Customer Reviews

Say Goodbye

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many others, I once imagined a world where I was a famous rock star. In high school I wrote songs at the permanently out-of-tune upright piano and Casio keyboard my parents had purchased for me. I even joined a band for a brief shining moment (one 'gig' only). But most of my music career was in my imagination, which I indulged by crafting an entire persona complete with transparent pseudonym (Gil Chase), a wish-fulfillment history and albums complete with titles, tracklists and lyrics. At one point in college, I attempted to turn it all into a short story.

I am not unusual in this, as the allure of fictional rock bands has nearly become a sub-genre in fiction, including books such as Iain Banks' Espedair Street, George R.R. Martin's The Armageddon Rag, and Roddy Doyle's The Commitments and movies such as Alan Parker's adaptation of Doyle's novel and Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous. Although the real stories of rock bands have plenty of drama, an entirely fictitious creation allows the author to emphasize a particular theme that history might obscure.

Such is the case with Lewis Shiner's Say Goodbye, a meticuously crafted fiction about a female rocker in the mold of Sheryl Crow or Edie Brickell. Shiner, who had previously shown a deep understanding and connection to the music world in his award-winning previous novel, Glimpses, creates his star, Laurie Moss, out of his own small-town Texas experiences and dreams while also distancing himself from the subject by a gender-switch thinly veiled stand-in jounalist narrator. The supporting band cast are convincingly individuals and not just foils to Laurie.

While the main plot centers on Laurie's LA musical experience, from opening act in small bars and waitressing in coffee shops through a finished debut album and first tour, it is the framing tale of the narrator's search for the woman behind that song he heard on the radio that has a kind of revealing pathos for those of us for whom music is life-affecting. The book has two climaxes--one for Laurie and one for the narrator--both of which are not exactly the neat little endings of dreams but the bittersweet half-conclusions of life.

Reading Shiner's in-progress auto-biographical essay at his website fleshes in some of the details of the lives of all his characters. While not necessary to enjoy the novel, the essay provides a rare glimpse behind the art, like knowing that Sting was a high school teacher before becoming the leader of the Police and singing about a "young teacher the subject / of schoolgirl fantasy." Like much of the best art, Say Goodbye comes from Shiner's real experiences, filtered into order and meaning from which the reader can obtain much more than a simple story or song. This is the kind of book that makes you as interested in the person behind it (hence my visit to his web site and his essay), although at the same time it warns you about creating false pictures of that person based on your own hopes and dreams.

I feel the need to throw in a final comment as a disclaimer: I know Lew Shiner, having spent time discussing writing with him both as a student and a peer, as well as drinking a beer or two with him. Even though I haven't talked to him in years, I count him as an acquaintance and quite possibly a friend. I do not feel this colours my impression of this book, although it might be why I found the things not written as interesting as the things present in the text.

Shiner started off as a hard science fiction writer, then went into his own style, which is about music. Specifically Rock and Roll. Glimpses was a very good mesh of the two, even though it wasn't "Science Fiction" per se. With Say Goodbye, he's gone from a "good" speulative fiction writer to a phenomenal fiction writer. A quick comparison... Roddy Doyle's The Commitments meets the LA Scene. A band built by a driven young woman builds its way to the top and then self destructs.

This book breathes the Rock and Roll society. Shiner's writing capabilities have improved spectacularly, and throughout the book I had glimpses of A Day in the Life in my subconcious. Excellent read.

I enjoyed this book a great deal--it's a solid, well written book that gives the reader an inside view of the record industry and the struggling artists who sometimes get a break. Shiner has a great facility for communicating to the reader the "feel" of a scene, like the description for how a music track should be laid down with the different instruments. For those of us whose contact with the music industry is from buying CD's, Shiner is able to effectively communicate the business (ie, non-glamourous) side of the business very well. I particularly liked the description of how Laurie's music videos got shot--now I better understand why Fiona Apple was upset about how her first video turned out. My quibbles are few--towards the end of the book, it seems everyone in "the industry" that has some sort of power is always described as being about 40 something in age. I guess there no 30 or 50 somethings that have any type of power. Also, the final few chapters seem to be rushing to the conclusion; it might have been useful to go a bit more into Laurie's life over the past year. But, I am definitley going to recommend this book to others as a great story that describes what it takes to break into the music business today. The characters really come to life...

