The Lola Quartet

Jun 23, 2012 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction, america, miss-trees

This story is just one long string of unlikely coincidences, but it must not have bothered me too much because I read the entire thing in just a few hours.

I think Gavin's downward slide began when he was too lazy call the landlord to fix the leaky shower. Every night while he was sleeping, that running faucet was like the aural equivalent of Chinese water torture, eroding his brain. End of sanity and common sense for Gavin. Permanent case of the stupids. No wonder Karen ditched him. Who wants a...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-mt-bookpile

Ignore the hype - this is more of a novella that explores the relationships between five friends and their past/present selves than it is a mystery or suspense novel.

The Lola Quartet (named after the movie, not the song) is a group of four high school musicians: Jake, Daniel, Gavin and Sasha. They attended a high school for performing arts in Sebastian FL, and Anna was both Sasha's half-sister and Gavin's girlfriend. Shortly before Gavin's graduation, Anna disappears - her homelife is abusive, b...more

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Mar 28, 2012 Thing Two rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Thing Two by: Helen DeBevoise

This was a good-enough book about four friends from high school whose lives intersect 10 years later. They live in a run-down beach town, and for this reason, it wasn't an upbeat book - you see the dark underbelly of Florida's East coast. It wasn't hard to read; it had some very nice pieces which worked together well, but I would have liked more description - the ocean life is hardly ever mentioned, for instance. I'm giving it 3 stars, because it wore on me. I'm thinking that's just because I LI...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Mysterious Bookshop rated it 5 of 5 stars

Over the past few years Mandel has earned a cult following with her quiet, almost elegant approach to both crime and literary fiction. This is not to say that her work is soft-boiled. In fact, some of the reviews for this, her third novel, point to a rather noir undertone. Her novels and stories have a sort of smoky, shrouded style that lends itself well to unreliable, yet honestly drawn, characters. The Lola Quartet follows one such character, a gentleman named Gavin Sasaki. After leaving New Y...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Ruth Seeley rated it 4 of 5 stars

My first reading adventure with Emily St. John Mandel, and it's made me want to read more of her work. She's an interesting and accomplished writer, and stylistically the words glide off the page (although I'd say her writing style is a lot closer to the honey of Chet Baker's classic ballad trumpet playing than Django Rheinhardt's jazz guitar - but then I tend to think all jazz guitarists are wankers).

Gavin Sasaki is a journalist turned real estate foreclosure repo man and amateur private eye wh...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Deon Stonehouse rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-set-in-new-york, books-set-in-south-usa

Gavin’s two career choices were private detective (just like in the movies) or journalism. College offered more courses in journalism than following suspects so he threw his heart into becoming a good reporter. But times keep changing, newspapers consolidating, people getting their news off the net, and fewer and fewer jobs left for reporters. The newsroom is looking emptier and less vibrant, everyone wondering who will be the next to go. Gavin starts spicing up his stories, a sure path to disco...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Jill rated it 3 of 5 stars

"The Lola Quartet" refers to the musical group created by four of the five principal protagonists when they were students at a high school for the performing arts. Gavin, Daniel, Jack, and Sasha were the members of The Lola Quartet. The fifth student, Anna, a year younger than the others, was the sister of one of the members and girlfriend of at least one of the others. The story tells what happened to them in the subsequent ten years by weaving back and forth in time, gradually exposing the mea...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Steven Buechler rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great read for people who love good jazz and Fedoras but are trapped in the 21st Century.

Page 222:
Jack had been playing the saxophone on and off for a long time before he became aware of movement at the edge of the yard. Gavin was coming through the bushes at the side of the house. "Don't stop," Gavin said. So Jack continued, eased back into another long loop of melody. George Gershwin's "Summertime." Music for a place where it was almost always summer. He knew an arrangement that kept the son...more

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Aug 04, 2012 christa rated it 1 of 5 stars

The best of Emily St. John Mandel’s “The Lola Quartet” is concentrated in the novel’s first scene. Young teen mom Anna Montgomery is going about her daily ritual. She wakes early, bundles the bambino and stops at an all-night donut shop. From there she makes her way to a park where she sits on a swing and frets the bundle of more than $100,000 she’s got stashed in the stroller. A man appears in the distance.

Dun-dun-duh.

