The Song Remains the Same: Review and Giveaway

We all have occasional lapses in memory. We may forget to do something important, forget to pick up a needed item from the store, or forget someone's name or birthday. That's pretty normal.  But what if, suddenly, all memories of the past were completely extinguished? Kaput! What if you couldn't remember anything about yourself: what type of personality you had, which schools you attended, what your job was, where you lived, who your family and friends were, as well as the myriad of little details that are also essential? You'd feel rather lost, because we define ourselves on what has been, even though every day is new. That would be a very difficult and incomparable situation, not one I'd like to be in, even though in some ways the idea of a clean slate or fresh start is nice (that's the appeal of a new place, relationship, or book, even).

This is the premise of the novel that I've just read, The Song Remains the Same, by Allison Winn Scotch, published in 2012, my first book involving a character afflicted by amnesia.  In this case, the amnesia was brought on by a devastating plane crash in which there are only two survivors, Nell Slattery, the protagonist, and Anderson Carroll, a handsome and charming actor (sought by Spielberg).  In this book, Nell (named after the Beatles song, Eleanor Rigby) tries to regain her memory through pictures, both photos and paintings, with the help of friends, family, and professionals, and also through music.  Her younger sister, Rory, attempts to help Nell by giving her an iPod with hundreds of songs on it, to see if music will jog her memory, help her recover the past.  However, Nell learns from a colleague that when it comes to her marriage, it may be better to forget, because her husband, Peter, has slept with another woman.  Her mother wants her to forgive Peter, while Rory seems adamantly opposed to any sort of reunion with him.

"I wouldn't say that I was raised on romance. Let's not get stuck in the past."
~Elvis Costello, Pay It Back  

As Nell sincerely tries to remember the past she has lost in the crash, she soon realizes that reconstructing it is no easy task, and that the truth is hard to uncover.  She tries wholeheartedly to remember, she tries to be a good person, and she also tries to rebuild her marriage and trust her husband.  Inspired by the TV show, Friends, she also attempts to adopt a more dynamic personality.  I give her an "A" for all of her effort.  I rooted for her and wanted her to regain her memory, or at least enough of it so that she wouldn't feel completely disoriented, without an identity and frames of reference.  Nell focuses intently on her artist-father,  Francis, who disappeared when she was a young teenager.  She believes that her father is an important key to her past, and to regaining her memory.  Nell feels that solving the mysteries surrounding her father, who's supremely talented artistically (but also very selfish), will help her in the present.

Photo of Led Zeppelin, courtesy of Wikipedia

While I appreciated the incisive writing and this story, I was left wanting just a bit more, musically speaking. The title of this book is the name of an album, film, and song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, and some of the chapters have titles which are the names of popular rock songs, so I waited for the "meat and potatoes" to arrive--but I'm not sure that they ever did.  Songs do eventually help to spark Nell's memory, but I wanted music to be even more central and defined in the story, and I wanted to learn more about her musical talent, which was on a major hiatus.  Her musical talent seemed diluted and secondary to the painting talent she also had, an inheritance from her father (although that was probably intentional, a sign that Nell had chosen her absent father over her present, "musical" mother).  I'm a huge fan of music--it's one of the greatest pleasures of my own life--so perhaps my expectations in this regard were too high.  But, I felt as if the musical aspects of this novel could have been explored more deeply, instead of being alluded to.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this book.  I'd definitely like to read Allison Winn Scotch's NY Times bestseller, Time of My Life. The Song Remains the Same does make you think about what you'd do in similar circumstances, without memories of the past to guide you. Would you rely on your gut feelings or intuition?  On others?  How would you (although I dislike this overused term, it truly fits here) "reinvent" yourself?  And practically, how would you piece together the past, and live in the present?  The premise of  The Song Remains the Same was unique to me, and the book is humorous, well-written, and thought-provoking.

The Penguin Group is generously offering a copy of The Song Remains the Same as a giveaway (U.S./Canada only) to a lucky reader.

• To enter this giveaway, simply leave a comment. 
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Enter by 5PM PDT on Monday, April 30. One lucky winner will be randomly selected and announced on Tuesday, May 1. Good luck!


Special thanks to Lisa from TLC for sending me an advance copy of this book. For more reviews, please visit the other stops on TLC'sThe Song Remains the Same book blog tour.

Crazy Enough

To be honest, I hadn't heard of Storm Large before I was contacted about reviewing this book,  Crazy Enough: A Memoir,  but I looked her up online right away to find out more.  The first thing I noticed, of course, is her striking beauty.  She's tall and very attractive (although in the book as she is growing up she does not see herself as attractive).  I then played a few clips to get a sense of her voice and personality,  and decided that this was a memoir I had to read.

"People think I'm nuts. They think that I am a killer, a badass, and a dangerous woman."

