Review by New York Times Review
When the only daughter of the aging rocker Jack Voss kills herself as part of a love triangle multi-suicide, Voss must confront the role his music might have played. Written decades earlier, Voss's infamous rock opera - which ends with the members of a love triangle making a death pact - both catapulted Voss to stardom and nearly ended his career when the album was blamed for inspiring a number of suicides. Looking for insights into his daughter's death, Voss re-examines the genesis of his band, founded with a talented but erratic childhood friend and managed by Voss's long-suffering wife. Reliving the rise and fall of his career, he is forced to reflect on how much he lost in pursuit of his music: his marriage, his sobriety and now possibly his child. The novel conveys a genuine passion for rock music, and cleverly includes liner notes, song titles, lyrics and a discography, but the authenticity is compromised rather than enhanced when actual stars make cameo appearances: David Bowie producing one of Voss's later albums, Nick Cave inviting him onstage for an impromptu jam session. Van Kirk raises compelling if age-old questions about the tension between art and life, and about our responsibilities to those we love, but Voss's story ultimately feels dictated by the novel's thematic insistence on the high price of fame.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [September 29, 2013]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Van Kirk's debut novel is a passionate, elegiac tale about the excesses of sex, drugs, and rock and roll over a tortured musician's lifetime. Middle-aged rock star Jack Voss leaves his home in Carmel, Calif., in July 2004 to visit old friends in New York City, only to discover that his daughter Chance has just died in an apparent suicide pact inside a Hoboken flat, along with her boyfriend, Fadil al Muti. Chance's friend Neil Webster is found alive at the scene, having failed to go through with the pact, and Jack later meets with him in prison, where he's being held on suspicion of having murdered Chance and Fadil. Jack also has an awkward, hostile visit with his ex-wife, Chance's mother Avery, who says of their past together, "We've got quite a history." Flashbacks prove her point, showing Avery as Jack's childhood sweetheart and later, as the shrewd manager of his rock band Vossimilitude. Chance's death reawakens Jack's bitter memories of how his 1974 rock opera The Enchanted Pond, which ends with a triple suicide, inspired several teenage fans to kill themselves, and drives him to try to unravel Chance's motives for killing herself. An invented discography, excerpts of lyrics, and cameos by real-life figures like Nick Cave give a feeling of authenticity to Van Kirk's fictional rock star. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
