Customer Reviews

Broad Street

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have read so many books about New York City and its scenes that I am thrilled to finally read a book about the Phialdelphia Music scene. "Broad Street" takes place in the 1990's when the music scene was turning away from the bubble gum pop music of the 80's and turning toward the rustic sounds and blood letting lyrics of garage bands.
The main character, Kit, finds herself once again without a boyfriend and is looking for a new project. At a party in which Kit fears she may in fact run into her ex, she meets Margo and the girls decide it is time for them to get out from under the shadows of their male musicial counterparts and start claiming the lime light for themselves. Weiser keeps her characters running through the ups and downs of life as a struggling female musician.
Although this is Weiser's first novel, it reads with the maturity of a seasoned novelist. Weiser's characters are well crafted and I dare anyone to not see either a bit of themselves or someone close to them in the characters Kit and Margo.
I started reading this book at around noon and by dinner time I was annoyed that it was over. I even tired to stop myself from turning the pages, but my willpower was weak.
Christine Weiser is a great new writer and her novel is an explosive read. I look forward to watching Weiser's literary career and fan base grow.

I finished Broad Street last night, (even paid for it...through
Amazon) after four enjoyable last-thing-at-night reads. I really
enjoyed the book overall and your writing. At first it felt kind of
girly to me, so much worrying about whether a guy was going to call
the next day after the night before. But as the story built, I
realized that the insecure person who narrates the beginning of the
book becomes a more confident and self-actualized person by the end.

Using the death of Kurt Cobain and the quest to give meaning to it
was a brilliant way to end the book. The event really gets Kit to see
her life and her quest for "success" in perspective.

Also, the whole local rock scene depicted was fascinating to me,
especially the insiders' language.

The final paragraph has a kind of Fitzgerald/Gatsby feel to it that
carried Kit away to what, I thought, would be a wiser level of
living. I liked it so much I reread it again last night.

As someone who spent most of the 90's in a Philadelphia suburb, I really wanted to love this book. I didn't love it, but I liked it. I felt it was a pretty realistic portrayal of life in the early to mid-nineties, though I did find myself occasionally thinking things like, "Would she have really been able to afford to have a DVD player then?" Or," why would the "poor" girl have a cell phone?" Though dates are never officially mentioned, the fact that Kurt Cobain's suicide occurs at the end of the book (I promise that's not a spoiler) places the book squarely in the fall of 1993 through the spring of 1994. Such anachronisms can be forgiven though as the rest of the book puts you squarely during the time of early grunge and pop punk.

There were times when Broad Street felt like any other "chick lit" (of course the heroine's day job is in the publishing industry, I can't think of many in the genre who aren't) but then a scene shows up that veers you right out of the genre. (Other than good old Bridget Jones, I can't think of another chick lit heroine who does mushrooms.) Of course Kit, our narrator, makes the requisite horrendous choices (I mean really horrendous!) when it comes to men, work and life. What's beautiful is that everything isn't tied up in a little bow at the end. Certainly Kit grows and comes to know herself better, but like life, there's always more to learn.

That's the story itself, a few quick notes in regard to the copy. This was not an uncorrected proof as far as I could see. Nowhere were those words printed on the cover and the ISBN and bar code were clearly visible on the back, so the number of typos and grammatical errors was inexcusable (the author used to be a proofreader for goodness sake!) and the prose felt clumpy and stunted at times. However, this was the first time out for both the author and publisher. I'm hoping that this will be the first of more to come from this promising writer.

The novel follows Kit and Margo as they decide on one very drunken night to form a band in order to get back at the men in their lives who are both in bands themselves. What follows is an absolutely crazy ride full of seedy bars, bikers, wild parties, trying to secure gigs and most of all trying to get themselves a decent drummer while trying to succeed in a male dominated business back in the mid-90's.

The author really draws us into the lives of these girls especially Kit's and it turns out that Kit was my favorite character in spite of some of the things she did which horrified me. At the start of the novel Kit has just broken up with her boyfriend Dale and is feeling more than a little lost. She ends up going to the party where she meets Margo and she's feeling out of place with all these people who knew her when she was a couple so she resorts to more than a few drinks which ends in her drunken agreement to form a band. They start practicing together and get some gigs and begin meeting a lot of people. Kit somehow ends up drifting off in the wrong direction in terms of alcohol, drugs and sex though and she makes a lot of really unwise decisions. At the same time you ask yourself is this part of the whole scene or is it just Kit trying to find out who she really is and where she belongs? What I liked best was as the story progresses we can see Kit changing and realizing just how much she really does have to offer to herself, her family and the world around her.

