The Wishbones (Paperback)

by Tom Perrotta (Author) "Buzzy, the bass player, had a suspended license, so Dave swung by his house on the way to the Wednesday-night showcase..." (more)
Key Phrases: Genial Jim, Father Mike, Tom Perro (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Tom Perrotta's first novel, The Wishbones, is all about that much-maligned class of 30-ish men who still live at home with their parents, guys who make furtive love to their girlfriends--if they have them at all--in the basement rec room or the back seat of a car. But Dave Raymond, the protagonist of The Wishbones, doesn't waste his time on Star Trek reruns or computer games; he spends his weekends playing in a wedding band called The Wishbones, using the rapidly receding dream of rock stardom as an excuse to put off growing up. The sudden death of a fellow musician sends Dave into something of a tailspin, however, and in a moment of weakness, he proposes to his longtime girlfriend, Julie. The engagement has hardly been announced when Dave meets Gretchen, a bridesmaid at one of the weddings at which The Wishbones play, and before long he's having serious doubts about his own marital plans.

Everybody knows someone like Dave, but a real-life puer aeternus is rarely as entertaining as Perrotta's fictional one. Perrotta wisely surrounds his sad-sack protagonist with an array of entertaining supporting characters, from a joint-smoking priest to one of Dave's band-mates whose life work is a musical based on Kennedy's assassination. By the time The Wishbones winds down to its well-deserved end, readers will be wishing for a second novel from Tom Perrotta soon. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
Dave works as a courier during the week, but his real passion is playing guitar on weekends with a pretty good New Jersey wedding band. They play in places that sport "the unmistakable odor of mediocrity." Their repertoire includes "a ten-minute medley [of] 'I Will Survive,' 'Boogie-Oogie-Oogie'...capped by a full-length version of 'Y.M.C.A.,' a song that had returned with a vengeance from the land of musical oblivion." For 15 years, Dave has drifted through an on-and-off relationship with the same girl, Julie. Then one night he witnesses the on-stage death of an older lead singer with another band. Shaken, he returns home and without blinking says to Julie, "Let's get married." Then panic sets in. He gets involved with a sexy bohemian poet even as Julie begs him to give up the band, something he had never even remotely considered. At times hilariously funny, at others times wonderfully lyrical, and filled with subtle as well as obvious pleasures, this is an awfully good novel about a young man's reluctance to grow up. Perrotta has published a book of short stories, Bad Haircut: Stories of the Seventies (LJ 4/15/94). Highly recommended.?David Keymer, California State Univ., Stanislaus
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425163148
• ISBN-13: 978-0425163146
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #167,074 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wedding Band, February 15, 2001

By	M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Wishbones (Hardcover)

This is an enormously likeable book about love, music, and, especially, the choices required by time, money, and cultural expectations. Despite these "heavy" undertones, this is light reading at its best, full of distinct, interesting characters, humorous unexpected developments, and a brisk pace.

The story involves Dave Raymond, the 31-year old lead guitarist for "The Wishbones," a wedding band in which Dave feels both stuck and exhilarated. He has his own pre-wedding anxieties, as he finally proposes to his high school sweetheart, and then worries that he will settle into a bland suburban life sans music. At a gig, he meets Gretchen (nom de plume: Marlene Fragment!), an aspiring bohemian poet, who seems Dave's last chance at prolonging and preventing some touch choices.

Perrota is great at irony, and he almost overplays this, but the book moves so quickly that one doesn't mind. Although some of the book covers familiar "rites of passage" decisions, there's some outrageous (and I've heard, fairly realistic) wedding scenes, an unexpectedly tense gig with an unusual audience, and the musical aspirations of the singer (think "Springtime for Hitler," but in somewhat better taste. I liked the comparable "High Fidelity" more; it better captures the depth of rock and roll obsession, but this is close--An appealingly light look at marriage, weddings, and some awful 70's music. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the funniest books I ever read, August 16, 2000

By	pearl rogers (NYC) - See all my reviews

I bought this book because one of the blurbs said you would laugh out loud while reading it and I did -- several times. Perrotta captures that suburban aimless angst and his writing is funny and charming. I've recommended this book to everyone I know and no one has been disappointed.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tuxedos and Trombones, November 7, 2002

By	Virginia Lore "rumtussle" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you've seen the movie The Wedding Singer, you're already familiar with the idiom of Tom Perrotta's The Wishbones. This is the story of Dave, a musician in a wedding band in the New Jersey of the 1980's, and how his life changes as he approaches his own wedding to Julie. He has been dating Julie for fifteen years "on and off", and once he's proposed his problem becomes not so much unrequited love as love too much requited. Though Dave is seen by his band-mates as rock steady and by himself as an all-around nice guy, the approaching wedding looms ahead like the end of his freedom and challenges him to make some unusual choices in his last summer as a single man.

Aside from Dave, the other characters in the band each have their own story arc, well-painted by Tom Perrotta. Though I didn't find The Wishbones as funny as Perrotta's later novel Joe College, there was something poignant and almost naïve about it that was missing in the other work. A definite must-read for those who came of age in the 80's.