if I were to give the book a theme song, it would be Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street,” from the lyrics all the way down to the sad bluesy saxophone for its hopeful message but sad undertone.
If you are looking for something different, or if you enjoy a little fantasy mixed with realism, then Glimpses might be the book for you. It is an interesting perspective on music, self-love, and mortality, and gives the reader much to think about.
July 24, 2016
One part Rolling Stone magazine, one part Ready Player One, one part King's 11/22/63, and a touch of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If that sounds appealing, this is the book for you.
The Ready, Player One reference may sound odd, but this book is an example of a particular sub-sub genre of fantasy in which the author tries to recapture not just a past childhood, but a very specific period in recent history. Shiner is a better writer, but Glimpses shares some of RPO's much greater faults, the most obvious being the question whether there's really anything here for a reader who isn't already invested in the period Shiner is writing about.
If you don't have much interest in the music of the 1960s, this book is going to be hard going. And if you're of a later generation, you're probably not going to appreciate Shiner's condescending dismissals of all music happening after 1972. This is very much fiction by a white male Boomer writing for his own demographic.
Shiner does have a gift for writing about music, and while I can't comment on how accurate his speculations are, there isn't much here that seems outrageously implausible until he crosses the dubious line of giving his protagonist a chance to interact personally with the likes of Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix. These chapters will probably be especially hard for some readers to swallow--they certainly were for me--but if you're caught up in the spirit of the thing, they'll probably go down well enough. I've certainly read far worse depictions of real-life people.
The book would have been stronger had Shiner skipped an interminable chapter about the protagonist's remarkably unremarkable mid-life crisis and short-lived affair. But a long digression like that in a book like this isn't really surprising, and he does (finally) bring things back around to the music. If the end result isn't exactly life-changing, the book does close with some bittersweet thoughts about the limits of wishful thinking, and the importance of learning to accept how life unfolds.
This is the kind of book that inspires an intense and passionate love in those whom the author specifically had in mind while writing it. If you're one of those, you really should pick this up. If you're not, there's probably another book like this for your generation out there somewhere.
The Ready, Player One reference may sound odd, but this book is an example of a particular sub-sub genre of fantasy in which the author tries to recapture not just a past childhood, but a very specific period in recent history. Shiner is a better writer, but Glimpses shares some of RPO's much greater faults, the most obvious being the question whether there's really anything here for a reader who isn't already invested in the period Shiner is writing about.
If you don't have much interest in the music of the 1960s, this book is going to be hard going. And if you're of a later generation, you're probably not going to appreciate Shiner's condescending dismissals of all music happening after 1972. This is very much fiction by a white male Boomer writing for his own demographic.
Shiner does have a gift for writing about music, and while I can't comment on how accurate his speculations are, there isn't much here that seems outrageously implausible until he crosses the dubious line of giving his protagonist a chance to interact personally with the likes of Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix. These chapters will probably be especially hard for some readers to swallow--they certainly were for me--but if you're caught up in the spirit of the thing, they'll probably go down well enough. I've certainly read far worse depictions of real-life people.
The book would have been stronger had Shiner skipped an interminable chapter about the protagonist's remarkably unremarkable mid-life crisis and short-lived affair. But a long digression like that in a book like this isn't really surprising, and he does (finally) bring things back around to the music. If the end result isn't exactly life-changing, the book does close with some bittersweet thoughts about the limits of wishful thinking, and the importance of learning to accept how life unfolds.
This is the kind of book that inspires an intense and passionate love in those whom the author specifically had in mind while writing it. If you're one of those, you really should pick this up. If you're not, there's probably another book like this for your generation out there somewhere.
December 9, 2018
I had high hopes for this, but mostly got it for supporting Skyboat Media, the wonderful team of Stefan Rudnicki & Gabrielle de Cuir. It's available here:
https://skyboatmedia.com/audiobook/gl...
I've gotten some other great freebies including three stories from the SF gem Honeymoon In Hell by Fredric Brown. "Too Far" read by Gabrielle, "The Last Martian" read by Stefan and the vignette "Imagine" read by Harlan Ellison. They're exclusively for DRIP members.
Unfortunately, this wasn't for me. While I'm fairly familiar with the bands, the music, & the times, I'm not a musician or a student of it. A friend who is read the book & really loved it for that, but he agreed with me that Ray's struggles with his marriage & father were just too long & drawn out. They were too big a part of the story. I would rather have read a few much shorter biographies.
It was well narrated & directed, of course. It had its moments, but just too few for the length.
https://skyboatmedia.com/audiobook/gl...
I've gotten some other great freebies including three stories from the SF gem Honeymoon In Hell by Fredric Brown. "Too Far" read by Gabrielle, "The Last Martian" read by Stefan and the vignette "Imagine" read by Harlan Ellison. They're exclusively for DRIP members.
Unfortunately, this wasn't for me. While I'm fairly familiar with the bands, the music, & the times, I'm not a musician or a student of it. A friend who is read the book & really loved it for that, but he agreed with me that Ray's struggles with his marriage & father were just too long & drawn out. They were too big a part of the story. I would rather have read a few much shorter biographies.
It was well narrated & directed, of course. It had its moments, but just too few for the length.
