Review by Booklist Review
"Water Lil" is an aging country and western star who hopes that success will be her best chance for revenge and redemption. After a lifetime of disappointment and bitterness, she has rationalized her moral flexibility and defensiveness as necessary for attracting opportunity and gaining respectability. Lil's constructed persona and callous exterior provide her some protection, but substance abuse and mistrust repeatedly derail her career and relationships. Lil's life story is told in flashback, starting with her troubled childhood during the 1920s, through her rise to fame--and spectacular fall--to a desperate comeback attempt in 1980. Lil's farewell tour is a harsh physical and psychological journey, with a climactic and transformative final performance in her hometown. Clifford (Everybody Rise, 2015) regularly diverges from Lil's personal story to have her comment on the mistreatment of women and minorities in Lil's post-war era. Country music fans will appreciate references to real musicians and the portrayal of artistic obsession. Lil's blunt assessment of common attitudes and events in our nation's past serves to counter an image often distorted through idealized nostalgia.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Clifford (Everybody Rise) recounts the ascent of a Nashville music star in her entertaining latest. After receiving a diagnosis of permanent throat damage, Lillian Waters, a contemporary of Tammy, Loretta, and Dolly, embarks on a farewell tour in 1980. In flashbacks, Clifford traces Lillian's rise from hardscrabble farmer's daughter during the Depression to country music legend. As a young girl, Lillian sings with her sister, Hen, on the family farm. At 10, she strikes out on her own, going on to perform on local radio shows and with various small-time bands, meeting longtime collaborator Charlie Hagerty in 1940, and, by 1958, she's hitched her star to future legend Buck Owens. The road to stardom is long and full of heartache, and, eventually, after an abusive marriage, an abortion, and exploitation by music executives, Lillian finds fame as a 40-year-old. Now, with Charlie once again in the band, Lillian hopes to put the ghosts of her past to bed. Lillian is a memorable, believable creation, but the author's tendency to tell more than show throttles some of the narrative's power. Still, as the tour gets underway, Clifford conveys Lillian's joy in crystalizing an emotion into a song and connecting with a live audience. In the end, Clifford pulls off a moving tribute to the power of country music. (Mar.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In 1980, country-and-western star Lillian Waters has organized a coast-to-coast farewell tour, relishing the glory of playing live music to packed houses one last time. But she's facing some demons, too; on her last stop, she'll visit the farm and the sister she left behind at age 10. Threaded throughout: Lillian's early days in the Depression and World War II eras and her flame-throwing rise to stardom. From the author of the New York Times best-selling Everybody Rise.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
From a hardscrabble Washington farm to the stage of the Grand Old Opry, this lyrical novel showcases one woman's hunger for stardom as she tries to outrun her past. Fans of the TV series Nashville will fall under the spell of Lillian Waters, a washed-up country star who drinks and misbehaves while fans prefer the wholesome charms of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. Born Lena Thorsell in the 1920s, the daughter of impoverished Swedish immigrants, she leaves home at the improbable age of 10 to make her way in the world. As time passes, her musical talents are revealed, but her simmering anger thwarts career opportunities and healthy relationships and becomes the "repetitive melody" of her life. Yet after decades of touring, her voice damaged, her body wrecked by alcohol, she stages a comeback in the 1980s. Told against the backdrop of history, including job opportunities that opened for women during World War II and the issue of sexism in the music industry in the mid-20th century, Lillian's operatic story highlights how unresolved childhood trauma can permanently alter one's life. Clifford writes with authority about life on the road and the challenges faced by women struggling to make it as singers and musicians. Country music fans will love the name-dropping as Clifford slides Dolly, Loretta, Buck Owens, Charley Pride, and others into this hard-knocks tale. This character-driven novel is sometimes bogged down by a narrative style that frequently recounts events rather than dropping readers into the action. Still, the story shines like a rhinestone-bedazzled costume fit for a country queen. A break-your-heart, toe-tapping story that deserves a song of its own. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
