The Final Revival of Opal and Nev

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton is an intriguing and, for those of us who remember this period, nostalgic trip through the struggles of the time as told through the personal struggles of very well-rounded characters.

Walton's style drew me in immediately. Like any good book that tries to portray fiction as a real historical document there needs to be an immediate jump into events so the reader doesn't have time to remember it is fiction. I think the use of the "Editor's Note" served this purpose well. These were real people from the beginning, with all of the emotional baggage that comes with that.

I understand that some readers of fiction will be thrown by the format, and that is to be expected with any work that doesn't show more stick with a standard approach. I would suggest that if you enjoy entertainment biographies and/or books that use interviews to tell real stories, then you won't have any trouble with the style here. This may not be common in fiction but is not uncommon in nonfiction, so if you're familiar with interview heavy nonfiction you will feel comfortable in this fictional world.

As an aside, I still have a hard time acknowledging that times I recall quite readily qualify as a period for historical fiction. I feel so old!

I would recommend this to readers who like fiction that takes place in the entertainment world but that also keeps the human elements front and center while highlighting the social and cultural turmoil of the time.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

Behind The Music of Opal Jewel & Neville Charles
Review of the Simon & Schuster Canadian paperback edition (March 30, 2021) released simultaneously with the 37 Ink hardcover.

The fictional music biography genre has gathered momentum in the past few years, especially after the success of Daisy Jones & The Six (2019). We had Adrianne Geffel (2020) last year and now both The Final Revival of Opal & Nev (March, 2021) and Bootleg Stardust: A Novel (April, 2021) in the past few months. Depending of the possible success of the future TV series adaptation (2022?) of Daisy Jones & The Six we could see the genre blossoming even further.

For readers and listeners of a certain age (I count myself among them), this provides the pleasure of nostalgia show more for an era that we likely perceive as more hopeful and free-spirited than the current one of corporate, political and media dystopias. It is also flattering to those same readers as it consists of writing about our era, one that we actually lived through and feel that we know best, certainly better than the writers, who are usually much younger than we are. As the writers work to capture those moments, we judge them accordingly as to how well they do so.

The best of these, such as The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, are able to provide the above but also to retrofit / retcon contemporary issues such as gender identity, racism and feminism into their 1960s &1970s historical fiction worlds and show them as seeds germinating from that earlier time.

Opal & Nev imagines a proto punk/glam rock duo in the early 1970s consisting of American black singer Opal Jewel and British white singer/guitarist Neville Charles. Debut novel writer Dawnie Walton provides various hints of both of their real-life prototypes and lets you fashion your own picture of their sounds and styles. Opal (to my mind) is a glam-punk version of Nina Simone, who is able to sing like Merry Clayton (of Gimme Shelter fame) and Rose Stone (of Sly and the Family Stone). Nev (again, to my mind) starts out the quirky Brit solo singer/songwriter, think Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, early David Bowie, who is later the solo star icon trading on nostalgia, perhaps Rod Stewart, Elton John. They are not any one of these people of course, they are the best aspects of all of them.

Walton builds a world where these two unite in an early flame of glory that is destroyed by various tensions, e.g. the obligatory substance abuse subplot. There is a terrifying racial incident with the biker gang fans of a Southern Rock band that is immortalized in a photograph that ignites their early cult following. The book takes place in a recent contemporary world of 2016 where the fictional book writer is interviewing all parties in support of a Behind the Music expose for her fictional popular music media conglomerate called Aural. This is to act as tie-in publicity for a planned revival tour by the duo, who have not performed together since the 1970s. During the course of the interviews, secrets of the past are uncovered that lay bare the dark side of the quest for fame and adulation. This puts both the career of the writer & her book, and the projected tour in jeopardy. And corporate greed does not smile fondly on those who seek to block its path.

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev effectively captures both its early 1970s era and the current corporate 2010/2020s world. It is an impressive debut for Dawnie Walton and I'm eager to read what she will create in the future.