December 6, 2018
A powerful exploration of how and why music is so integral to the human experience. The mechanics of the main character's time travel/magic record ability is a little fuzzy and never adequately explained, though I'm sure Shiner tried his best. I guess the biggest problem I had with this is the same complaint I've had for so many other protagonists in novels I've read this year: instead of being heroes, they're all resigned to personal defeat in one way or another. Main characters aren't much in the hero department any more. The Brian Wilson section is probably the most interesting, but there's a strange meandering that happens in the next portion of the book. He decides to go to the Caribbean without his wife to investigate the suicide of his long deceased father and hooks up with a woman who plays the typical 'I'll Only End Up Hurting You' game with him. Am I the only one in the crowd of readers who never cared about his father's suicide and just wanted to continue seeing him try to change the fates of famous musicians? The daddy issues almost dragged this book down into morass.
February 28, 2009
Like the best works of Philip K. Dick meets Mojo magazine. If you're into 60's rock music/history and also into Dickian time travel mindbenders, this is the book for you. Very good. Meanders a bit off the path into issues with the protagonist's marriage, but not enough to detract from the main narrative. Highly recommended.
March 22, 2010
Wish fulfillment. That's the rock and roll dream, isn't it? Dreams so real you can sing them into existence by sheer intensity. But the dream fails, so much more often than not. The history of rock music is full of missteps, roads not taken, things gone wrong. Failures of nerve, loss of direction. Death come prematurely and undeserved. Janis. Lennon. Altamont. Like that. There's a sense that things went wrong, somehow; that what was meant to be got sidetracked by events.
So what if you could go back and make the wrong things right?
Ray Shackleford finds out. Although, or perhaps because, he's lost direction himself, drunkenly trapped in a loveless marriage; repairing stereos for a living in Austin, Texas; watching with horror the unaccountable ascendance of the Reagan-Bush axis; and above all else unable to reconcile himself to the death by drowning of the father who treated him with despite, Ray discovers that if he thinks about what might have been in a certain way, he can pull the sounds of that alternate past out of their universe and put them down on tape in ours, for anyone to hear.
It starts, as has so much else, with the Beatles: an acoustic, Phil Spector-less "Long and Winding Road" whose spare elegance never got recorded in our world. It's not a rejected track or an outtake; this is the song the way it was truly meant to be, the pure form it could have held if only things had been better. Wish fulfillment, on tape.
Ray takes his cassette to Graham, an independent producer who can distribute it (as a bootleg, of course—there are no contracts or studio tapes in this universe to back it up), and it's an immediate sensation. Before long his friend Graham has Ray doing the same magic for Jim Morrison and the Doors—a bigger change, since it involves keeping Morrison alive and sober enough to finish the album. And Ray begins to realize the extent, and the limits, of the power that's been given to him.
It doesn't seem to help Ray's personal life much. He does stop drinking and belately finds the courage to break off his marriage, but he's still miserable. And the time he spends rewriting history isn't good for him physically, either, even when the process works. It doesn't always work; sometimes the currents of history are too strong to be redirected, and then Ray has to figure out how to reconcile himself to that as well. Ray does do a lot of growing up during the book, but whether it's enough to save him...
This is a Baby Boomer novel; it's earnest and nostalgic, and it accepts without question that The Sixties(tm) were a critical turning point for America—that the music mattered. That viewpoint has very much gone out of style (which, it could be argued, is part of the problem) and it may be difficult for the current reader to accept. Glimpses is also very much a period piece, its narrator always looking back in time and charmingly unaware of the changes rolling towards him from our own dark future. Ray lives in 1989—as I write this it has been as long again as the time between Ray's life and the time he is recalling. Ray repairs "stereos"—that is, record players, tape decks and CD changers. MP3s and iPods do not yet exist. Computers, the Internet, cell phones... none of those have any role in Ray's life. Politics, too—Ray has no idea how dark things were to become, and sometimes that lack of foresight can be jarring.
But in spite of these quibbles—and they are just quibbles—Glimpses is one of the great rock-and-roll alternities (another being George R.R. Martin's The Armageddon Rag). Shiner's work has never really received the recognition it deserves; the signed first-edition hardcover I recently acquired cost a mere $20, which was a steal. Maybe in an alternate universe not far from this one, though, Lewis Shiner's a real rock star. The way it ought to be.
So what if you could go back and make the wrong things right?
Ray Shackleford finds out. Although, or perhaps because, he's lost direction himself, drunkenly trapped in a loveless marriage; repairing stereos for a living in Austin, Texas; watching with horror the unaccountable ascendance of the Reagan-Bush axis; and above all else unable to reconcile himself to the death by drowning of the father who treated him with despite, Ray discovers that if he thinks about what might have been in a certain way, he can pull the sounds of that alternate past out of their universe and put them down on tape in ours, for anyone to hear.
It starts, as has so much else, with the Beatles: an acoustic, Phil Spector-less "Long and Winding Road" whose spare elegance never got recorded in our world. It's not a rejected track or an outtake; this is the song the way it was truly meant to be, the pure form it could have held if only things had been better. Wish fulfillment, on tape.
Ray takes his cassette to Graham, an independent producer who can distribute it (as a bootleg, of course—there are no contracts or studio tapes in this universe to back it up), and it's an immediate sensation. Before long his friend Graham has Ray doing the same magic for Jim Morrison and the Doors—a bigger change, since it involves keeping Morrison alive and sober enough to finish the album. And Ray begins to realize the extent, and the limits, of the power that's been given to him.
It doesn't seem to help Ray's personal life much. He does stop drinking and belately finds the courage to break off his marriage, but he's still miserable. And the time he spends rewriting history isn't good for him physically, either, even when the process works. It doesn't always work; sometimes the currents of history are too strong to be redirected, and then Ray has to figure out how to reconcile himself to that as well. Ray does do a lot of growing up during the book, but whether it's enough to save him...
