Jambeaux [Hardcover]

Laurence Gonzales (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1979

First book by this Hispanic author about Rock & Roll.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 1st edition (1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151460388
• ISBN-13: 978-0151460380
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,805,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurence Gonzales has lectured before groups ranging from the Santa Fe Institute to Legg Mason Capital Management and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His books include "Deep Survival," "Everyday Survival," "One Zero Charlie," and "Lucy." He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex, drugs, &rock & roll in their highest literary form., May 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Jambeaux (Hardcover)

Jambeaux is an enthralling, thought-provoking portrait of the drug-and-sex crazed madness of the rock&roll world. Gonzales hypnotizes his readers and leads them through a plastic nightmare world that becomes all too real because of the universality of his characters' thoughts and emotions. Much like Steinbeck's East of Eden, beautifully crafted prose and significant reflections on human nature are artfully blended with a light smattering of subtle smut. The honesty of Gonzales' voice will make you wince, but that's what truth does sometimes. His dialogue is witty, raw, and real. The sheer energy of Gonzales' style moves his story with the speeding, head-rush pace of Kerouac's On the Road, while maintaining a quality of lucid readability, and of course, a plot. My only complaint was Gonzales' apparent preference for the comma over the semicolon. Overall, a raw, powerful, intensely readable story of an innocent trip to hell and a search for redemption. Not bad for a first novel.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good story, a timeless time gone by, March 28, 2011

By 

Privacy, Please (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jambeaux (Citadel Underground) (Paperback)

I first ran across this rock novel about the rise, fall and rebirth of a Southern rock band in the 70s. At the time, it seemed less than relevant, since new wave and punk seemed to be in the process of questioning, if not destroying, the music business portrayed in the book, such as the big festival shows and the concentration of a band and a powerful record producer on creating some type of musical perfection that is both up to the artistic standards of the band and marketable to the masses. A few decades passed (during which time it became apparent that punk didn't exactly kill off all the old norms; modern technology is another story, but irrelevant to this review) and somewhere in there I happened to pick up a copy of "Jambeaux" and discover that it's a pretty dern good little rock novel of its time and place.

The plot revolves around a Gulf Coast band led by two returned Vietnam veterans that plays music in a style similar to Creedence Clearwater Revival, perhaps with some shades of the Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd thrown in. Living through hairy life-or-death situations on a regular basis in Nam has given our heroes lots of chutzpah, which they turn to good advantage by wangling a strategic club booking and attracting the attention of a label and producer. Inevitably, the resulting rock n' roll circus results in excess, multiple deaths and leaves the leader of the band reminiscing upon the meaning of it all in his remote cabin, telling the tale in flashback.

It's pretty clear that we're dealing with the 70s here, from the repeated references to Viet Nam, to the type of music being played (which is presented as some big new thing - it totally wouldn't have been anything that unusual a decade later), to the sexual mores (the lead singer has two main girlfriends, one of whom is married to someone else, and both girls get along with each other as friends rather than competing for his affections or being mad because he is cheating). Most of the band's excesses are poetically implied or hinted at or mentioned in a subdued fashion, rather than being spelled out in rapturous detail like some latter-day band novels (such as "Powder", about the rise and fall of a British band in the 90s). The book is probably made stronger by such omission or soft-pedaling, since the story isn't interrupted by sensationalism and the reader doesn't lose empathy with the characters for being just too crazy. At the same time, it's harder to understand the protagonist's weariness when you only get fleeting glimpses of what exactly he was wearying of. Still, it's a good story and one that will also be appreciated, perhaps even more appreciated, by people who haven't been involved with bands themselves.