How Soon Is Never?: A Novel
2 journalers for this copy...
From Amazon.com:
A Jewish boy from Long Island parlays his New Wave rock music fandom into a quest for love in Spitz's sweet, winning debut, a coming-of-age novel-cum-quirky romantic comedy. Joe Green, Spin writer Spitz's alter ego, is a jaded, jittery and perpetually hungover music critic for Headphones magazine. He's "rocking out and getting high and living irresponsibly" in New York City-all part of the job description of working for a major rock and roll magazine-but he's beginning to worry he looks 40 in daylight, though he's only 30. The well-crafted first half of the novel flashes back to Green's experiences growing up as an alienated, latch-key kid on Long Island in the '70s and '80s who finds redemption in bands like the Clash, Depeche Mode, Devo and the Smiths. Spitz shifts gears when Green meets Miki, a comely co-worker who's equally frustrated with her empty, fast-lane rock and roll life. Matters improve when a new editor gives them the go-ahead for a landmark story: the two team up to try to reunite their beloved band, the Smiths. The scenes in which Miki and Green track down Morrissey and his mates work as the backdrop for the self-deprecating, would-be lovers' efforts to resist their attraction to each other. An engagingly acerbic style freshens the familiar material, and Spitz works hard not to run the Smiths conceit into the ground. The result is a first novel that skirts the usual cliches of rock tales and growing-up sagas.
A Jewish boy from Long Island parlays his New Wave rock music fandom into a quest for love in Spitz's sweet, winning debut, a coming-of-age novel-cum-quirky romantic comedy. Joe Green, Spin writer Spitz's alter ego, is a jaded, jittery and perpetually hungover music critic for Headphones magazine. He's "rocking out and getting high and living irresponsibly" in New York City-all part of the job description of working for a major rock and roll magazine-but he's beginning to worry he looks 40 in daylight, though he's only 30. The well-crafted first half of the novel flashes back to Green's experiences growing up as an alienated, latch-key kid on Long Island in the '70s and '80s who finds redemption in bands like the Clash, Depeche Mode, Devo and the Smiths. Spitz shifts gears when Green meets Miki, a comely co-worker who's equally frustrated with her empty, fast-lane rock and roll life. Matters improve when a new editor gives them the go-ahead for a landmark story: the two team up to try to reunite their beloved band, the Smiths. The scenes in which Miki and Green track down Morrissey and his mates work as the backdrop for the self-deprecating, would-be lovers' efforts to resist their attraction to each other. An engagingly acerbic style freshens the familiar material, and Spitz works hard not to run the Smiths conceit into the ground. The result is a first novel that skirts the usual cliches of rock tales and growing-up sagas.
I wasn't looking forward to reading a novel about a guy with a love of women, drugs, drinking and a band I didn't know anything about but Marc Spitz's novel manages to create a character in Joe that is both tragic and appealing. By showing us where he came from, we come to understand the difficulties that the adult Joe has but more than that, we relive what it was like to be young, awkward and passionate, about something. Though I couldn't relate to all of Joe's issues and his past, I found myself looking back at my teenage years and re-thinking where my life is going; fairly profound for a little novel.
A highly recommended read.
A highly recommended read.
Picked up at Bookcrossing in december - s'about the smiths and manchestoh, so should be good
