Thursday, October 15, 2009

Book Club

Last month we discussed Kim Cooper's book about the rise and fall of Neutral Milk Hotel and made a lot of Decemberists fans mad in the process (win-win). This month we're looking at Rob Sheffield's, Love is a Mix Tape.

Rob Sheffield is a music critic and writer for Rolling Stone. Love is a Mix Tape is a novel based on the true story of his life. The story centers around the devastating loss of Sheffield's young wife, "an Appalachian punk-rock girl named Renee," from an unexpected blood clot. The story is told from the chronological order of their relationship - when he first saw her in a bar singing the words to his favorite song, Big Star's "Thirteen," - to her death, and his subsequent struggle to move on.

What's unique here is that every new passage of time (the start of every chapter) is denoted by a mix tape that either he made for her or she made for him during that time. Sheffield, the quintessential rock-geek shares his story of falling in love with a Hell-raising rocker chick. The ups and down of being married young, and the crushing blow of it all ending too soon. In the background of this story are the mix tapes, the songs and musicians that are so important to both of them - R.E.M., Pavement, The Rolling Stones, Prince and many more. These, in effect, work as the soundtrack of their lives.

Recommended reading for any music lover who has ever lost somebody - which is probably everybody reading this post.


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