So I didn't enjoy this book as much as Chabon's two previous novels. I never really bought into his characters, and while I certainly appreciate how the book is a nostalgic view of the 70s from an early 21st-century vantage, it didn't work for me. Maybe because I grew up in a corner of North America basically untouched by blaxpoitation films (Shaft played here, and that could be about it). But his characters' reminiscences about T'challah and Luke Cage were less believable than Jonathan Lethem's take on them in Fortress of Solitude (both authors ignoring the fact that if you were collecting comics in the 70s, the Luke Cages always ended up in the dime piles along with the "horror" comics, Red Sonya, the DC Kirby stuff, and the Atlas "instant collectors' items").
But Telegraph Avenue is much more about the music of those times than the films or comics. It's been a long time since I've taken notes while reading a work of fiction, but I decided to compile the list of the jazz/soul/funk works mentioned in the book (often with the label and publication year), and track as many as possible on YouTube. I skipped the obvious garage sale junk that got a few mentions (like Andy Gibb) as well as the prog rock I realize many brothers were listening to back then, but then, so was I, so no point to point to "Close to the Edge" or "Brain Salad Surgery". Maybe those aren't getting played on your local classic rock station, but they were back when that station was playing those tunes the first time around. With the exception of a few obvious well known jazz albums, most of this music was new to me, and worth discovering. As for the book, I'd easily recommend starting with the Kavalier and Klay, and Yiddish Policemen books. But for fiction looking back at the 70s (and early 80s), I enjoyed Lethem's Chronic City and Fortress of Solitude more than Chabon's. I might as well mention that an acquaintance recently recommended Tom Perrotta's "Little Children". Chabon's prose, even if I wasn't enthralled by the subject material, was a sufficient antidote for Perrotta's ready-for-USA-Today style.
So here's the list in a big honking table. Enjoy. If anyone finds that American Pie by Groove Holmes, please drop a link.
Monday, July 1, 2013
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