Customer Reviews

How Soon Is Never?: A Novel

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

 

 

After finishing this book I think that I'm a pretty horrible kid. I picked it up because I'm a spin reader, and after reading marc Spitz's interview with himself I found it wonderfully cheeky that someone would package their life up as fiction for the sake of taking fabulous exaggerations and cruel observations. Similarly, I thought the picture of the two Spitzes talking to eachother in that october '03 issue, kind of neat.
Anyway. On to my roundabout point, one of the central themes to this utterly addictive saga is the favorite subject of many a music junkie; though covered with layers of drugs and jealousy, the main conflict is the connection that one feels to their favorite band. Not a normal connection, a strange one, the kind when the songs never get old; you can't accomplish anything with their records on because you know the music too well, you find yourself thinking about every aspect of your daily life in reference to them without realizing it, You have to seriosly consider if in the event of an emergency wether you'd save you mother, or their records. (you decide on the autographed record and the mother only because neither is replaceable)
I think that because Spitz is a music junkie it allows him to write from his own "life" with less of a degree of cheek than i'd forseen; mostly with honesty and a frightneing sense of devotion. This book is something to be feared, admired, envied, and most importantly read. I would recommend it to anyone who knows an obsessive music fan, even mothers of obsessed music fans, just so they can begin to understand what exactly is running through their children's minds.

This is it. This is your brain on the smiths.
However, I'm 14. I don't deserve this book. I'm too young to deserve this book. I read it for I felt that I was an old soul, but now? I wonder why I haven't found any band worth obsessing over. I'm worried that by the time they're here I'll be too old; or that they'll never come. Until then I have my guilt-trip, illegally downloaded, smiths collection. My dark rooms. My sunglasses. My woe. my teenagerdom that began tragically late. This book showed me that the smiths cannot be mine. I will try to have them, but indefinitely will fail.

Prospective readers, you're forewarned: you may lose track of time if you're reading this on your lunch break (or, uh, at your desk). It's definitely difficult to extricate yourself from this one, especially if your adolescence--which you haven't fully outgrown despite all chronological evidence to the contrary--was defined by the ephemeral beauty of The Smiths.

Damaged yet yearning, hapless ex-junkie-cum-downtrodden-bookstore-clerk-cum-voice-of-the-zeitgeist Joe Green knows very well how he got his name, and it's making him feel very mean indeed. Searching for purity & redemption amid the recent spoils of music industry success (read: excess) and the shadows of addiction, fractured family, and failed love, the narrator turns to the seminal songs that "made him cry and the songs that saved his life," crafted by defunct '80's band The Smiths. The first part of _How Soon is Never_? wistfully explores the formative (good and bad) influences in his life: musically, aesthetically, and emotionally.

Both on the anxious cusp of 30, Green and equally Smiths-obsessed coworker Miki hatch a plan to exploit their music-biz access by reuniting the band, despite lots of collective legal & emotional water under the bridge. They're convinced that the reunion will be momentous enough to wipe their respective slates clean. But Green is increasingly more concerned with his connection to Miki than that of the four Mancunians; and with the rediscovery of those songs come some of the painful feelings that the music helped as much to articulate as to transcend during his adolescent years.

Smiths disciples old and new will seek out Marc Spitz's bildungsroman, which serves quite charmingly as a testament to the special type of bedsit devotion the band inspired among those who fancied themselves "awkward and plain". But the novel's appeal extends to every former lonely teen whose life, in that passionate, territorial, uniquely adolescent way, was irrevocably changed by a pop song. _How Soon is Never?_ is strongest when waxing nostalgic. Spitz evokes that longing for identity & love very well, as Joe's transformation from isolated, Polo clad
middle-schooler who chooses Hall & Oates as two of his personal horsemen of the apocalypse to angry punk to sensitive Wilde-spouting bookworm unfolds. The two love affairs of that time period are well-rendered and poignant, as are his elusive friendship with a fellow prep-school outcast and, especially, the conflicted relationship Joe has with his n'er-do-well father, Sid. The book also succeeds as an amusing send-up of the "alternative" music press (Spitz likens successful rock journalists to vampires and pop-culture narcs, covertly moving among the young, feeding off their trends and selling them back their own pre-fab poison) and the fine line we tread between keeping it real as we grow older and becoming a sad hipster pastiche.

Most of all, it perfectly captures a fan's relationship to the music that offered hope and understanding when one needed it most, and the desire to revisit it when times are hard. A tender, witty and highly readable debut novel. I liked it very much.

Is historical pop fiction a recognized genre of literature yet? That's really the only way I can classify Spitz's book. Spitz is a writer for Spin magazine, which is readily apparent in the first few pages of this novel.

The story goes a little something like this: Joe Green is a thirty year old mess, which he's been off and on since his teen years. Joe was once saved by the music, and his hope is to be born again through the music. Sounds a little lame at first, and I admit to almost putting the book down during the first few chapters.

Get past the woe-is-me-my-life-is-a-mess-and-I'm-30 angst, and the real hero of the story emerges.

The Smiths.

Yup. The Smiths.

A gawky, spot-on, dysfunctional coming of age background story follows, where we learn of Joe's obsession with all things Smiths.

You remember The Smiths, and you know you listened to them. Maybe you didn't listen to them in high school. Maybe you started in your 20s, when they came into vogue again and made jukebox appearances in hipster bars in trendy neighborhoods.

And you remember those kids in high school who wandered the hallways like the ghosts of real kids. The kids who "...wore black on the outside because black [was] how [they felt] on the inside..." Joe was one of those ghosts, and he's spent his life up til 30 trying to figure out what that means.