This is a Baby Boomer novel; it's earnest and nostalgic, and it accepts without question that The Sixties(tm) were a critical turning point for America—that the music mattered. That viewpoint has very much gone out of style (which, it could be argued, is part of the problem) and it may be difficult for the current reader to accept. Glimpses is also very much a period piece, its narrator always looking back in time and charmingly unaware of the changes rolling towards him from our own dark future. Ray lives in 1989—as I write this it has been as long again as the time between Ray's life and the time he is recalling. Ray repairs "stereos"—that is, record players, tape decks and CD changers. MP3s and iPods do not yet exist. Computers, the Internet, cell phones... none of those have any role in Ray's life. Politics, too—Ray has no idea how dark things were to become, and sometimes that lack of foresight can be jarring.
But in spite of these quibbles—and they are just quibbles—Glimpses is one of the great rock-and-roll alternities (another being George R.R. Martin's The Armageddon Rag). Shiner's work has never really received the recognition it deserves; the signed first-edition hardcover I recently acquired cost a mere $20, which was a steal. Maybe in an alternate universe not far from this one, though, Lewis Shiner's a real rock star. The way it ought to be.
January 9, 2019
If you like classic rock and roll, more specifically the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Jimi Hendricks, along with the human emotions related to why your marriage is failing and your relationship with your parents, then this is the perfect book for you. I give it a 4.5. It would have been a 5, but the end was a little weak and did not really tie together or answer questions that the main character was seeking.
September 24, 2011
Music and magic. Quite masterfully intertwined.
September 12, 2015
Full-on 6 star read.
One of those books where you need to have lived some of the context to really take so much joy from it - for others, it won't speak to them or connect (and nothing wrong with that), but for those like me, where music matters (or mattered) over and above all else, this is a phenomenal book.
I don't really want to touch on the story; suffice to say, there are two: one is that of the main character coming to terms with the death of his father, the other is that of the main character time travelling back to help create the albums that "should" have been made, but never were: Smile, Celebration Of The Lizard and First Rays of The New Rising Sun.
(The book was written in 1993. Yes, all three of those have since been recorded. Yes, that is kinda weird)
The culture of music as an actual force for good and for change in the world permeates the book; I didn't grow up in the late 60s, but I did grow up in the 90s when we went through the same cycle with rave and indie; and, just like in the 60s, we were wrong. This is a book that brings back all the positivity of the age, and does it masterfully.
Highly recommended.
One of those books where you need to have lived some of the context to really take so much joy from it - for others, it won't speak to them or connect (and nothing wrong with that), but for those like me, where music matters (or mattered) over and above all else, this is a phenomenal book.
I don't really want to touch on the story; suffice to say, there are two: one is that of the main character coming to terms with the death of his father, the other is that of the main character time travelling back to help create the albums that "should" have been made, but never were: Smile, Celebration Of The Lizard and First Rays of The New Rising Sun.
(The book was written in 1993. Yes, all three of those have since been recorded. Yes, that is kinda weird)
The culture of music as an actual force for good and for change in the world permeates the book; I didn't grow up in the late 60s, but I did grow up in the 90s when we went through the same cycle with rave and indie; and, just like in the 60s, we were wrong. This is a book that brings back all the positivity of the age, and does it masterfully.
Highly recommended.
June 5, 2009
Plot Summary: Man discovers that he can "create" rock albums as they should have been (instead of as they are) at a time when his life seems to be coming unglued. He was a teenager in the 1960's, when rock was still young and exciting and not-yet commercialized. Rock and roll adventures ensue.
This book is well-written. The research is detailed, but the details don't overwhelm the story. The main character (Ray) is human and flawed and still sympathetic. I think someone who loves rock music would enjoy the hell out of reading this. I'm not a huge fan of music, and I still loved it.
The book is a product of its time in some ways. It was written at the tail end of the 1980's when the people who'd cut their teeth in the Nixon adminstration were back in charge. Being a child of the cynical 90's and two Depression babies, I had a trouble sympathizing with Ray's crises, but the emotions were believeable, and the writing is so good and the characters so engaging, I was engrossed the whole way through.
This book is well-written. The research is detailed, but the details don't overwhelm the story. The main character (Ray) is human and flawed and still sympathetic. I think someone who loves rock music would enjoy the hell out of reading this. I'm not a huge fan of music, and I still loved it.
The book is a product of its time in some ways. It was written at the tail end of the 1980's when the people who'd cut their teeth in the Nixon adminstration were back in charge. Being a child of the cynical 90's and two Depression babies, I had a trouble sympathizing with Ray's crises, but the emotions were believeable, and the writing is so good and the characters so engaging, I was engrossed the whole way through.
December 5, 2014
Jill likes this folk song that is quite appropriate for our generation. The song, written and sung by a Gen Xer, tells about how all the Baby Boomers tell her that "it must be sad to have been born a little late." Being born late, the Gen Xer missed out on so much: the Summer of Love, Peace Marches, etc. The Gen Xer thinks this is a load of crap and wishes the Baby Boomers would just get over it (and grow up, for chrissakes). I've expressed a similar sentiment before in these pages, but directed at the generation before the Boomers and their fixation on the crash of the American Pie and the loss of Valens, et al. So when I say that I found this Boomer book--about how the music and culture of their collective childhood was so great--fabulous, you know that it faced a tough audience.
