Never Mind the Pollacks and over 360,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle – Amazon’s new wireless reading device. Learn more

60 used & new from $0.36
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel
 
 
See all product images
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Start reading Never Mind the Pollacks on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The phone rang in the post-noon dusk, and I answered it, because I'd told them not to call me unless somebody famous died..." (more)
Key Phrases: pile ofshit, gasoline girl, greatest band, Neal Pollack, New York, Bob Dylan (more...)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


10 new from $2.43 48 used from $0.36 2 collectible from $30.00

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Kindle Edition $8.79 -- --
  Hardcover -- $2.43 $0.36
  Paperback $11.07 $1.44 $0.75

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Corrections: A Novel

The Corrections: A Novel

by Jonathan Franzen
3.1 out of 5 stars (1,010)  $10.88
Moo

Moo

by Jane Smiley
3.6 out of 5 stars (83)  $10.85
The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack

The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack

by Neal Pollack
4.0 out of 5 stars (40) 
Cloud Atlas: A Novel

Cloud Atlas: A Novel

by David Mitchell
4.4 out of 5 stars (183)  $10.17
The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

The Dharma Bums (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)

by Jack Kerouac
4.2 out of 5 stars (19)  $9.75
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his latest satiric bid for immortality (after The Neil Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack), humorist Pollack details the life of a famed rock critic named, predictably, Neal Pollack, and takes swipes at scores of legends along the way. Styled as a series of interviews by rival rock critic Paul St. Pierre, conducted after Pollack's untimely death, the novel charts the history of Neal, born Norbert Pollackovitz in 1941 Memphis, Tenn. Norbert's love for music is evident early on, and soon he and neighborhood pal Elvis Presley are making noise in town. When Elvis accidentally backs over Norbert's father with a truck, Norbert is on his own and is christened Neal Pollack by his pals; he soon flees town to discover the world. St. Pierre's progress in examining the life of the "grizzled monster" is slow until he visits Bob Dylan in Woodstock, N.Y. As Dylan tells it, he met Pollack in 1961, at Woody Guthrie's bedside. The incorrigible Pollack goes on to steal Joan Baez away from Dylan and then moves to Liverpool to become a star rock critic. By the mid-'70s, Pollack returns to Manhattan; Johnny Rotten, Iggy Pop, David Bowie and, later, Kurt Cobain make cameos. Saturated with original song lyrics and pop-up appearances by rock music's greatest legends, Pollack's novel has a swinging appeal. Not everyone will want to tune in for the author's manic tongue-in-cheek self-canonization-his kitchen-sink approach sometimes makes for garbled reading-but Spinal Tap fans and groupies everywhere will be delighted.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist

Billed as "a rock-'n'-roll novel"--"rock-'n'-roll-critic novel" is probably more accurate--Pollack's foray into fiction isn't that much of a leap from his fictitious essays written by his alter ego, the "Greatest Living American Writer," Neal Pollack (The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature, 2002). In his first novel, he tells the story of a late, great rock critic also named Neal Pollack. Pollack, the character, was a self-destructive, prescient, loose cannon of a critic (not unlike Lester Bangs) who was discovered by Sam Phillips in 1951, several years before he discovered Elvis Presley. In fact, Pollack was instrumental in getting Elvis to Sun studios for his first recordings (later he wrote about Elvis in 'zines) and, it turns out, in launching the careers of Dylan, the Stones, Iggy Pop, and Kurt Cobain. Iconoclastic, sometimes hilarious, and always mean-spirited, Pollack (the novelist) spares no one in his satirical jeremiad aimed at popular music and the critics who take it so seriously. Benjamin Segedin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (September 30, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060527900
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060527907
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,325,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Neal Pollack
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Neal Pollack Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The phone rang in the post-noon dusk, and I answered it, because I'd told them not to call me unless somebody famous died. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
pile ofshit, gasoline girl, greatest band, rock critic
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Neal Pollack, New York, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Sam Phillips, Jerry Lee, New Jersey, Coney Island, Dee Dee, Kansas City, Woody Guthrie, Andy Warhol, Patti Smith, Black Flag, Clambone Jefferson, Elvis Presley, Emmett O'Donnell, Dewey Phillips, Iggy Pop, Joan Baez, Maxwell Street, Rolling Stones, Vernon Pollackovitz, Joey Ramone, Los Angeles
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 11 books:
See all 11 books this book cites
 
6 books cite this book:
See all 6 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
The Dark Stuff by Nick Kent
Ramones by Jim Bessman
 

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel
81% buy the item featured on this page:
Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel 3.7 out of 5 stars (24)
Alternadad: The True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America
7% buy
Alternadad: The True Story of One Family's Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America 4.0 out of 5 stars (26)
$10.17
How Soon Is Never?: A Novel
4% buy
How Soon Is Never?: A Novel 3.4 out of 5 stars (23)
$11.86
The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack
4% buy
The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature: The Collected Writings of Neal Pollack 4.0 out of 5 stars (40)
Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(2)
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 12 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

24 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (4)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (24 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars pretty vacant, July 29, 2005
By Rachel E. Pollock (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Never Mind the Pollacks by Neal Pollack is alternately brilliant and trash, and if you are at all into the history of rock music, Thompsonian mania, sex, drugs, puking on shoes, f**king the establishment, riding the snake to the lake, and flipping birds or wearing sunglasses in every photograph ever taken of you, definitely read this book.

