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ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Rick McLennan has just lost his New York music journalism job and his longterm partner has finally gotten so sick of him she's thrown him out, so he has nowhere to live. And to cap it off, he's been offered a job that is idea of hell - to write a book about Stevie Fracasso, one-time rock god with a very long list of problems. Worse than that, Rick will have to collect flying-phobic Stevie and drive across the US to get him to the first gig he's played in years. And the very worst of it? They are long estranged brothers, and Rick definitely doesn't want to make up and play nice. But broke and homeless leave him no choice, so he takes the job... A rollicking road-trip of a novel, highly entertaining but with touches of heartbreaking poignancy as the brothers learn how to human again with each other. Lindy
Two estranged brothers, one stolen car and a road trip from Texas to New York. What could possibly go wrong? For fans of Nick Hornby, David Nicholls and Jonathan Tropper.
Jaded music journalist Rick McLennan knows his life is going south when he loses his job, his apartment and his long-term girlfriend all on the same day. But then he is thrown a lifeline - a commission to write the story of his ex-rock-star brother, Stevie, and drive him from Austin, Texas, to New York to play one final gig. One small problem: the brothers haven't spoken in thirty years.
Rick knows it's a bad idea. But he's out of choices. So he gets behind the wheel of a beaten-up 1985 Nissan Stanza and drives towards his destiny. He's about to find everything he didn't know he was missing. It's September 2001.
From award-winning journalist and author Barry Divola comes a glorious, music-infused, rollicking road-trip novel - think High Fidelity meets The Big Lebowski meets The Darjeeling Limited. A smart, funny and wholly endearing story about how, though we may at times lose ourselves along the way, the road always leads back to family and the things that bring us joy.
'Of course this road trip comes with a top-quality mix-tape - it's by Barry Divola - but it's the layers to this story, and its humour and its heart, that make this journey irresistible.' - Nick Earls
'This book is the super f ing gnarly lead break of rock-lit novels.' - John Birmingham
'Driving Stevie Fracasso reads as great as the fifth Replacements album sounds. It's a New York-centric, music-obsessive tale of humour and poignancy, the literary equivalent of hanging with folks who think going to church is finding a record fair. A+' - Stuart Coupe
An interpreter of the listening experience forced to listen to experience? This novel will be read in between flippin' records. Go for the ride. You'll be spent, you'll be grateful.' - Tim Rogers
'If I could go back in time and take a different fork in the road, I would have lived like Barry Divola. But poor choices can't be unmade, and if Driving Stevie Fracasso is the only ride available I'll take it. Damn you, Barry Divola, you've been having everyone else's fun.' - Malcolm Knox
Barry Divola is a journalist, author and broadcaster. He is one of Australia's longest-serving and best-known music critics, interviewers and feature writers. He is a regular contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald, The West Australian and The Australian Financial Review. He was a senior writer for Rolling Stone (Australia) and the long-time music critic at Who magazine, and his work has appeared internationally in Rolling Stone, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, Monocle and many other magazines in the US, the UK, Japan, Germany and Italy. Driving Stevie Fracasso is Barry's first novel, but he has published eight books - four non-fiction books, an award-winning book of short stories (Nineteen Seventysomething), and three children's picture books.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- Rick McLennan has just lost his New York music journalism job and his longterm partner has finally gotten so sick of him she's thrown him out, so he has nowhere to live. And to cap it off, he's been offered a job that is idea of hell - to write a book about Stevie Fracasso, one-time rock god with a very long list of problems. Worse than that, Rick will have to collect flying-phobic Stevie and drive across the US to get him to the first gig he's played in years. And the very worst of it? They are long estranged brothers, and Rick definitely doesn't want to make up and play nice. But broke and homeless leave him no choice, so he takes the job... A rollicking road-trip of a novel, highly entertaining but with touches of heartbreaking poignancy as the brothers learn how to human again with each other. Lindy