Glimpses does not hide the fact that it is about the 60s and rock music (given the demographics of the population, probably wise--there are a lot more reminiscing Boomers than fed-up Xers), and I likely took my time turning to it because it wore its influences on its jacket. I bought the book when it came out because I knew Lew Shiner from Austin and had all his other books. Lew's previous novels are kind of a mixed bag. His first, Frontera, was published by Baen, not your usual source for quality literature, and while enjoyable enough at the time, I'm not sure that Frontera has weathered quite as well as its cyberpunk contemporaries. In his second novel, Deserted Cities of the Heart, Lew's style and subject matter improved tremendously. In my internal cataloging schema, I tend to group Deserted Cities of the Heart with Pat Murphy's The City, Not Long After and Karen Joy Fowler's Artificial Things. See the paradigm shift: from Cyberpunk to feminism in one novel. Deserted Cities of the Heart was still genre, however, and Lew totally dispensed with that in his third novel, Slam. It's not quite correct, but the voice in my head associates Slam with the line in Michelle Shocked's "Anchorage" that goes "what's it like being a skate-boarding punk rocker." The writer's progress in the three novels is readily apparent, and I liked each succeeding book much more than its predecessors. But there was still that jacket painting of Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix prompting the irrational knee-jerk response.
Several things finally broke through my resistance, including Glimpses winning the World Fantasy Award, unsolicited comments and recommendations for the book from several First Impressions and Rondua members, and then it appeared in the middle of all the Anthony Powell that Alexandria Digital Literature recommends that I read. A long plane trip to New Jersey was the final straw.
I started reading it hesitantly, then slowly relaxed and started enjoying it rather than dreading it. By the time I got to page 50 I had to close the book and let the wave of "good vibrations" flow over me before continuing. It did not matter that I had waited three years before reading this--everything was alright in the world because I was only a sixth of the way into a book that I knew was my type of novel and I did not have to worry about stopping reading for at least 2,000 miles.
Glimpses is about the late 60s, but it is much more about the late 80s and one man's relation to both decades, his father, and his wife. Ray Shackleford repairs stereos in Austin, his father has just died, and he is starting to realize that his marriage is falling apart and that he is an alcoholic. Escaping from it all, he sits in his repair shop imagining what things would be like if things had been different. If he could have understood his father. If the Beatles had not broken up. If that aborted session that would have been their last studio album had actually come about. And then there it is, coming from his radio: "The Long and Winding Road." But not the over-produced, orchestrated version that we are familiar with, but a more basic version. Something that was not supposed to exist.
It is a fantasy novel, no doubt about that, but the ready acceptance of the fantastic by the characters means Glimpses is more kin to Jorge Luis Borges or Jonathan Carroll (i.e., magic realism) than Raymond Feist or David Eddings. While the fantastic elements are fun and Shiner does a superb job of re-creating the atmospheres of the recording sessions, it is Ray, his friendships, and his family relationships that drive you to keep reading. Before you are halfway through this novel, you want happiness for Ray, but know that there will be a lot of pain and suffering before he will achieve peace. And you know that his power to re-create music that never was will be as much a danger to him as a gift.
Glimpses has my highest recommendation, and given a sufficient waiting period, will likely be on my list of Top 10 favorite novels.
Glimpses does not hide the fact that it is about the 60s and rock music (given the demographics of the population, probably wise--there are a lot more reminiscing Boomers than fed-up Xers), and I likely took my time turning to it because it wore its influences on its jacket. I bought the book when it came out because I knew Lew Shiner from Austin and had all his other books. Lew's previous novels are kind of a mixed bag. His first, Frontera, was published by Baen, not your usual source for quality literature, and while enjoyable enough at the time, I'm not sure that Frontera has weathered quite as well as its cyberpunk contemporaries. In his second novel, Deserted Cities of the Heart, Lew's style and subject matter improved tremendously. In my internal cataloging schema, I tend to group Deserted Cities of the Heart with Pat Murphy's The City, Not Long After and Karen Joy Fowler's Artificial Things. See the paradigm shift: from Cyberpunk to feminism in one novel. Deserted Cities of the Heart was still genre, however, and Lew totally dispensed with that in his third novel, Slam. It's not quite correct, but the voice in my head associates Slam with the line in Michelle Shocked's "Anchorage" that goes "what's it like being a skate-boarding punk rocker." The writer's progress in the three novels is readily apparent, and I liked each succeeding book much more than its predecessors. But there was still that jacket painting of Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix prompting the irrational knee-jerk response.
Several things finally broke through my resistance, including Glimpses winning the World Fantasy Award, unsolicited comments and recommendations for the book from several First Impressions and Rondua members, and then it appeared in the middle of all the Anthony Powell that Alexandria Digital Literature recommends that I read. A long plane trip to New Jersey was the final straw.
I started reading it hesitantly, then slowly relaxed and started enjoying it rather than dreading it. By the time I got to page 50 I had to close the book and let the wave of "good vibrations" flow over me before continuing. It did not matter that I had waited three years before reading this--everything was alright in the world because I was only a sixth of the way into a book that I knew was my type of novel and I did not have to worry about stopping reading for at least 2,000 miles.
Glimpses is about the late 60s, but it is much more about the late 80s and one man's relation to both decades, his father, and his wife. Ray Shackleford repairs stereos in Austin, his father has just died, and he is starting to realize that his marriage is falling apart and that he is an alcoholic. Escaping from it all, he sits in his repair shop imagining what things would be like if things had been different. If he could have understood his father. If the Beatles had not broken up. If that aborted session that would have been their last studio album had actually come about. And then there it is, coming from his radio: "The Long and Winding Road." But not the over-produced, orchestrated version that we are familiar with, but a more basic version. Something that was not supposed to exist.