At the very least it's good for some seriously hard laughs, and even when he fails at what he's doing, it's like seeing your favorite band play a bad show--you still get the gist of what he was going for, and as is true with rock-and-roll in general, you just can't be on all the time.

Now, i'm going to go puke up 8 martinis and pass out cold.

Note: I am no relation to Mr Pollack. My surname has two O's.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Like Sam Phillips, In Search Of The White Wail, November 5, 2003
By J. D. Finch (Kerouac Country, New England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Rock and roll is the people's music and in Never Mind The Pollacks, A Rock And Roll Novel by Neal Pollack, Neal Pollack, the critic, bounces off the people who make the music to always hilarious and often pointed effect.

When he stops bouncing he usually finds himself down and out, yet luckily beneath the soft white underbelly of the holy cow of rock and roll, its teats thankfully there to squirt its rejuvenating fluids into Pollack's grateful face. That and he's watched over by the magic bluesman, Clambone, as enigmatic yet down to earth as the blues itself.

Pollack often seems oblivious to his journey through rock, while we are fortunate enough to enjoy the likes of Elvis, Iggy, Dylan, The Stones, et al as they pass through the zonked out haze that is Pollack's world. But hey, that world is rock and roll.

Don't think Pollack is some insignificant Forest Gump-like character batted around existence like one of Gump's ping-pong balls: Pollack is important enough that another rock critic wants to write his biography. And though it seems the lame and effete Paul St. Pierre may never truly grasp Pollack's importance or meaning to the world they both inhabit, a final face off with his subject gives him a double shot of the rock and roll life that Pollack has lived and St. Pierre has only written about from a distance.

But screw the analyses. If you like to rock and like to laugh you can do both of these things until it hurts. Plus there's an apocalypse at the end. And it's not just some damn high school blowing up or something.

So, I rate Never Mind The Pollacks #1. With a bullet.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Clam (With a Bone in It), October 8, 2003
By Robert P Diener (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
Never Mind the Pollacks is just like every other sanctimonious book that tells the history of rock 'n' roll and why we're supposed to care, but with one significant difference: this one is actually entertaining. I read it straight through in the course of one very empty day, which, in retrospect, probably was not a great idea, as this is a thing to be savored, but I couldn't help myself. I tried, Lord how I tried, but I simply could not help myself. So, if you're the least bit interested in the history of rock, or just enjoy being amused, or like seeing various icons skewered with needle-sharp wit, or merely enjoy buying things, this is the book for you!
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Fun!
As a closeted rock historian, well I'm a disenfranchised ex punk rocker (hardcore punk, not the silly crap they have today). I totally got into this book. Read more
Published on June 11, 2006 by Jon Sullivan

4.0 out of 5 stars The Forrest Gump of Rock
This book is great fun. If you know more than a little about rock history and have a good sense of humor about it, you'll probably like this. Read more
Published on January 1, 2005 by Belinda

2.0 out of 5 stars Weak attempt to hang a novel on a great title
Neal Pollack proves with this novel that he's at his best when working in the short form. The "Catching Up with Neal Pollack" and discussion questions are the funniest parts of... Read more
Published on October 5, 2004 by G. Thorn

5.0 out of 5 stars super awesome
neal pollack is super awesome. if he was a bear, i'd stuff him and keep him in my living room.
Published on March 30, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud satire with some deeper currents, too
What Neal has written is a scathing, highly entertaining critique of rock journalism. His characters form a spectrum from the dirtiest, most indie to the vaulted pseudo... Read more
Published on February 16, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Neal Pollack, the Mel Brooks Of Literature
In his writing, Pollack plays with genre cliches just like Mel Brooks did. Instead of seeing Never Mind The Pollacks as the end-point of literature, as some critics seem to... Read more
Published on February 14, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars 200 of the funniest puke jokes you'll ever read
If you like rock and roll now, or if you liked rock and roll 20 years ago, you should read this book. Read more
Published on February 11, 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars flop
This book is like buying the second record from a band you like and discovering it sucks. Pollack hasn't done enough drugs to understand what kind of funny situations they... Read more
Published on February 6, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Rock Book
This is a funny, ambitious, breezy read, probably the best fiction ever written about rock-n-roll. Pollack's potty mouth keeps him from being considered a true peer of his more... Read more
Published on January 30, 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars You'd Better Mind The Pollack
Is Neal Pollacks' "Never Mind the Pollacks" "weak"? Is it chock full of "potty humor"? Is it "dumb" or "self-indulgent"? Yes it is. Read more
Published on January 22, 2004 by Jim Kuenzer

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...

Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:












i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
Ad
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.



Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.