Unfortunately, that first burst of intrigue is wasted when the cast of un-l...more The best of Emily St. John Mandel’s “The Lola Quartet” is concentrated in the novel’s first scene. Young teen mom Anna Montgomery is going about her daily ritual. She wakes early, bundles the bambino and stops at an all-night donut shop. From there she makes her way to a park where she sits on a swing and frets the bundle of more than $100,000 she’s got stashed in the stroller. A man appears in the distance.

Dun-dun-duh.

Unfortunately, that first burst of intrigue is wasted when the cast of un-likeable characters are put through series of coincidences that are unbelievable and lacking in impact. Put it this way: I’m reading a comic book right now that includes a talking guitar and I’m way more willing to shelf my disbelief for that little guy.

Fast forward to a decade after Anna’s moment in the park. We meet uber-pussy Gavin Sasaki, a young journalist working for the second-best newspaper in New York City. This isn’t the world of journalism that he imagined as a student at Columbia University. He’s into trench coats and fedoras and world-changing exposes. Instead he’s playing survival of the fittest in an ever-dwindling staff, hanging on to his job simply because he is one of the least expensive writers on the payroll. His editor sends him his hometown in Florida to write a story about the way swamp animals are infiltrating residential areas.

Gavin’s in a bad place. His girlfriend Karen has recently miscarried and left him, his shower is leaking and he fears that his return to Florida is going to trigger the heat strokes that hospitalized him as a kid.

When the unloveable loser gets to Sebastian, Fla., his sister Eileen passes along some alarming intel: The real estate agent was recently working on a foreclosure property and saw a young girl that looked exactly like her. When Eileen asked the girl her name, she replied “Chloe Montgomery.” Montgomery. As in, maybe related to Anna Montgomery, Gavin’s high school girlfriend who skipped town 10 years ago following a swirl of rumors that she was preggers. Eileen snapped a photo of the girl and shows it to Gavin. Alas, she was seen taken the photo and the homeowner ran her off the property, so Eileen doesn’t have any more information.

The news is distracting to Gavin, who continues reporting on swamp creatures and back in NYC he botches the name of a woman he interviews who had given him a sweet kicker quote he wanted to use to end his story. When he is unable to find the woman’s name, he invents one. This is the gateway drug to a world of invented sources and manufactured quotes that eventually get him fired from his job and land him back in Sebastian -- this time to live with his sister, assist her in her work and track down the mysterious Anna Montgomery.

The story goes from flashback to present day and shows the life paths of the members of Gavin’s high school music mates from The Lola Quartet. Jack, who had the most promise, is strung out on pain pills. Daniel has become a surly policeman in their hometown. Sasha, Anna’s half sister, is on the mend from a gambling addiction and working as a waitress at a diner. There is a bunch of stuff beneath the surface that Gavin never knew about his old girlfriend, or maybe refused to acknowledge. For instance, the young quartet groupie was banging David and when she found out she was pregnant, she hoped she was running off to Utah with the right sexual partner. It’s obvious when Chloe slides out that she has picked the wrong dude.

Mandel has aged these characters in a creaky and broken way and has given them life losses and laments befitting characters thirty years removed from high school, rather than just ten. And any character that wasn’t in the quartet is somehow linked to the quartet, including a semi famous musician from New York City -- who Gavin saw play Monday night gigs at a local bar, but is also Jack’s former roommate and, oh, it’s his mother who was watching Chloe Montgomery when Eileen spotted the child. A game warden who was a source in Gavin’s story about the animals is also Sasha’s friend from her support group. Mandel also seemed to make spur of the moment decisions on the back stories of her characters, adding things like BTW: Gavin and Eileen’s parents were awful and absent and Anna Montgomery was a real hell raiser. Why she liked Gavin, who is such a wienie, shrug.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews of this book that call it “lovely” and “engaging” and I can’t help but think I’m reading something different than the rest of the world. Did I download a rough draft? Because “The Lola Quartet” is really poorly conceived and hokey. It has the feel of a NaNoWriMo book that never should have landed in the real world. (less)

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Jul 29, 2012 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is the third published novel for Emily St. John Mandel from British Columbia, Canada. She has chosen the southern city of Sebastian, Florida as setting for a story of disappointment and poor choices. The main characters were in a quartet in high school when music was an important part of their lives. We follow the character, especially Gavin Sasaki, who after graduating from college, moved to New York and fulfilled his dream of being a reporter on the New York Star. We find him after his fi...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Laura added it

"He drove to a part of the suburbs that was close up against the edge of the wilderness, although it had occurred to Gavin that what he thought of as wilderness might just be a band of wildly lush greenery with another suburb approaching undetected from the other side, like two teams of miners tunneling toward one another under the earth. The streets out here were wide and industrial, self-storage facilities, a junkyard."