It is a fantasy novel, no doubt about that, but the ready acceptance of the fantastic by the characters means Glimpses is more kin to Jorge Luis Borges or Jonathan Carroll (i.e., magic realism) than Raymond Feist or David Eddings. While the fantastic elements are fun and Shiner does a superb job of re-creating the atmospheres of the recording sessions, it is Ray, his friendships, and his family relationships that drive you to keep reading. Before you are halfway through this novel, you want happiness for Ray, but know that there will be a lot of pain and suffering before he will achieve peace. And you know that his power to re-create music that never was will be as much a danger to him as a gift.
Glimpses has my highest recommendation, and given a sufficient waiting period, will likely be on my list of Top 10 favorite novels.
May 13, 2023
We're all familiar with Borges's idea of the Library of Babel, where nearly every book of a certain type (especially the unwritten and unpublished ones) can be found. Well, Shiner takes this idea and transposes it to the musical realm, imagining a man with the ability to conjure up deep cuts and forgotten tracks among the Beatles, the Doors, and Hendrix that COULD have been recorded, but were not. And this concept -- which reads almost like a series of 33 1/3 volumes dragged into the fantasy realm -- is very fun and SO promising! Unfortunately, Paul's own life story is thin and sketchy and not especially compelling. The unfortunate reality is that Shiner is much better at writing about these imagined recording sessions than diving meaningfully into his protagonist's pain and trauma. So your mileage may vary!
January 20, 2014
GLIMPSES was Lewis Shiner's 4th novel, published in 1993. The protagonist, Ray, a late 30s ex-drummer and now full time musical equipment repair guy discovers that he has the ability to imagine music that might have been, but never was, and not only get it to play out of a stereo system, but actually be recorded. When he plays a recording of "The Long and Winding Road" the way if would have sounded before Phil Spector got his hands on the master tapes for the owner of a Rhino Records type company that releases old bootlegs and rare outtakes and the like from 1960s era bands, he gets talked into trying to first recreate the rumored but never actually recorded "Celebration of the Lizard" by the Doors. There is a segment on Brian Wilson's begun in 1966 but then abandoned "Smile", and a final one about Jimi Hendrix's "The First Rays of the New Rising Sun. In between and at the end there is a lot of not particularly interesting stuff about Ray's relationships with his father, mother, wife and past and present girlfriends.
The writing is OK but not particularly poetic and the pacing is best described as languid. If one is interested in the history of the Doors, Beach Boys and Jimi they will probably like this novel. The Brian Wilson segment is the best (and also the weirdest, as Ray time travels back to 1966 and Brian's Hollywood mansion a lá the movie "Somewhere in Time"), and the Hendrix segment the weakest (perhaps because I cared the most about it and as a 60 year old guitarist, knew more about Hendrix's music and life than I did about the Doors or the Beach Boys).
And, being written in 1992 or 1993, the author could not have anticipated that "Smile" would actually have been completed by Brian Wilson in 2004, and "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" compiled and released in the late 1990s, followed by a Spector-removed version of "Let itBe". None is very much as described in the novel but one can hardly fault the author for that. Music fans like me who were there when this all went down might like it or not, depending on their degree of familiarity with the source material, but I think that the best audience might be the next generation who heard about these bands but were not there when they were playing live and who didn't grow up steeped in 1960s rock and roll culture.
Not bad, especially for the price, but not awesome either. It was OK.
J.M. Tepper
The writing is OK but not particularly poetic and the pacing is best described as languid. If one is interested in the history of the Doors, Beach Boys and Jimi they will probably like this novel. The Brian Wilson segment is the best (and also the weirdest, as Ray time travels back to 1966 and Brian's Hollywood mansion a lá the movie "Somewhere in Time"), and the Hendrix segment the weakest (perhaps because I cared the most about it and as a 60 year old guitarist, knew more about Hendrix's music and life than I did about the Doors or the Beach Boys).
And, being written in 1992 or 1993, the author could not have anticipated that "Smile" would actually have been completed by Brian Wilson in 2004, and "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" compiled and released in the late 1990s, followed by a Spector-removed version of "Let itBe". None is very much as described in the novel but one can hardly fault the author for that. Music fans like me who were there when this all went down might like it or not, depending on their degree of familiarity with the source material, but I think that the best audience might be the next generation who heard about these bands but were not there when they were playing live and who didn't grow up steeped in 1960s rock and roll culture.
Not bad, especially for the price, but not awesome either. It was OK.
J.M. Tepper
August 1, 2016
I really liked this novel, which contains two great things put together: time travel and the rock icons of the late 60s - Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, and Jimi Hendrix. What if you have the power to somehow reach through time and manipulate events so that the infamous albums from rock history - which were never completed or released - actually got finished? And you had the power to record them and sell them on the black market? That's the premise here. I knew a lot about the Beach Boys and had some pretty good knowledge of Morrison and Hendrix. It's a lot of fun seeing them back in their heyday and trying to avoid impending doom.
At the same time, this has a pretty good story about a man coming to deal with the legacy his father left behind - a Dad who somewhat mistreated and belittled him. Ray is having serious issues with how his father died and also with his marriage to Elizabeth. He's also an alcoholic and making some bad choices along the way. These rock stars also have substance abuse and parental issues.
I went back and forth from the Kindle edition to the audiobook narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, who captured Ray's pain / indecision / enthusiasm for music.
At the same time, this has a pretty good story about a man coming to deal with the legacy his father left behind - a Dad who somewhat mistreated and belittled him. Ray is having serious issues with how his father died and also with his marriage to Elizabeth. He's also an alcoholic and making some bad choices along the way. These rock stars also have substance abuse and parental issues.
I went back and forth from the Kindle edition to the audiobook narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, who captured Ray's pain / indecision / enthusiasm for music.
