Music and youth and British authors, oh my.

Somewhere in the middle of Martin Millar's novel Suzy, Led Zeppelin, and Me, I stopped being "eh" about it and started loving it with my whole heart and soul.

I LOVE it when that happens.

I can even pinpoint when it happened. It was when I read this: "My tea is always good. You have to make it in a pot and let it brew. However, not many people do this now. In restaurants, and even friends' houses, you're quite likely just to get a tea bag dumped in a cup. Most people in Britain have forgotten how to make a proper cup of tea. Useless television and bad tea. The nation is in chaos. It's a shambles." (p. 94.)

I loved that. I'm not sure why the world is in a shambles, but the loss of our ability to make tea seems as good a reason as any. And then, if I had any doubt about loving this novel, the author hit me with this: "When Led Zeppelin played at Green's Playhouse it was the best feeling in the world. I will never feel that way again. No group of musicians can affect me that way now. I'm too old for it to happen. I regret this." (p. 144.)

The whole book is a guy telling the story of how Led Zeppelin played a concert in Glasgow when he was fourteen, and how he and his friend went, and how they were both in love with a beautiful blonde girl named Suzy, in awe of her cool boyfriend Zed, and plagued by a nerdy girl who was in love with him (who turns out not to be so nerdy). For a book about a rock concert in 1970s Glasgow, it is surprisingly gentle, and although we never learn the protagonist's name, I felt quite close to him. Particularly because of the relationship he has with Manx, the girl to whom he is telling the story, and her Nefertiti hat.

It's a great novel, one of the best of 2008 (although of course I wasn't able to find it on any "best of" lists for the year). Still have doubts? Fine. I'm gonna hit you with one more, and then you're on your own:

"I don't have any desire to persuade anyone that Led Zeppelin were any good. You can think whatever you like. You either feel it or you don't. The same as any music. The same as any art. You feel it or you don't. The same as being in love. You can't be persuaded. You either feel it or you don't. I'm not going to try and change anyone's mind." (p. 212.)

Comments

[lesbrarian]

So here I am drinking my cup of coffee (brewed with care in a French press) and visiting some of my internet haunts while reading a handwritten letter. Handwritten letters are a symbol of the good old days, back when people knew how to brew a cup of tea-- wouldn't you agree? So pleased am I by my letter that I am parceling it out, one paragraph at a time: read a paragraph; visit a website; repeat.

Which brings us to the present: I mosey over to Citizen Reader (after first typing the address for NRA; old habits die hard) and I am delighted to discover that I am singlehandedly making the world a better place. Me. Little ol' me.

I had worried that my career as an activist had ended in college, but now I find that I am STILL halting the decline of civilization. I do not watch television, and more importantly-- I brew my tea leaves in a tea press. Even when I'm all by myself, no guests or anything, I take the care to make a proper cup of tea.

[sherry]

How did you find this little gem of book? It's now at the top of my wish list at Powells.

[Citizen Reader]

Lesbrarian!
I always had a sneaking suspicion you had something to do with keeping the barbarians outside the gate--way to go, you! I'm going to go have a cup of french press coffee myself to celebrate civilization (while we still have it). Imagine me over here raising my cup to you and your cup over there.

[Citizen Reader]

Sherry,
My local library provides monthly lists of their new nonfiction and fiction titles, and I am one of those nerdy people who peruse it and put items on hold at random. Something about the title tickled me, and I had my era of listening to Led Zeppelin, so I thought, why not? Turns out Millar's written other novels I'm going to now track down as well. If you get this book pop back in and let me know what you think of it, okay?

[Kathy]

It was on somebody's best of list, because it's on my Best of 2008 display right now, and I don't just pull those titles out of.....you know. I am unfortunately too lazy to try to hunt down which year-end list it came from just now.