Customer Reviews

Elvis in the Morning

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Pretty good. Well-written (we expect that from Buckley), nicely even breezily plotted, fast-moving.

Not like reading Greil Marcus or Peter Guralnick, but then it's not intended to be; it's a novel, not an analysis. It's the story of a young man, Orson who is a dedicated Elvis fan and a socialist who believes in common property, who strikes up a relationship with Elvis while in his teens that lasts until the singer's death. The book is about their relationship, and other relationships in Orson's life; and while ideas enter into the book, it is not properly a book about ideas. There is an interesting twist on the notion of common property that comes forward with Elvis' death.

Buckley clearly believes in Presley's genius, knows and loves the songs, understands the career. Does he present new ideas about why or how Elvis decided to throw it all away into drugs at the end? Not really; Buckley's Elvis is a man who gets entangled in drugs and can't and doesn't seem to want to get out. The tragedy is presented as the tragedy of a man, and the waste of a genius, rather than as--for example--something that Elvis' genius pushed him into, or Elvis' way of coping with his misunderstood genius. Buckley's is a fair treatment, and may turn out in the end to be more correct than other more highfaulitin approaches to the Elvis tragedy.

The novel is good, highly recommended. The people are believable, most of the information correct. My one reservation: I wish that Buckley's treatment of Elvis was a little more earth-shattering.

There are times when people take things too seriously. Buckley writing a novel about Elvis Presley! Must be some deep thinking going on here. According to my conservative local newspaper, this was quite an exceptional book that saluted Elvis' achievement but juxtaposed it with his demise in hedonistic behavior.

I don't think so.

A cute story that is imminently readable from page one. Most literate people will find this an easy book to read thanks to main character Orson. Orson's childhood friend eventually goes on to become Priscilla, however the main interest in the book is Elvis's friendship with Orson.

Far too many of the reviews have tried to find deep meaning in this book and have taken Buckley to task for not developing characters enough or having more meaning in the book and I think the criticism is unfair.

This is not a serious book that can be considered grand literature. It's an entertaining book with a cute story that is kind of tribute to Elvis while also lamenting what might have been if it wasn't for his excesses. Reading this book will not change your world or provide you with great inspiration or insight. On the other hand, it will make a cross country flight or a rainy day go by a lot easier.

In short, I don't recommend this as a must-read book, but if you like Buckley, or Elvis, or if you are looking for a quick, light read, go ahead and read it.

Elvis In the Morning by William F.Buckley, Jr, is a small masterpiece, in the sense that Colette's Gigi is a small masterpiece. It deserves to be read carefully for the seemless writing and the profound metaphors that are well-concealed so as not to interfere with the pleasure of the read. Orson and his wife must both leave America for Latin America to regain their sanity. Elvis, the victim of American materialism, is destroyed by the leeches who see him as a money-making machine. The meeting with Barry Goldwater is not gratuitous, as some have alleged. Goldwater is a metaphor for integrity, and the young couple are really on a journey looking for authenticity. The decline and destruction of Elvis is told lovingly, but this is also a metaphor for the destruction of an America gone mad with self-indulgence.

Go figure: Bill Buckley writes a novel about ... Elvis Presley? And the book is ... great? But indeed, Buckley has taken on The King, and he has pulled it off, smashingly. I've read several of Buckley's books, and "Elvis in the Morning" is his best, by far. The entire plot and situation -- Elvis's friendship with Orson, a (historically fictional) young Army brat fan who is befriended by Elvis in Germany (when he was Corporal Presley), who becomes his confidante until Elvis's death, and who is the childhood best friend of Priscilla (who, as we all know, ends up in Graceland) -- are treated with a tenderness and a gentleness that I have never seen from Buckley before, or for that matter from very few other writers. Elvis is portrayed with depth, in striking contrast to the one-dimensional cartoon character treatment he now gets, and Buckley, better know as an Apostle of Bach, is unafraid to sing the praises of Elvis's glorious voice and love of music (and people .. and, sadly, pills). There are no glitches nor loose ends; there's nothing contrived -- it's just a very pleasant read that goes all too fast. The dialogue is superior: again, the best Buckley has ever done. This is a great vacation read for anyone, whether a fan of Buckley, Elvis, or just good writing.