I was really excited to find Emily St. John Mandel's new book on Net Galle...more "He drove to a part of the suburbs that was close up against the edge of the wilderness, although it had occurred to Gavin that what he thought of as wilderness might just be a band of wildly lush greenery with another suburb approaching undetected from the other side, like two teams of miners tunneling toward one another under the earth. The streets out here were wide and industrial, self-storage facilities, a junkyard."

I was really excited to find Emily St. John Mandel's new book on Net Galley, and I wasn't disappointed by reading it. I had heard of Mandel as I am a fan of The Millions, but I didn't really have any expectations going into the book, just a little hint of buzz. What The Lola Quartet is, is a mystery of sorts. It follows the goings on in the lives of four characters that once upon a time formed the book's title quartet. After high school, the four members - Gavin, Sasha, Daniel and Jack- part ways, with lots of untold, and even unknown, secrets between them. The books starts by following the disintegrating life of Gavin, who is a New York newspaper reporter, recently divorced and finding himself increasingly compelled to fabricate his stories. He is also obsessing over a picture that his sister has taken of a young girl that looks eerily like Gavin. I don't want to do too much summarizing, because there is just too much there and it is a bit twisty turney, surprises included.

From the beginning the tone of the writing is noirish, with a distinct Chinatown vibe. Mandel does a great job of capturing the atmosphere in the novel, the Florida swampiness, and the seedy milieu that many of her characters inhabit. Her characterizations also feel complete and distinct, although she is careful not to give too much away in each chapter, and so the pacing of the novel really works. The final thing that impressed me about Mandel's style was the ability to capture, in the rhythms and heartbeats of her writing, the musicality that is also a theme in the book.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. (less)

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May 25, 2012 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Taken from my blog at www.takemeawayreading.com

I hadn't read anything by this author before but had heard good things, so I was excited when I had the opportunity to read Emily St. John Mandel's latest... especially when I realized it takes place mostly in Sebastian, Florida. I grew up in southern central Florida and spent time as a kid at Sebastian, specifically Sebastian Inlet. And I rarely see anywhere around here used as a location in a novel.

The Lola Quartet tells the story of four high sc...more Taken from my blog at www.takemeawayreading.com

I hadn't read anything by this author before but had heard good things, so I was excited when I had the opportunity to read Emily St. John Mandel's latest... especially when I realized it takes place mostly in Sebastian, Florida. I grew up in southern central Florida and spent time as a kid at Sebastian, specifically Sebastian Inlet. And I rarely see anywhere around here used as a location in a novel.

The Lola Quartet tells the story of four high school friends who used to be part of a jazz quartet. It takes place mostly ten years after high school, though there are various flashbacks that provide a back story for the characters. Though the story is told through different viewpoints, the main character is Gavin Sasaki who has to return to Sebastian to live with his sister after being fired from his job as a "newspaperman" in New York City. In the beginning he finds out from his sister that there is a little girl in the neighborhood who looks just like him which, of course, makes sense because rumors were his high school girlfriend was pregnant before she disappeared right after high school. This leads to his searching for the girl and her mother, but some secrets and drama involving other members of his high school jazz quartet get in the way.

There was a lot of focus on how Gavin feels like he's living in the wrong decade; he wears a coat and a fedora and has always wanted to be a newspaperman or a private detective. Since his job as a newspaperman falls through, he readily takes on the role of private detective in searching for his high school girlfriend and possible daughter. This book supposedly has some noir elements in it as a result, but because I don't fully understand the concept of noir I can't really tell if that is accurate or not. I can say there was mild mystery and crime involved, but it wasn't intense or gritty in any way. Because of that I thought the story was really about the characters and where they all ended up ten years later.