I enjoyed this book very much. I'm not a musician myself, but I always dreamed of being one. This book provided me with the opportunity to live Laurie Moss' life! There were also loads of references that I smugly enjoyed "getting" - if you love rock and roll, and are in your thirties - this is for you. Being a woman, I of course wanted more relationship stuff, but maybe in your sequel, Mr. Shiner? Please, I love Skip - and I want to know all about him!!!

This was my first Lewis Shiner book so I didn't know whether I'd enjoy it or not. I was expecting a story detailing the rise and fall of a rock star. I was pleasantly surprised to find that instead it deals with the struggle and ordeals of trying to make it to the top. I liked Shiner's style of telling the story from interviews with people who knew Laurie and then from Laurie herself. The story of Laurie seemed so real that after reading it I found myself searching the Internet in hopes of finding some of her recorded music....darn, none to be found!

I really enjoyed the book, and I'm hoping that Shiner decides to write a prequel book telling the gritty details of the legendary character Skip Shaw!

Well, Lewis Shiner has done it again. A superb, underrated writer who first made his name writing great cyberpunk science fiction, Shiner has written a thoughtful, revealing look at a young singer-songwriter's struggle to make a name for herself in the music business. It is a poignant, mesmering tale about a would be Ani DiFranco. His crisp prose is literally music to my ears - sweet and clear - his words eloquently reveal his rock and roll musicians as living, emotionally complex, people, not as one-dimensional cartoons. Along with his previous novel "Glimpses", Shiner has written some of the best fiction pertaining to rock and roll. Before you read a novel written by any other author on rock and roll, please take a look at Shiner's work first.

There are few novels, and few novelists who can write a Rock `n' Roll novel that has a real love of the subject and insight into the personalities attracted to Rock `n' Roll. There have been a few pretenders like Elmore Leonard in Stay Cool, but he was already middle aged when Elvis broke onto the scene. But Lewis Shiner grew up a child of Rock `n' Roll immersed in the culture and his writing shows a genuine love of the music and an understanding of the characters attracted to Rock `n' Roll from the stars to the bouncers at the clubs.

Say Goodbye is the fictional biography of Laurie Moss a singer/songwriter who put out one album and disappeared. Say Goodbye is one of those tricky stories that gives you the ending first. You have to work your way back to the climatic moment like the movies Sunset Boulevard or Citizen Kane. We follow a rock reporter as he tracks Laurie's career and tries to piece it together and make sense of it. From her humble beginnings singing at a coffee house open mic night, making a demo tape, putting together a band to hooking up with legendary guitarist Skip Shaw who gives the band the heat that sets fire to Laurie's lyrics. They get a record deal and a low key tour where the band play to a full house or seven people, or a club where the owners try to stiff the band, it's the kind of tour that pushes and pulls a band to their boundaries. An annealing process that either fuses the band together or it implodes under the gravity.

Lewis Shiner is one of the most underrated writers, Laurie Moss' story could be his. His novels have a subtle elegance. You're drawn by the story. The diversion of a few hours of reading but then you realize more is going on in the story, you see subtexts just under the surface like a Nirvana song of verse chorus verse, raw but beautiful. He's a writer you should be looking to discover. He has a new book out www.lewisshiner.com

Shiner has either been or known a struggling musician, I'm sure, because he has captured what it's really like for someone who's trying to get their music in front of audiences. Vivid descriptions of life on the road, conflicts and personality clashes within any group of people who are together too much, power struggles between the Living Legend and the New Blood. Definitely worth checking out if you are a music fan and want a peek behind the scenes!

Lewis Shiner, once again writes a great novel. Possibly my favourite fiction writer, period, Shiner remains a hidden gem in a literary world populated by too many words and not enough stories. 'Say Goodbye' deserves a wide readership, maybe it will take another scene like the rock scene for him to get that audience.

This is not only a superb novel about rock'n'roll, it is also a touching and unsentimental love story, and one of the most evocative accounts of the creative life I've ever read. You don't need to be a musician or even a fan of pop music to empathize with the struggle of songwriter Laurie Moss. Anybody who has ever created or tried to will recognize him or herself in this book, and anyone who wonders what it's like to gamble everything on a song will find out just what that means. It's also a great read; I devoured it in two sittings. It's a rare thing to find a book that's this enlightening and this entertaining all at once.