Trivia and Link
Writer Dawnie Walton on the Pop Culture of Her Life. show less

Contemporary story in the form of an oral history, chronicling the rise and fall of a (fictional) groundbreaking 1970s rock duo, Opal and Nev. Neville Charles, a white British musician, hears Opal Jewel, a Black American singer, in bar in Detroit and asks her to join him. Together, Opal and Nev challenge societal norms and racial prejudice. Their collaboration creates a musical sensation, but it is cut short after a violent incident at one of their concerts. Decades later (2016), music journalist S. Sunny Shelton, daughter of a drummer who was involved in the incident, decides to revisit the story of Opal and Nev. She conducts interviews and researches their history, uncovering long-buried secrets, controversies, and the real story show more behind their final performance.

The storyline starts with Nev, but soon focuses more on Opal and Sunny. Short explanatory notes written by Sunny are inserted sporadically after a series of direct interview quotes. The storyline contains elements related to the freedom of artistic expression, power dynamics in the music industry, impact of racism and sexism, and enduring influence of revolutionary figures in popular culture.

The characters are well developed and believable. The voices of the interviewed individuals are distinct and consistent. The structure reminds me of Daisy Jones & the Six, but this book contains piercing social commentary. It points out the similarities between racial issues today and those of the 1970s. In addition, it explores art, activism, feminism, gender identity, social justice, and the complexities of human relationships. It is an impressive debut and look forward to reading this author’s future works. show less

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton is a 2021 37 Ink publication.

Opal and Nev were a dynamic, groundbreaking rock duo during the 70s. But when their recording label signs a group that miraculously makes it onto the music charts, the couple gets caught up in the studio’s attempt to book all their artists in the big Rivington musical festival.

Things go awry when the featured group takes the stage waving a confederate flag, prompting Opal to act. When a melee breaks out it leads to the death of Jimmy Curtis, the band’s drummer, and the duo’s promising career…

Nev goes on to success in Britain, while Opal takes a less commercial, excursion into Afropunk music, having taken the brunt of the fallout of the Rivington show more festival.

Now, there are rumors that Opal and Nev may be planning a reunion. As the first black editor of Aural magazine, Sunny Shelton is set to do a cover story about the duo. But her interest in this story is very, very personal, because Sunny just happens to be Jimmy Curtis’ daughter, and she’s about to interview, Opal- the woman who was having an affair with her father while her mother was pregnant with her…

Well, wow! Just wow!! This book is so realistic that I Googled Opal & Nev to see if they were a real musical duo – or if this story was based on a true story. I had to keep reminding myself the book was fictional!

Nev is certainly a central part of the story, but he’s overshadowed, rightfully so, in my opinion, by Opal.

Opal is quite the character- and while her stylist- Virgil, attempts to steal the show now and again, Opal is absolutely THE star of this show, hands down. She’s outlandish, bold, bald, and outspoken and takes no prisoners.

The story is written exactly as a journalist would approach it- in the format of an oral history. There are many interviews piecing together the events that led to that fateful show and the fallout that followed. But, as the story progresses, it tightens up to a point of supreme, edge of your seat suspense. I was riveted!

The story eventually narrows the spotlight to Sunny and Opal. The author adeptly creates a parallel between them, and their individual struggles, both personally and professionally. Sunny draws strength and inspiration from Opal that she had not anticipated, as the two women come to a special understanding.

Overall, I was drawn to this book by the lure of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, set in the 1970s, but the story goes far deeper than a surface rock saga. (Some are making comparisons to other books that feature 70s fictional bands- also employing an oral history format, but, while I may have enjoyed those books, this story blows them straight out of the water!!! NO comparisons, in my opinion- to be rudely blunt) It is so effective, I really, really wanted Opal & Nev to be real people, and still can't shake the feeling that they aren't.

