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Details
| Genre/Form: | Fiction |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Fiction |
| Document Type: | Book |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Kevin Glavin |
| ISBN: | 9780982546604 0982546602 |
| OCLC Number: | 463832987 |
| Notes: | Includes endnotes. |
| Description: | 477 p. ; 23 cm. |
| Responsibility: | Kevin Glavin. |
Reviews
WorldCat User Reviews (1)
Reviews of Rock Star's Rainbow
</div> <div class="book_detail_review_meta">Kirkus'...
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</div> <div class="book_detail_review_meta">Kirkus' Review, Editor Review: </div> <div class="book_detail_review_txt">
A rock star searching for his soul embarks on an underworld picaresque in this gonzo satirical romance.
Rook Heisenberg, frontman for the stupefyingly vapid band the Little Bang, experiences every facet of rock-star life—the adoring fans, the glitzy mansion, the three-ways with random bimbos—and a dazed sense of anomie, salved only by memories of his long-lost high-school sweetheart Hula. Once an Internet search and an e-mail reforge that link, Rook is off to Amsterdam, where he discovers that Hula has become the moll of Svidrigailov, a Russian gangster who has put her to work in his brothel, and that Rook and Hula have a teenage daughter named Boudicca, whom Svidrigailov has sequestered in Mumbai. Accompanied by his bodyguard, a beautiful Chinese woman who is as blasé about mass killings as she is about group sex, Rook sets out for India to rescue Boudicca from white slavery. There he is overwhelmed by street urchins, Bollywood stars, menacing thugs who melt when he croons to them, and a pharmaceutical consciousness-raiser so potent that it threatens to destroy his narcissistic cocoon. Rook's quest gives the author a broad canvas for a funny, sardonic portrait of fame at its most inescapable: as he dispenses autographs and $100 bills to an ever-changing throng of autograph-seekers and flunkies who secretly despise him, he's constantly confronted with billboards of himself hawking his fashion line. Glavin tells the story with a polished prose style and threads it with intriguing allusions to everything from magic squares to Van Gogh and Dostoevsky. Amid the breezy, Tarantino-esque provocations, he smuggles pathos into Rook's search for family and meaning, though the debauches and dismemberments proceed in such a casual, jaded tone that they drain some of the novel's emotional charge. But this diverting, imaginative read keeps the pages turning.
A smart, entertaining send-up of celebrity under siege.
Naperville Sun:
"Glavin...teaches English in California. He pull[s] from his extensive knowledge of literature for the book which contains allusions to classic works...Even if readers miss the references, they can still enjoy the story."
Claremont Courier:
"Explores stardom and scandals ... the story has a tragic element along with its humorous theme. [Rook's] journey takes him from Los Angeles to Amsterdam and India with twists and turns along the way."
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- allusions (by 1 person)
- amsterdam (by 1 person)
- bildungsroman (by 1 person)
- bollywood (by 1 person)
- celebrities (by 1 person)
- crime and punishment (by 1 person)
- durer (by 1 person)
- either or (by 1 person)
- hollywood (by 1 person)
- humor (by 1 person)
- 1 items are tagged withallusions
- 1 items are tagged withamsterdam
- 1 items are tagged withbildungsroman
- 1 items are tagged withbollywood
- 1 items are tagged withcelebrities
- 1 items are tagged withcrime and punishment
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- 1 items are tagged withhollywood
- 1 items are tagged withhumor
- 1 items are tagged withkierkegaard
- 1 items are tagged withkunstlerroman
- 1 items are tagged withliterature
- 1 items are tagged withpastiche
- 1 items are tagged withrock star's rainbow
- 1 items are tagged withrock stars
- 1 items are tagged withsatire
- 1 items are tagged withsatyricon
- 1 items are tagged witht.s eliot
- 1 items are tagged withthe fall
- 1 items are tagged withulysses
- 1 items are tagged withwilliam blake
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by kglavin updated 2010-07-10