August 3, 2016
LBC Bingo: Book Heavily Featuring Music
4.5 Stars
The premise of this book is so creative and interesting that I want to recommend it to others, but when I go through my list of other readers, I'm not sure what other people would think of this one!
I loved Shiner's tale about music and parental relationships, but I thought his love relationships were a little weak (- 1/2 a star). This is the type of book that really sticks with you. Totally worth the inter-library loan hassle.
4.5 Stars
The premise of this book is so creative and interesting that I want to recommend it to others, but when I go through my list of other readers, I'm not sure what other people would think of this one!
I loved Shiner's tale about music and parental relationships, but I thought his love relationships were a little weak (- 1/2 a star). This is the type of book that really sticks with you. Totally worth the inter-library loan hassle.
October 28, 2010
Wonderful rock 'n roll time travel tale!
January 19, 2018
If you grew up listening to The Beatles, Hendrix, Joplin, etc., you'll love this book.
August 22, 2017
di demos inediti dei beatles ne sono usciti tanti ai tempi dell'"anthology" e lo stesso "let it be" è stato oggetto di una ristampa più asciutta e "sentita" ma non ricordo ci fosse una "the long and winding road" con tutti e quattro e un pò mi spiace, ma la versione "let it be...naked" ci sta a provare a farcela immaginare; di inediti dei doors ne sono usciti pochi e tra essi nessuna "celebration of the lizard" che avesse un senso logico e ci tocca ancora adesso decifrare quella de tanti bootleg usciti begli anni se proprio non ci si accontenta della versione di "absolutely live"; "first rays of the rising sun" alla fine è stato ricostruito -dopo tutti quei patchwork inutili citati anche da shiner, e che forse è meglio dimenticare per sempre se proprio non si ha la fissa del collezionismo- grazie alle sensate ristampe curate dalla famiglia hendrix che han lasciato al buon eddie kramer la possibilità di ricreare quel capolavoro perduto (o perlomeno qualcosa che somiglia il più possibile); infine il nuovo millennio ha visto tra le altre cose l'uscita di quello "smile" che brian wilson ha smesso di considerare un miraggio incompletabile e che anzi è il fulcro della sue recenti esibizioni dal vivo.
non da più nessun effetto quindi leggere della riemersione da universi alternativi di questi capolavori, o meglio non c'è quasi più bisogno di immaginarsi l'effetto che potrebbero fare visto che basta fare un salto nel negozietto più vicino (o su amazon, se proprio si vive lontati da negozi di dischi) per procurarseli con tanto di nutrito libretto che svela i misteri dietro al disco in questione.
cosa resta quindi? resta un romanzo sugli anni sessanta o meglio sul ricordo degli anni sessanta, che in tempi di ridiscussione del '68 fa piacere leggere, resta un romanzo sulla natura dei sentimenti, dei sentimenti verso la propria compagna e verso i propri genitori, che evita ogni luogo comune sul tema con una sincerità che troppi autori "seri" (ovvero quelli che sicuramente dovrebbero considerare lewis shiner e gli altri scrittori "di genere" -cyberpunk, nella fattispecie- roba di serie b, e per questo intrappolati in una serie di luoghi comuni) non riescono ad avere, resta soprattutto un romanzo sul crescere, su quello che ci resta dentro e su quello che avremmo voluto che fosse la nostra vita.
una sorta de "il grande freddo" traslato di qualche anno (siamo a cavallo tra '80 e '90, e giustamente qua e la spuntano soundgarden e green river, thin white rope e alarm, perchè in fondo la musica va avanti e non si possono rimpiangere quei grandi artisti tutta la vita) i cui protagonisti -ray,e quindi elizabeth, graham e lori - non hanno nulla da invidiare a quelli di quel celebre film.
non da più nessun effetto quindi leggere della riemersione da universi alternativi di questi capolavori, o meglio non c'è quasi più bisogno di immaginarsi l'effetto che potrebbero fare visto che basta fare un salto nel negozietto più vicino (o su amazon, se proprio si vive lontati da negozi di dischi) per procurarseli con tanto di nutrito libretto che svela i misteri dietro al disco in questione.
cosa resta quindi? resta un romanzo sugli anni sessanta o meglio sul ricordo degli anni sessanta, che in tempi di ridiscussione del '68 fa piacere leggere, resta un romanzo sulla natura dei sentimenti, dei sentimenti verso la propria compagna e verso i propri genitori, che evita ogni luogo comune sul tema con una sincerità che troppi autori "seri" (ovvero quelli che sicuramente dovrebbero considerare lewis shiner e gli altri scrittori "di genere" -cyberpunk, nella fattispecie- roba di serie b, e per questo intrappolati in una serie di luoghi comuni) non riescono ad avere, resta soprattutto un romanzo sul crescere, su quello che ci resta dentro e su quello che avremmo voluto che fosse la nostra vita.
una sorta de "il grande freddo" traslato di qualche anno (siamo a cavallo tra '80 e '90, e giustamente qua e la spuntano soundgarden e green river, thin white rope e alarm, perchè in fondo la musica va avanti e non si possono rimpiangere quei grandi artisti tutta la vita) i cui protagonisti -ray,e quindi elizabeth, graham e lori - non hanno nulla da invidiare a quelli di quel celebre film.
August 10, 2021
I was turned on to GLIMPSES by none other than Paul Williams, the Godfather of Rock Journalism and author of several books, included the influential DAS ENERGI. He told me to read the novel then contact the author as Lew Shiner, a friend of his, and I had a lot in common.
I did as advised and loved the book! I then contacted the author and Lew and I have become buddies. So, in one paragraph I get to drop names, show off, and declare the fact that I may be a wee bit biased about Shiner's work.