I really enjoyed the book and read it in a couple of sitttings. I was hooked from the first page and interested to find out how things would end for Kit. For those who find the rock scene with alcohol, drugs and sex offensive then you may not like the book but this book holds so much more than that in terms of strong women and finding yourself in a sometimes mixed up world. Anyone interested in forming a band or is part of one would definitely enjoy it. For me it was a fun and fast read.

Christine Weiser's Broad Street is a fun, rollicking read. Weiser not only knows her music, but can bring home the sounds of rock bands playing in clubs and community festivals to life. Anyone from the Philadelphia area will enjoy recongizing the settings, but protagonist Kit will appeal to those who have never so much as stepped onto Broad Street. I especially appreciated that the novel ends with the band signing an iffy contract with a producer and an epilogue in the form of a review of their first CD while declining to provide Kit with "Mr. Right."

I loved this book. A friend passed it on to me. I think it took me a whole chapter to get into (all of 6 pages or so), but once I got into it I could not stop reading it. Seriously, I read it in two days, and was completely bummed when it ended. It is hip and interesting and a great story in general. I dig the author's style, her voice is definitely unique.

Who would have thought I'd enjoy a novel about the mid-'90s Philadelphia rock scene? When I first saw a copy of Broad Street, I almost passed it by. What do I have in common with girl grunge, biker gangs, black leather pants and seedy bars?

But I'm glad I gave it a try. Within the pages of Broad Street, I found strong themes to relate to, themes common to most women's lives, past and present: the task of juggling personal and professional life, boring day jobs, and issues with siblings and parents. Okay, not many of us have to search for a steady drummer, but that's one of the things that makes Broad Street an entertaining read. Christine Weiser took me out of my own life and into the world of young women rock musicians.

While I read, I stepped vicariously into the glitz and glamour of the club scene. Then I winced at the smoking, profanity, drug use and crummy boyfriends, not to mention makeshift recording studios in bad neighborhoods. The Philly grunge scene in the '90s was apparently a world of booze, sweat, and tears. And more booze.

Told from the point of view of Kit Greene, medical proofreader by day and bass player by night, Broad Street colorfully paints the Center City and South Philly neighborhoods where edgy rock bands struggle for stage time.

Kit meets guitar-playing vocalist Margo at a party, and reeling from a recent breakup, agrees to meet her to play music and write songs together. Soon they decide to form a band named after the busy Philadelphia thoroughfare while taking a teasing poke at their gender. Their story is one of female empowerment, dressed in rock band details. Humor abounds in oddly-dressed characters, difficult bosses, and bands named Zen Guerilla, The Dildon'ts, and My Pet Rhino.

Kit's back-and-forth relationships with men who dump her after getting what they wanted and her sister Nikki's doomed affair with a married man made me glad I was young many years earlier. But back in the '60s, we had our own dangerous men, and Broad Street kept me rooting for Kit to find happiness on her own.

When Kit's cheating ex-boyfriend calls because he's read about her band in the City Paper, she realizes how far she's come from the girl who depended on him for emotional support.

"I smiled. How many times had I sat alone, drinking myself into a stupor? I pictured Dale with a whiskey bottle and computer mouse...The band that I had started to make Dale miserable had actually made Dale miserable. But Broad Street had become something else, too."

"I know what you're going through," she tells him. "And it sucks. But you'll get through it." And then, she tells the reader, "I floated through the rest of the week...Maybe I would buy a motorcycle."

by Linda Wisniewski
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Broad Street is the kind of book you read in a day and then wish there was more. Christine Weiser describes the Philly rock scene in a fun and unpredictable way that had me laughing out loud at times and cringing at others. Her characters are real, the kind of women who are smart and a little crazy, who make mistakes and contradict themselves. I walked away from this novel wishing that Kit and Margo were my friends, and that I had a little musical talent to start a band with myself.

"Broad Street" is the name of the Philly band started by two women, Margo and Kit, as a response to lame rock performed by guys. It's a funny story of the ups and downs of getting gigs and getting into trouble and how a band serves as a substitute family--and, eventually, how this new family is every bit as dysfunctional as the family it was substituting for. Recommended.

A great book about a quirky local music scene written by a musician who is, dare I say it, a chick! How cool is that?

Turns out the all-girl bands are as crazy as the all-guy bands!

A very good book!