Review: Busker’s Holiday by Adam Gussow ★★★★★
Busker’s Holiday by Adam Gussow is a fictionalized account of busking in the streets of Europe over one summer. Filled with a great passion for the Blues, and lyrical evocations of European life, it reads like a Beat Generation novel for a new generation. If you have a love of music, a love of travel, and a love of eccentricity, Busker’s Holiday is an exhilarating read.
Given that Gussow is an acclaimed harmonica player himself, with a popular how-to YouTube channel and a non-fiction book about busking in Harlem, there is little doubt that this book is a veiled memoir, […]
Second Chances by Lincoln Cole is a novel about big issues: racial discrimination and injustice, alcoholism, spousal abuse, and struggling to survive when society is stacked against you. The novel begins with Lakeisha who is facing virulent racism at an elementary school. When Lakeisha goes missing, her daughter, Nichole, must start caring for her younger siblings and picking up the pieces of a shattered life. She works with Richard, an attorney who got into the job with good intentions but has steered away from helping the common good, and he’s facing a crisis of his own. Nichole’s problems force both […]
Art on the Human Heart by Paul C. Ho is the story of a cardiologist who has a heart attack, which makes him re-evaluate his life. It also makes him re-evaluate the medical profession, as he attempts to understand what affects the human heart well beyond medical science. Going through his life as a young immigrant, a failed relationship, a stint being a doctor in the Alaskan wilderness, his personal mysticism, and more, the doctor comes to a greater understanding of the human heart than he had before his illness.
Finding Maslow is a touching literary novel about the lives of people affected by Hurricane Sandy. It centers around Justina, a somewhat-hapless law student and politician’s daughter, who gets trapped in her house with the handyman, Daniel, during the storm. Her home is spared, but the neighborhood is in shambles, and her father doesn’t quite approve of her budding romance with Daniel, who he considers beneath her. It’s a story about overcoming adversity in both the small details of your life and during major life-changing events.
Twenty-somethings Ellis, Bax and Chloe set out for a roadtrip only to quickly find they have no money. Busking to get by, Ellis eventually makes his way to Los Angeles and into the cut-throat music business, and all the highs (literally) and lows you find there. A story as much about friendship as it is about the music industry, Long Plastic Hallway is a generation-defining book that’s as fun to read as it is for these characters to live.
Fractured Idols, by Kevin Austin, is a bold indictment against the media, banks, religion, the credit crunch in 2008, and the idea of celebrity.
Celluloid by Holly Curtis feels like a novel written in black and white – the color of old movies, and especially Film Noir. It’s not a crime novel, per se, but it is a novel permeated with the love of old movies. This is a film freak’s novel through and through, and the veneration of film shines on every page.