GLIMPSES is a "time travel" story (although not a science fiction story) that deals with '60s rock music. The protagonist's convoluted, love-hate relationship with his departed father provides an emotional backdrop.
GLIMPSES is one of my faveravest novels of the past few decades. It was also the gateway to Shiner's other novels, most of which I also rate VERY highly here on GoodReads. If you do read GLIMPSES and want more Shiner, give a look-see at his latest novel, OUTSIDE THE GATES OF EDEN, which also takes on the music of the '60s but just about every other aspect of that pivotal "era."
Finally, the following is both a teaser and a spoiler alert: The "time-traveling" involves the protagonist "assisting" Brian Wilson, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix on three of the most legendary, unfinished albums in rock history.)
PS: Lew and I also partnered up with John Ross and created a pair of music-related publications on Medium, "Tell It Like It Was" (https://medium.com/tell-it-like-it-was) and "Elvis: That's The Way It Was" (https://medium.com/elvis-thats-the-wa...).
I did as advised and loved the book! I then contacted the author and Lew and I have become buddies. So, in one paragraph I get to drop names, show off, and declare the fact that I may be a wee bit biased about Shiner's work.
GLIMPSES is a "time travel" story (although not a science fiction story) that deals with '60s rock music. The protagonist's convoluted, love-hate relationship with his departed father provides an emotional backdrop.
GLIMPSES is one of my faveravest novels of the past few decades. It was also the gateway to Shiner's other novels, most of which I also rate VERY highly here on GoodReads. If you do read GLIMPSES and want more Shiner, give a look-see at his latest novel, OUTSIDE THE GATES OF EDEN, which also takes on the music of the '60s but just about every other aspect of that pivotal "era."
Finally, the following is both a teaser and a spoiler alert: The "time-traveling" involves the protagonist "assisting" Brian Wilson, Jim Morrison, and Jimi Hendrix on three of the most legendary, unfinished albums in rock history.)
PS: Lew and I also partnered up with John Ross and created a pair of music-related publications on Medium, "Tell It Like It Was" (https://medium.com/tell-it-like-it-was) and "Elvis: That's The Way It Was" (https://medium.com/elvis-thats-the-wa...).
December 21, 2017
Glimpses by Lewis Shiner has been on my "to-read" list for a while, and I finally got to it in the last week. Ray Shackleford is going through hard times - his father just died and his marriage isn't working. Then he discovers he can "recover" lost albums by classic rock musicians from the 60's, which leads him on a journey of self-discovery.
This was a really heart-felt and humane story, about loss and love, and what's important in life. At the same time it was a meticulous and believable dive into the lives of some famous musicians and their music - especially The Beach Boys (well Brian Wilson) and Jimi Hendrix, and to a lesser degree The Doors and The Beatles. It is very well done and it's obvious the author is a big fan of this era of music. He then inter-twines these two facets into an engaging and very readable story.
Personally I like the music and history of all the above musicians (some more than others) which made it extra special (and I would assume would for others as well).
This was a really heart-felt and humane story, about loss and love, and what's important in life. At the same time it was a meticulous and believable dive into the lives of some famous musicians and their music - especially The Beach Boys (well Brian Wilson) and Jimi Hendrix, and to a lesser degree The Doors and The Beatles. It is very well done and it's obvious the author is a big fan of this era of music. He then inter-twines these two facets into an engaging and very readable story.
Personally I like the music and history of all the above musicians (some more than others) which made it extra special (and I would assume would for others as well).
August 18, 2019
Ugh, I cannot do this. DNF.
Seriously? A middle aged white dude dealing with his lost youth and the messed up relationship with his dad? All to the sound of boring 60s music (the most mediocre band, The Beatles', most boring album, Let It Be of all records) motivating the protagonist to supposedly profound thoughts. Who needs another one of this kind of book? Not me, that's for sure.
I've given this book (not peace, hur hur) a chance for a couple dozen more pages after that intro and momentarily I got interested in how it goes on, until the focus shifted from the whiny, racist and misogynist Beatles to the whiny child rapist Jim Morrison. Even if this book were written well (which it isn't, though it does have its moments), that would be too much for me.
If you're an aging white hetero dude pining after your youth you spent listening to mediocre music, this book might be for you. For me it's not.
Seriously? A middle aged white dude dealing with his lost youth and the messed up relationship with his dad? All to the sound of boring 60s music (the most mediocre band, The Beatles', most boring album, Let It Be of all records) motivating the protagonist to supposedly profound thoughts. Who needs another one of this kind of book? Not me, that's for sure.
I've given this book (not peace, hur hur) a chance for a couple dozen more pages after that intro and momentarily I got interested in how it goes on, until the focus shifted from the whiny, racist and misogynist Beatles to the whiny child rapist Jim Morrison. Even if this book were written well (which it isn't, though it does have its moments), that would be too much for me.
If you're an aging white hetero dude pining after your youth you spent listening to mediocre music, this book might be for you. For me it's not.
February 10, 2021
Considering my luck in recent years with WFA novel winners, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.
Considering how light the touch was with the speculative element, and how easily the main character could have written most of it off as hallucination, I was even more surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.
Part of it might be that I'm at the right age to appreciate the mortality of my parents and, to a lesser extent, my own. But the rest is a well-realized character and quality of writing so I'm seeing things very effectively as that character experiences them. I'm not particularly a Doors or Hendrix or Beach Boys fan, but I am a music fan and I can certainly appreciate the realism of things as the character sees them during the story. All while coming to terms with the death of a father he never understood and the changing relationships of his life.
