Robert Dunn (1)

"Look at Flower" by Robert Dunn (Book Review for Library Thing) *sort-of spoiler alert*
A young girl run away from the family farm in rural Oregon, Lynda reinvents herself in San Fransisco during the Summer of Love. She becomes Flower, a free spirit living on the streets of the Haight, panhandling to get food and sleeping in the park. Flower reminds me of myself, in a way; she believes in all of the ideals of the hippie revolution: peace, freedom, love, individuality...but she eschews the show more drugs and promiscuity. Flower did not run away to get high or get laid; she ran to escape the narrow worldview of her hometown, the silent strife in her parent's home, the feeling of being trapped. The Summer of Love gave Flower the chance to really get to know herself, to find herself in a context of her choosing. Then Flower chances to meet someone who challenges her carefree lifestyle. Their companionship provides mutual comfort for a while, but Flower is soon on her way again.

She embraces freedom and drifts across the country, bus-riding, train-hopping, hitchhiking... Her journey takes her as far as a commune in New Mexico, where the radical views of the leader cause Flower to question her lifestyle yet again. When she makes it back to Haight-Ashbury, everything has changed. Tour buses crowd the streets, "square" people taking snapshots through the bus windows. Throngs of girls with flat-ironed hair and flowers painted on their cheeks bring pedestrian traffic to a standstill. Flower realizes that the ideals that brought her to San Fransisco have died in a wave of conformity. show less

Looking back at my recent reviews as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewer programme, I am either a harsh reviewer or I have been unlucky with getting books that capture my imagination. It was wonderful therefore to receive Robert Dunn’s Stations of the Cross, which goes a long way towards redressing the balance.

The novel follows a fictional music star, Dyson Burnette, in the autumn of his career. It has been years since his last album of new material and, caught between increasingly show more strident demands from his record company and his own ennui, he retreats to the small town in Mexico where he originally found his voice as a songwriter. Searching for his lost mojo, he discovers a new muse and, in painful fits and starts, the music begins to flow again starting with a resurrection of his lost song, Stations of the Cross.

Initially I was sceptical. It is, after all, an audacious move to imagine a space for a superstar who should slot into the collective consciousness alongside luminaries such as Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Likewise, it is a bold move for a novelist to write about the penning of a song. However, as Burnette loses himself in the dusty streets of an isolated, sun-drenched resort, the pages began to sing to me.

Does Dyson get his mojo back? That would be telling but Robert Dunn certainly knows how to get his groove on. 5/5. show less

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and open review.

I became a little nervous when I saw that ‘Savage Joy’ called itself a “music novel”, as I didn’t see how I could find that interesting. Boy was I wrong. What a beautifully written, heart-wrenching story about a bunch of kids trying to make their dreams reality while finding their way in the world. If that sounds a little saccharine, don’t let my perspective fool you. The prose is powerful and show more doesn’t hold anything back in making you fall in love with and hate these characters, often at the same time.

Beautiful book. 5/5 show less

This review is based on the pdf edition received for free through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

As a young man Dyson Burnette stole away to the charming coastal town of Los Parques del Mar in Mexico to find himself. What he found was a penchant for writing rock music that people wanted to hear ... and beautiful, young María Siqueiros who mysteriously disappeared just when he was leaving town.

Years pass, Burnette's career skyrockets, writer's block sets in. Dyson is stuck in a rut in his show more relationship with the beautiful violinist Renata Sileska, in a perpetual stand-off with critic Spears Munson, and giving his manager Tim Grayson a reason to buy shares in antacid producers as Palladian Records threatens to cut him loose unless he can produce another mega-hit. What's a guy to do but to retreat to a simpler time and place ... a place that once inspired him?

Los Parques is a little more modern and slightly more touristy, but Consuelo Apartés still dispenses good food, cold beer, and sound advice from her little café on the town square and the rooms at Hotel del Parque are little changed. Even though María is only a memory, the torch is passed from her to a young teacher--little more than a girl herself--identified by the sequined butterfly clip in her hair. Dyson recalls bits of a song "Stations of the Cross" he originally wrote to woo María and ponders how the implied religious journey could really be the story of his journey in life. The fourteen religious Stations of the Cross suggest the song will only be complete with fourteen verses. To complete this journey Dyson must wander through painful memories, confess his weaknesses, seek inspiration, and choose his future.

Dyson is very much a poet in every facet of life. Dunn's vocabulary is extensive and he crafts each sentence perfectly to convey the layers of emotion revealed along Dyson's path. Reading this exquisite gem was a guilty pleasure. One wonders if there is a hint of autobiography hidden along the way. show less