His girlfriend, Alice, tosses caution aside and accompanies him. After their car breaks down in the Arizona desert, a unique offer from a kindly stranger forces the couple to confront new temptations.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great fiction chapbook,
By
This review is from: Modern Love (Paperback)
Reviewed by: Christopher Robin. Used courtesty of the ULA book Review Blog.
Sunnyoutside's 2nd fiction chapbook, Modern Love, is a short story about a young couple: a failed band promoter and his girlfriend, a bartender, determined to leave Indiana and get rich on the music scene in California. Together they cut loose of their small town, sell everything, and jump into their Chevy Cavalier, headed for Los Angeles. On the way there, they discuss their dreams and learn that they have very different musical tastes, which sets the tone for their whole relationship. Their car breaks down and they encounter a strange but helpful person in Tucson that changes both their lives forever. This story has many synchronistic overtones about fate, destiny and choice. The ending may surprise you. Sunnyoutside is one of the best small presses to come out in the last few years. The publisher has a unique sense for finding quality work. Not only are the chapbooks themselves works of art, his choice of authors never seems to disappoint. This a great story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Scott's Modern Love,
This review is from: Modern Love (Paperback)
Modern Love by Andrew Scott is a short story accompanied by Ed Herrera's crisp illustrations, all bound into a quality hand-sewn chapbook. "A+" for Sunnyoutside Press's design. (As a side note, it struck me that the shape and size of this book lends itself perfectly to adding a pocket inside the back cover, where a CD with songs from the story could be included. Maybe Sunnyoutside can look into that as a marketing item for release with later printings.)
As for the story: The promise of a fresh start propels the narrator and his long-time girlfriend, Alice, into a cross-country road trip, bound for glistening Los Angeles. But their Cavalier breaks down in the desert, and we learn that the narrator's fresh start differs from the one Alice seeks. While he runs from failure in Indiana, she chases success in their relationship. Although the narrator is also the apparent protagonist, the story is as much Alice's--reflected in the story's title, a song Alice likes and Scott's authorial nod to David Bowie. Scott's characterization is well done. The narrator is steady, determined, willing to improvise slightly, but always on tempo. He is, after all, a bass guitar player. Alice, lover of lead guitarists like Stevie Ray Vaughan, is changing, anxious, and playful. We watch and listen as this elemental juxtaposition collapses into cacophony. The characters' clashing desires pull Scott's story away from the clichéd tale of a small-time promoter looking to become a high-powered record executive, or of the small-town girl following love to the big city. As the characters generate tension, the story generates its own soundtrack. Bowie, Vaughan, The Beatles, Janice Joplin, and Carole King all have a cameo. But the title track, Bowie's Modern Love, gives Alice timbre without being forced or heavy-handed. In fact, one need not have heard any of the songs to follow the story. In questioning her relationship with the narrator, Alice concludes things are not going to change for the better, and despite the narrator's charm, their relationship has become lifeless. He stood beside her, but is moving beyond her; she has come to not believe in this modern love. Lloyd, the man who rescues the couple from the desert but not from themselves, recognizes this about Alice when he tries to explain to the narrator that a woman like Alice has more traditional needs, like a home. But even Lloyd can't get Alice what she wants. Lloyd also leaves the reader wanting, wondering about a man so generous to strangers in need without a catch. Alice gives voice to this wariness, saying things like that don't happen. But, perhaps, this reaction is a reflection of societal expectations and a cynical world-view rather than Scott's characterization. Regardless, Scott successfully poses the question of whether modern conceptions of love are mirages of traditional conceptions of love, like the mirage in the road ever before the narrator and Alice as they cross the desert toward L.A.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
We'll drive to the angels. We won't look back.,
By
This review is from: Modern Love (Paperback)
The book is a pretty solid rendering of the lives of underground musicians/promoters and the overall dreams and attitudes of these people. It's not about that specifically, but you're given a good bit of detail on the topic through the excellent characterization of the book's two main characters. The ending may be a bit tidy for me, but despite that, there's a good portion of character squashed into the text of these 36 pages. The words are only accentuated by Herrera's artwork, of which, this book is a first meeting for me. Scott was a professor of mine in the BSU writing program, so I'm glad to see his work is getting recognized finally. Thumbs up for a first work to stand alone in-print, Andrew. I look forward to seeing more from you.
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