~Crazy Enough, Storm Large

Published in January 2012,  Crazy Enough is the story of her life so far.  As I began the first chapter (you wouldn't believe the opening line), I was flung out of my "comfort zone",  hard and headfirst.  Storm is very troubled by her mother, Suzi's, frequent bouts of mental illness and hospitalizations, and understandably worries about her own future when a doctor tells her that she, too, will be "crazy" like her mother when she's older (in her twenties).  I was discomfited the entire time I was reading this book, and often on the verge of tears; I felt that Storm desperately needed a mother to guide her through childhood, but her mother was absent, often in the hospital or institutionalized for months at a time, being treated for various, nebulous mental illnesses.   As a consequence, as a child in the town of Southborough, MA, Storm was left to her own devices, and unfortunately drawn to dangerous things, such as sex and drugs.   Her father, Henry,  tried to be a good parent to Storm and her brothers, John and (also) Henry, but he had to work long hours in order to support his family and his wife's expensive, never-ending health care. 

While I found some of the language hard to take, this book is so real and honest and funny that it won me over almost immediately.  Storm doesn't sugar-coat anything in her memoir, and is truthful about her experiences and feelings.  Her early bouts with sex and her hypersexuality, as well as her experiences with alcohol and drugs (including heroin!) were strange and fascinating to read about.  I could not put this book down, and finished it over the course of a few days.

"You know her life was saved by rock 'n' roll."

~Rock 'n' Roll,  Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground

After a tumultuous childhood, Storm attended acting school in NY, turned to music, and gradually achieved success as a singer (her powerful rendition of Where is My Mind is breathtaking),  fronting bands and releasing albums, and landed a part on the TV reality show Rock Star: Supernova (which I'd love to see),  and a role in the musical, Cabaret.  Eventually, she created her hit one-woman show, Crazy Enough (which I'd also love to see).  This bold book tells her story candidly, and while it was disturbing to read at times, Storm's story is one of determination, survival, and triumph, and one that I will not be able to forget.

Special thanks to Kristin from Simon & Schuster for sending me a copy of Crazy Enough.

Guitar Zero

"Without music, life would be a mistake."
~Friedrich Nietzsche

For as long as I can remember, I've loved music. As a child I discovered that music had the power to brighten my outlook (O-o-h Child, Joy to the World) or move me to tears (ballads by The Jackson 5, The Rolling Stones, or Jimi Hendrix). As I matured, music became more important to me, and I learned that music could affect my mood or state of mind in a variety of ways, often indescribably so. Although I couldn't work up my nerve to try out for the glee club in elementary school, and didn't learn to play an instrument (except for the accordion, very briefly), I have a deep appreciation for music, and enjoy listening to all kinds of music. I was interested in reading Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning because of my profound appreciation for music, which continues to enhance my life.

Written by NYU psychology professor and author Gary Marcus, Guitar Zero will be released to the public on January 19, 2012. I felt quite fortunate to have the opportunity to be one of the first to read his new book. Guitar Zero is about the author's attempts to learn how to play guitar as he approaches his fortieth birthday. He initially wonders if it's possible to learn to play an instrument at his age. Does the brain possess enough plasticity to take on such a daunting task? Many people believe that learning an instrument, like learning a language, must be done at an early age. Guitar Zero (which gets its name from the popular video game, Guitar Hero) explores the world of music from the perspective of an older student, armed with a strong appreciation and admiration for great guitarists and musicians, and an eagerness to learn how to play the guitar.

Although I am not a music student per se, I enjoyed the insights in this book (it's packed full of them!) which are about music and life in a more general sense. Much of the book resonated with me, and I will give but a few examples here. The author talks about the need for good music teachers, and from my own experience his words ring true. Thanks to the unbridled generosity of my mother-in-law, each of my children, Oliver, Jasmine, and Angela, has taken years of private music lessons on various instruments--piano, flute, violin, oboe, guitar--with a variety of teachers, so I know firsthand that good teachers are invaluable; I agree with the author that teachers with certain characteristics (such as the ability to encourage) are especially wonderful. A key point in the book is that practice may not make perfect when it comes to music, but practice (for most of us, anyway), is an extremely vital part of learning to play an instrument, perhaps the only way to train the fingers and the brain to play music (the author provides tips about what kind of practice works best). My youngest daughter, Angela, has taken Suzuki violin lessons for eight years, and my middle child, Jasmine, took oboe lessons for several years, and although they didn't always feel like practicing, practicing or playing their instruments was precisely how they learned to play them.

I enjoyed the references in the book to the band Rage Against the Machine, and specifically the incredible guitarist, Tom Morello, the twenty-sixth-greatest guitarist of all time (according to Rolling Stone magazine). My son, Oliver, introduced me to this band, and I find much of their socially aware music quite powerful, and the intense, layered sound of their music, especially Renegades of Funk and Bulls On Parade, gets my adrenaline going.

"Of course, making music is not just about control, or even about achieving flow; there's something deeper. Something that for me has made the whole quest--a massive investment of my scarcest commodity, time--worthwhile. Becoming musical has brought balance to my life."
~Guitar Zero, Gary Marcus

Guitar Hero is scientific and well-researched, yet written in a friendly and down-to-earth manner. At times I struggled with some of the music terminology specific to guitars (there is a glossary of music terms in the back of the book, though), but for the most part, it was understandable and interesting, and I felt inspired by the notion that we can learn something as complex as a musical instrument later in life.



Special thanks to Trish from TLC for sending me this fascinating book. This is the first review for the book blog tour for Guitar Zero. For more reviews, please visit the subsequent stops on TLC's Guitar Zero book blog tour.