Interesting character study. I am a big fan of Clyde Edgerton, but this one was not my favorite. A couple of storylines didn't seem to resolve themselves. Maybe just my poor reading. ( )

The two young men, one white and one black, living in North Carolina, were my age-peers as I grew up in nearby Virginia. I grasp their circumstances and identified with many of the small details of their lives. As the book progressed, I kept waiting for the "setting the stage" portion to end, and "the story" to begin. Unfortunately, it never did. When there is virtually no plot, the characters and environment have to take the lead. The environment was vividly portrayed, and a variety of characters were moderately interesting. All in all, this book was much less than I had hoped. ( )

Whites and African-Americans in a rural town in North Carolina, experiencing the civil rights movement from afar, and exploring R&B and jazz. Not as laugh-out-loud funny as Raney, but a good humane read. ( )

This is a book in search of a plot. Nice atmosphere and characters alone can not sustain a book. I think book is supposed to show racial attitudes in Carolina in the 1960's but The Help it is not. The book is about musicians who are trying to gain fame by appearing on a local show in which amateurs are pitted against each other. The problem is I never cared a bit whether they succeeded or failed. I have read other Edgerton books and liked them but not this one.. ( )

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2012/08/two-fer-tuesdays-quick-takes-night.ht...

Larry Nolan (full name Larry Lime Beacon of Time Reckoning Breathe on Me Nolan) is 16 in 1963 Starke, North Carolina. He works for a furniture shop owner as well as with his Uncle Young (actually his cousin - full name Young Prophet of Light and Material Witness to the Creation Trumpet Jones), who does odd jobs (picking up garbage, meat parts, etc.)

Dwayne Hallston is the son of the furniture shop owner and is determined to rock out like James Brown. Since Larry is taking lessons from a local jazz musician, Dwayne enlists his help to learn the music and the dance that he needs to get some "soul" into his band's routine, but they have to do it on the sly, as there is a racial divide between the "two Starkes" that is becoming amplified in this time of lunch counter sit-ins:

Jobs for many men and women in Starke, Prestonville, and Whittier - white women worked in the home, generally, as did a few black women - were at Sears (white), selling cars in Whittier (white) as clerks in the black-run stores in Prestonville (black), selling insurance (white, one black), working at the hosiery mill in Prestonville (white), working as farm laborers (white, black), doing domestic work (black), refinishing furniture at Dwayne's daddy's store (white, black), working a Jared Fitzsimmons's dog food factory (white, black), and so on.

This novel has humor, quiet (and some not-so-quiet) action, and a friendship that defies the odds. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It also proves that a writer doesn't have to use high-falutin' language to be a great writer - the clear prose was refreshing. ( )