It works well and is worth the read.
Considering how light the touch was with the speculative element, and how easily the main character could have written most of it off as hallucination, I was even more surprised at how much I enjoyed this book.
Part of it might be that I'm at the right age to appreciate the mortality of my parents and, to a lesser extent, my own. But the rest is a well-realized character and quality of writing so I'm seeing things very effectively as that character experiences them. I'm not particularly a Doors or Hendrix or Beach Boys fan, but I am a music fan and I can certainly appreciate the realism of things as the character sees them during the story. All while coming to terms with the death of a father he never understood and the changing relationships of his life.
It works well and is worth the read.
December 28, 2021
This was a shaggy-dog rock’n’roll time travel fantasy, with appearances by Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, Jimi Hendrix, and the Beatles (briefly), so—right there you can probably figure out if it’s your jam or not, and though I had some quibbles, it was definitely enough my kind of thing to be fun. The plotting was all over the place, and looks like it was set up to include as many elements of the author’s autobiography as he could cram in—and for all his characterizations of their various neuroses and challenges, the novel’s women are all pretty much two-dimensional fantasy projections, plus one slightly complex difficult WIFE, ahem. OK, the protagonist is a bit of a dick. But despite those criticisms, to overuse an overused phrase, it is what it is—an enjoyable music-geeky tale, the kind of book you would have picked up on the wire rack of the candy/smoke shop on the corner in 1995 and definitely have gotten your $7.95 worth.
May 27, 2017
When it comes down to it, there are really only two ratings categories: Books that are worth your time and books that are not. This book definitely falls into the "worth your time" category. However, there is no mistaking the fact that this book is a little bit flawed. It is all over the place and it also seems to not know what it should be. Is it a time travel book? Is it a father-son book? Or is it a romance? I hate critiquing authors though, because I know I could never write a book as good as this. But I also want to add that this book has stayed in my thoughts since I've read it, whereas many other books I've read were forgotten almost immediately after I finished them. So I guess what I'm saying is that this book is worth your time and it will stay with you long after you've read it, which I must admit, is actually high praise for a book. Of course, I don't think this book will work for many people under 40. But I wish it would've went in a completely different direction. I would've liked a better explanation on how he went back in time and I also would've liked that whatever happened during his time travels would've rewritten his present situation. The author could've still kept in everything he wanted to say about his father and wife, but he could've also went back in time to right all those present day wrongs. That would've really worked for me.
March 31, 2020
When I originally read the description of this book it sounded like a light read that would be more fun than anything else. Combining the fantasy concept of time travel with famous musicians seemed enjoyable, but probably wouldn’t be “important” or even that memorable. Basically, I assumed it would be a book to pass the time and nothing else.
I was completely wrong. The time travel aspect is interesting and all of the musician sections are a blast. But, Ray is simply an amazing character. Much like Ray ended up missing Brian Wilson I’m going to miss Ray. He was so well written and his pain, loss, and confusion was incredibly relatable. Somehow this time travel rock and roll book made me take a deeper look at my own life and see some of my own junk in ways I hadn’t before. Ray couldn’t save the world, but he certainly helped me.
I was completely wrong. The time travel aspect is interesting and all of the musician sections are a blast. But, Ray is simply an amazing character. Much like Ray ended up missing Brian Wilson I’m going to miss Ray. He was so well written and his pain, loss, and confusion was incredibly relatable. Somehow this time travel rock and roll book made me take a deeper look at my own life and see some of my own junk in ways I hadn’t before. Ray couldn’t save the world, but he certainly helped me.
June 23, 2020
This book can't be described; it NEEDS to be read. It touched on all my emotions. It brought back so many memories of my youth in the 60s and later memories. It reinforced my belief that music is a universal language. Those who don't appreciate music or understand its importance, will probably not understand this book. That's sad because there's much in this story that will touch many of you deeply, particularly if you lived through the turbulent times of the late 60s and beyond.
Books are subjective things, as I've stated often in reviews or descriptions to friends. One-book-fits-all is just as impractical as one-music-fits-all. You may or may not like this book. It's up to YOU! I do recommend it highly, though.
When the Music's Over - The Doors (1967)
Books are subjective things, as I've stated often in reviews or descriptions to friends. One-book-fits-all is just as impractical as one-music-fits-all. You may or may not like this book. It's up to YOU! I do recommend it highly, though.
When the Music's Over - The Doors (1967)
April 2, 2022
This book took me a long time to read. It was good, but just not terribly engaging. It’s about a guy who travels in time to try to get famously unfinished albums recorded. His personal problems are mixed in with that plot. I found the time travel to be really interesting, but the life story narrative was rather ho hum. The interactions with the artists were based on interviews, biography, autobiography, and some speculation and created very well-developed characters. This book won the 1994 World Fantasy Award.
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Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
June 10, 2018
The albums that never got released. From Morrison, Hendrix, Beatles and Beach boys. That is what attracted me to this book initially.
And while that part spins out like the best Philip K. Dick novel, at the same time the story transforms itself to a deeply personal, heartfelt drama. One person's journey through his own past, via the imagined albums, makes him confront both that past and his present state, find the meaning and strength to change, grow up while keeping the kid alive.
Beautiful novel, inspiration to anyone growing with that music in the heart.
And while that part spins out like the best Philip K. Dick novel, at the same time the story transforms itself to a deeply personal, heartfelt drama. One person's journey through his own past, via the imagined albums, makes him confront both that past and his present state, find the meaning and strength to change, grow up while keeping the kid alive.
Beautiful novel, inspiration to anyone growing with that music in the heart.
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