Kathi Kamen Goldmark (1948–2012)

This is a fun, breezy novel, a comedy about the country music scene. The book is sort of a groovy fable, reminiscent to me of stories like the movie Bagdad Cafe, where everything is breezy and all the characters just a little to perky and quirky and cool to be believable. So, as I said, the book is fun, but you have to be in the mood for that sort of thing. There were some of the pacing problems one might expect from a first-time novelist, as Goldmark was when she wrote this. But Goldmark was not an amateur writer. She was involved in both music and publishing and authored many essays, so the writing here is pretty much devoid of annoying cliche and the characters, while sweet, are not, at least to me, sickly sweet.

Fun for me personally was that most of the story takes place in Lake County, California, which is just next to Mendocino County, where I live. Goldmark, who, sadly, passed away a few years back from cancer, was a fairly well known figure in the San Francisco literature scene and was also a member of the Rock Bottom Remainders, a rock band made up of a revolving roster of published writers, including Stephen King and Dave Barry.

I can recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, light read, but don't be looking for much in the way of real life here.… (meer)