Joe and a co-worker hatch a half-baked plan to get The Smiths back together again, whereby Joe also hopes to save his soul and clean up his messy life. A slightly harrowing tale ensues, largely fueled by cigarettes and booze.

I love this book for the nostalgia more than the plot. I fancied myself one of the misunderstood ghost kids during high school, and music was and remains a major part of my raison d'etre. Spitz's knowledge of the alternative sounds of the 80s and 90s is expansive and impressive. The overall effect of the read was like jumping in the way-back machine.

And really, how soon is now anyway?

(I admit to digging out my old Smiths cds and refilling my iPod after finishing this book. I can't believe I still know all the words.)

I absolutely loved this book and was surprised to see the negative and ambivalent reviews on this site. I guess it's not for everyone, but it was perfect for me. I think the best books, like the best music, allow the reader to form an emotional connection with the protagonist and the subject matter. I connected with the book because I know what it's like to get into music for the first time and have a very favorite band, and then to get older and realize that I was a different person when I got into that band and that their music and shows will never be able to take me back to that time. Maybe not everyone can relate to a book about (as it says on the back cover) "the power of hearing a record that changes your life, and the dangers of nostalgia." I can. If you like fiction about music and coming of age novels, especially "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," I highly recommend that you read "How Soon is Never."

Joe, the product of a divorced home in Long Island, just wants to fit in. He thinks he's found niche when he discovers punk rock, and a group of like minded friends at his new private school, but he really finds the love of his life when he hears the Smiths.

HOW SOON IS NEVER is the story of how Joe stumbles through life looking for something he thinks only the Smiths can give him. By the time he reaches 30, he's a hard drinking music writer who wants to reunite the Smiths with the help of Miki, the woman he loves.

The second half of the book is bit labored, including somewhat redundant cameos by 3/4 of the Smiths, and the life lesson can be seen a mile away, but there's enough funny, moving, and honest stuff here for me to recommend this - as well as great affection for the music. Anyone who has read Nick Hornby will enjoy this ....

This book is an odd read, and may not appeal to most. But in Marc Spitz's weird tale of Joe Green and his life, and his journey to re-unite The Smiths, it touches you in some form or another.

This is simply an amazing, pure-hearted book about being young/not so young and loving a band. Both a coming-of-age tale and homage--Somewhere Morrisey is reading this novel, singing [Respect]. Not just for all you lovers of the Smiths, but for anyone looking to read a truly beautiful and special novel.

I must admit that I got this book out of a blossoming addiction to the Smiths, and once I started reading it I realized that it was much more than a rock and roll novel. Despite his angst and loneliness, Joe Green is a pure soul, recounting those old days when he heard the album that changed his life, and many of us can relate to that. It's a different album for every generation and subgroup, and each generation claims these albums as their own, angry at having them stolen by the people who hate us or the people who are far younger. I myself will become violently angry when I hear fourteen-year-olds out buying all of Nine Inch Nails' CD's and comparing their own pain next to the songs. It isn't allowed. Nine Inch Nails' is mine, and no one else can claim it, just as Gerneration Y cannot claim the Smiths. This is an honest book, so honest that I am convinced that it is almost entirely autobiographical. If it wasn't, I would call it genius. As it is, it's a great read. I highly recoment it not only to Smiths fans but to everyone else who has ever had a favorite band, the kind of music that makes you young again despite yourself.

I have to admit this was an enjoyable read, though I'm not sure why. It can't be because of the protagonist, the author under a thin veil (I suspect this is more memoir than fiction). Joe Green is a solipsistic arse, plain and simple - if anything, I was rooting for this brat to *not* get the girl, or fulfill his mission. So maybe it was because of the band - I was never an obsessed fan, but their music did move me in the same way it moved Spitz. I thought he captured this well - that feeling that a band's music could be speaking directly to you, and only to you. That's why I give it 2 stars - he really understand music's power to move. The rest of this was nonsense - unlikeable character, horrendous pacing (the first 100 pages were growing up on Long Island, pre-Smiths - come on!), and a half-baked premise (the idea of getting the Smiths back together seemed like an afterthought, a background to his self-absorbed musings). To sum it up: I like the Smiths, I like the author's take on music, I dislike the character and the plot. One more thing: if you are not intimately familiar with the Smiths music, I can't see how this book would have any value to you whatsoever - the book teems with references, allusions, and bad puns.

Look, I adore The Smiths- perhaps not as quite much as Marc Spitz does- but well enough to make the following review of his book worth your consideration. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed- for the author, for his editor and most of all, for members of the band who make cameo appearances toward the end of the story. Character Joe Green's hysterical musings and gushing, obsessive confessions are awkwardly expressed and highly uncomfortable for even the most moderate of Smiths fans to read. I don't know how much of the plot is true- whether the author actually met the members of the band under the conditions described, but true or not- these fellows, Marr, Rourke and Joyce, are REAL PEOPLE (with real careers right now) deserving of respect and accurate representation. Additionally, the story would be much more readable if most of the overly melodramatic coming-of-age business was omitted. The perceived blurred line between fact and fiction is cringeworthy and if Spitz was looking for a cathartic means of exorcising his personal demons, I personally would have preferred that he invent a band to write about, rather than smear around the legacy of a fine group like the Smiths. I understand, perhaps even somewhat identify with the obsessive behaviours of superfans (like Spitz) but expect a bit of restraint from professional writers (like Spitz).