It seems odd that Bill Buckley, who established his formidable reputation over nearly half a century writing as a political philosopher and polemicist, has made a kind of second career for himself as a novelist during the past couple of decades. And what's even odder is the thematic content of his novels, which often seems out of character with what one might anticipate knowing his political pre-occupations. The generosity of spirit with which he presents his characters, even those we expect him to be out of sympathy with, no doubt confounds Buckley's detractors, who like to characterize him as an unfeeling, intellectualizing zealot. Buckley's friends are in some cases probably troubled by the same trait, fretful that the old warrior may be harboring a soft spot. In this light, Elvis in the Morning is Buckley's most surprising book to date, at least among the ones that I 've read. In it, he fashions a relationship between a fictional character, one Orson Killere, and of all people, Elvis Presley. While I found it difficult to see exactly what Buckley was getting at in this novel, it seems to be about innocence, and the tendency of this most endearing of human qualities to turn to self-indulgence and, ultimately, self-destruction. Maybe there's supposed to be a metaphor for America there, but who knows? Orson, the 15-year-old son of a single mother working for the U.S. military in Germany in the mid 1950's, makes the local newspapers by stealing a batch of Elvis records form the PX to give away to the poor. Orson, you see, in addition to being an Elvis devotee, has under the influence of kindly Marxist teacher, become a young socialist. Elvis, who was also in Germany at the time for his stint in the Army, hears about the incident and as a sort of publicity stunt, visits the young fan. Improbably, the two of them become fast friends, with Orson introducing Elvis to Pricilla Beaulieu, the very same Pricilla Beaulieu who in real life will go on be become Elvis's famous child bride. Time passes and, back in the U.S., Elvis and Orson remain friends. Orson experiences a series of implausible life adventures, going to college, blossoming into an idealistic student protest leader, getting expelled, hitting the road as a penniless drifter, getting beat up by a hobo, marrying a kind and lovely girl who soon becomes mentally disabled in a car accident, going to work for a start-up technology venture, excelling at the job but getting fired for drug abuse. There's all this and more. Through it all, however, he stays in contact with Elvis, who is entering into his downward spiral and comes to value Orson as the one friend in his life whose sincerity and judgment he seems to trust. If all this sounds rather campish and weird in the re-telling, it reads that way too in the original. Several members of Elvis's real-life entourage, including his father Vernon and "Colonel" Tom Parker, appear as characters. The novel continues all the way up through Elvis's drug-induced death, with Col. Parker towards the end appealing to Orson to use his influence with Elvis to save him. I confess to enjoying this quirky book. Buckley's crisp and subtle prose is, as always, a delight to read, and the portrait of Elvis is interesting, showing him as a sincerely generous, talented and charismatic man, albeit childlike, doomed and half-crazy. However, Elvis in the Morning is not a good book, and I can't for the life of me fathom what inspired Buckley to write it, particularly at his stage of life. He seems to have no particular inside track on Elvis and apparently worked from nothing much more than the well-worn biographical material that's publicly available. The book will appeal to a limited segment of Buckley fans, among whom I include myself. Most others will probably want to avoid it.

Having been a fan of Buckley's political commentaries for some time, I decided to check out some of his fictional work. For better or worse, I began with this short novel. I was pleasantly surprised.

On one level, the novel is an "Edmund Morris-esque" biography of Elvis Presley, with the main character, Orson, finding himself caught up in the major events and dramas of Elvis' rise, fall, rise, and death throughout the 60's and 70's.

On another level, the book is a creative commentary on American political history - not too out-of-line with Buckley's other works. Orson's journey in and out of socialism begins with him stealing Elvis records in an attempt to give them out to people who can't afford them. He is kicked out of college for heading a botched student protest. His cross-country journey in search of an identity, all the while keeping in touch with Elvis, is symbolic of his gradual metamorphosis into a rational man - who, at least by his actions, rejects the ridiculous tenets of socialism that marked his failed early life.

Overall, it was a creative, refreshing way for Buckley to illustrate his insightfully conservative view of America during the turbulent 1960's and 70's.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this boy-meets-pop-idol story. I, oddly, find this an interesting topic, and did long before this book. Here, a teenager meets Elvis Presley and becomes Elvis's friend. It's a rock and roll fantasy.

In this book, Orson is our Elvis fan who becomes the King's most trusted confidante. Their friendship spans 15 years and, for me, worked better for, approximately, the first half of the book than the latter. By the end of the book, which is very much about Elvis Presley--the real guy--it's hard to keep the focus on Orson while knowing, feeling, awaiting Elvis's fate. And I don't think Buckley pulled this element off; the real Elvis overshadowed the literary fantasy of their relationship.