The story explores many angles of women and race, juxtaposing the past with the present with a dynamic style. The story is deep, gripping, and gritty and dazzling. I couldn’t put it down!! It may be early days yet- but I can assure you, this book will be on my list of favorites in 2022.

Highly recommend!! show less

It’s impossible for Dawnie Walton’s The Final Revival of Nev & Opal to escape comparison to Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones and the Six — both are written in interview style about bands of the 1970s — but Walton deserves to stand alone with this novel. I liked Daisy Jones, but the monotony of the style ground me down about halfway through, and Walton wisely combines prose “Editor’s Notes” and longer articles to combat the format fatigue. She is also telling a more important story than just about a band from 50 years ago — Nev & Opal is about racism, then and now. Through Opal, she cleverly builds a character that survived only to find things never changed. An excellent book that explores themes of race and racism show more within an interesting package of rock and roll and historical fiction. show less

I absolutely enjoyed how real the characters felt. I could see Opal being an actual person, and I loved her narrative, spunkiness, and confidence. I've (personally) never read a fake documentary in book form, but I couldn't put this book down.

And I love how it mentions black people's creation and contribution to rock music and our, at times, strained relationship with it. I've heard many times rock referred to as the devil's or white people's music lol.

Anyway, it is a common trope to have the journalist have a personal tie/self-invested interest in some way to the subject matter of their story, but I loved that Opal & Nev didn't drag that reveal out. It's mentioned on the first page, so we already know why the journalist has stakes in show more the story.

Everything in this story felt plausible. I felt like I was watching an episode of Unsung. show less

If you’re missing the rock ‘n’ roll life after reading Daisy Jones and the Six, look no further than The Final Revival of Opal & Nev. This story is also about music and musicians, but is more detailed in the context of race, history and culture. It consists of interviews with not only Opal & Nev, short-lived duo of the 1970s, but their record company, rivals, family and fellow musicians. It’s told from the perspective of S. Sunny Shelton, who is interviewing everyone in the lead up to a planned reunion. But Sunny also has her own motives for wanting to know more about that period and Opal. It’s a detailed story with a big reveal that will take your breath away.

The idea of Sunny finding out the truth and what she wants to know show more personally is a good one. Sunny grounds the reader in the present and then takes the story back to Opal and Nev’s childhoods. On reflection, there are a few clues here of what’s to come. Opal and others are willing to be interviewed by Sunny, while things are more difficult for Nev. He’s gone on to the superstardom of private jets, while Opal has fewer loyal followers. But from the moment Dawnie Walton starts writing, there is a fantastically detailed atmosphere created. The story is told from the first-person point of view through interviews with Sunny offering editor’s insights throughout. We know that each character has their own biases and omissions of the truth, but who is hiding more? As the story progresses, we get insights into more of the characters from everyone else’s point of view, building up to the dramatic event that changed Opal and Nev’s lives forever. When asked about the famous photograph of the pair, they respond in different ways. But it takes another party to shed some light on what might have happened at the concert to lead to tragedy. As Sunny deals with the potential ramifications of what she’s found, she finds herself challenged by both Opal and her mother. How will they all react?

Dawnie Walton’s debut is fantastically detailed, plotted and put together. It’s a story that the reader becomes part of quickly and you’ll be shocked at the end to find that Opal isn’t real (and if she isn’t, at least her outfits should be). It’s incredibly well done, never short on details or atmosphere. The racism experienced by Opal is graphically described, along with the sexism she experienced as a Black American woman (something that is echoed in Sunny’s experiences in the current day). I did find that as the story was building up to the reunion concert the paced slowed a little, but with so much packed into the first half it’s understandable. The voices of Opal, her sister Pearl, receptionist Rosemary, Virgil (Opal’s friend and costume designer) and Bob Hize were all dramatically different and created distinctive characters in my head. Even the less agreeable characters were distinctive and memorable, even as they did disgusting things. Overall, it’s a memorable novel that shines for the great characters and writing.

Thank yo to Hachette for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

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