Orson is a well-fleshed-out character, and he has a life and a wife who is also a solid, full character; they've got their own story and lives that work and are interesting. I would have enjoyed reading even more about them.

But, when we are in the 1970's (chapters are titled by date and place), it became, for me, nearly impossible not to dread and anticipate what would become of Elvis. Chapter headings 1971, '72, '73, etc. - I was thinking to myself: Elvis is going to be dead in five years; Elvis is going to die in four years... Elvis Presley is such a looming figure, and his real life well described in this book, that my focus--and the book's, to a great extent--became Elvis rather than Orson.

What began as boy-meets-hero turned into story of Elvis. And at that point, the fantasy element got lost in the largeness of Elvis Presley. This, then, created other flaws for me. Buckley went to great lengths to tell us Elvis's real life. Elvis's relationship with Orson, then, by the end, was nearly superfluous and, therfore, more "not-believable" than it was fantasy. Similarly for Priscilla's (and Lisa Marie's and others') relationships with both Orson and Orson's wife. Orson had become part of a real life that was vividly described, and the book beame so much about Elvis, that Orson got lost, as did the hero-fantasy (as well, Orson is now an adult with a very real Elvis Presley considering him the only person he can trust -- their friendship took on a far-fetched feel).

All that said, I liked it very much. I liked the beginning for the hero-fantasy, and I liked the latter part for the Elvis story. What I liked in the end is not, I think, what the book was "about," but what I took from it - what a sad, sad story, Elvis Presley. By then, I didn't need Orson - the book had become about Elvis Presley.

Elvis in the Morning is truly a realistic story even though it's fiction. I love the character Orson Killare. Buckley places him smack dab in the world of Elvis Presley. From time he is caught stealing his records, living in Germany the same time he was in the Army and even being there for the funeral. I thought it was cute that Orson thought that it was he who brought Priscilla and Elvis together. I'm sure any Elvis fan who reads this book would believe that he or she wishes that they were Orson.

I proudly declare that I am a long time fan of William F. Buckley Jr. and that this is a very good book. This story is a very enjoyable read. The writing is fine, as one would expect from reading Mr. Buckley's forty books. But this story also has an emotional tone that is, if not sad, at least elegiac. Its nostalgic melancholy sounds a new chord in Mr. Buckley's compositions. There was a touch of it in Tucker's Last Stand and Brothers No More, but this is softer and even a bit, well, if not sweet at least sweeter. I loved it.

Elvis is treated with respect and honesty while the character Mr. Buckley creates, Orson Killere, stands in for the Baby Boomers who were and still are fans of the King. This isn't the place for an analysis of all the ways Orson embodies my generation, but he is wonderfully drawn. You will enjoy getting to know him for his strengths and even his all-too-human weaknesses.

Thanks, Mr. Buckley for another gem.

Fictitious schoolboy Orson Killere lives with his widowed American mother, who works at a U.S. Army base in West Germany. When Orson watches Elvis make his television debut in 1956, Orson becomes captivated. The lesson Elvis imparts unto Orson is: do what you believe is right and ignore the establishment.

Orson is also strongly influenced by his teacher, who is a socialist. Then, in 1959, when fourteen year old Orson decides that Elvis' music is common property, he breaks into the Army base's PX and steals the Elvis acetates. Orson gets caught and a judge sentences him to a month without Elvis' music.

When G.I. Elvis learns about the incident, he decides to meet his young fan. Orson subsequently introduces Elvis to his Elvis Presley Fan Club co-president, Priscilla Beaulieu. It is then that a lifelong friendship between Orson, Elvis, and Priscilla develops. The story chronicles the true milestones in Elvis' life through Orson's eyes.

While Orson's character was vivid, the depth of the real characters fell short. For the reader who is not knowledgeable about the Greek-tragedy like life of Elvis and its ramifications, the book lacks emotion and power.

However, what I particularly love is the political spin. As an ardent fan of Elvis, I have always vocalized that it was he who single-handedly refaced the landscape of pop culture. It was his very innocence, talent and charisma that empowered Elvis to mainstream Rock and Roll. Elvis made it acceptable for one to be a non-conformist, different and unconventional. This revolution ultimately led to the breakdown of socioeconomic and racial barriers.

Therefore, Elvis was not just an entertainer and was indeed much more of a political influence than we realize. Hence, Mr. Buckley could not have been more politically correct than to have written Elvis in the Morning.