This leads to something that confused me... I don't recall being given a time frame for this book, but it seemed to take place in present day. And since I'm about ten years out from high school, (2001!), the characters were about my age. And that's where it didn't make sense, because if it were truly present day most of this story wouldn't have been plausible. Nowadays it's almost impossible to lose touch with people; I know all about everyone I went to high school with because of social networking. So being unable to find people, being surprised at what people are up to after all these years.. those things wouldn't happen.

Overall, I wasn't blown away by the story or the characters, but it did keep my interest well enough to read fairly quickly. I do wish the sense of place had been a little more present.. it touched on the issue of wildlife in Florida and the creeping of it toward the suburbs as a result of hurricanes, but then that didn't go anywhere. This was an okay read and did provide me some recommendations for jazz musicians and history which has been a recent interest of mine. (less)

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May 23, 2012 Jennifer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Actually 4.5/5 Stars

I can still recall the first two books written by Emily St. John Mandel and it was with eagerness I awaited her third book, The Lola Quartet. My longing was quickly rewarded as I received this book as an early review book and I eagerly sat down with it. The Lola Quartet is exceptionally written, which is what I have come to except from Emily St. John Mandel. She offers the readers a narrative, which takes on a life and becomes a part of the reader, in this case having this re...more

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May 15, 2012 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mandel fans

Shelves: 21st-century-fiction

I did not experience the unconditional love for this book that I felt after Emily St John Mandel's first two novels. This is not necessarily a bad thing because I could feel her growth as an author. The fine writing, the suspense, the great characters are all present but she has had a change of heart. Last Night in Montreal centered around a young woman whose bizarre childhood compelled her to wander ceaselessly. The protagonist in The Singer's Gun tried to outrun his criminal upbringing. Both o...more
I did not experience the unconditional love for this book that I felt after Emily St John Mandel's first two novels. This is not necessarily a bad thing because I could feel her growth as an author. The fine writing, the suspense, the great characters are all present but she has had a change of heart. Last Night in Montreal centered around a young woman whose bizarre childhood compelled her to wander ceaselessly. The protagonist in The Singer's Gun tried to outrun his criminal upbringing. Both of these characters were trapped by destiny but I got a sense of hope that each one would possibly escape.

The Lola Quartet, named after a four-piece band of high school kids, takes place ten years after (ha, another good band name) the four members have gone their separate ways. Like a chorus that comes around over and over, they are pulled back together in their crappy Florida town. Once again destiny has claimed them.

Mandel sticks with her usual themes: individuals in their twenties reaching towards a mirage of adulthood without any good examples, life lived on the fringes of normalcy, and questions of identity and connection. A mystery runs through it carrying brutal consequences stemming from money, drugs and paternity. This time there is a child involved; a ten-year-old girl who is blissfully unaware of the danger that surrounds her.

Set smack in the present moment with the fall-out from economic meltdown, suburbs composed of the same malls and fast food emporiums no matter the town, and criminals at every level of society, the novel reads almost like today's news. Many of us are in better shape than these characters but we are surrounded by them every day on the streets of our towns and cities.

I guess everyone in the story gets what he or she deserves by the end. No one changes much. By tiny increments but just as much because of something like karma, the truly bad are punished, the ones who can help others get a chance and the guys who started out as hopeless remain hopeless. Pretty dark stuff. I wonder where Emily St John Mandel will go from here. I wonder where the world will go from here.(less)

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Mar 09, 2012 Clark Isaacs rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wonders never cease when it comes to new authors and their writing styles. Emily St. John Mandel falls into this category with “The Lola Quartet” because her writing is fresh, clean, and extremely compelling.

One of the things you discover in this fictional account of one man’s life is that as a reader your own high school days come alive. Friends long forgotten, parties, crushes, and of course graduation. Embarking on careers or further educational pursuits take precedence over continuing relati...more Wonders never cease when it comes to new authors and their writing styles. Emily St. John Mandel falls into this category with “The Lola Quartet” because her writing is fresh, clean, and extremely compelling.

One of the things you discover in this fictional account of one man’s life is that as a reader your own high school days come alive. Friends long forgotten, parties, crushes, and of course graduation. Embarking on careers or further educational pursuits take precedence over continuing relationships with those people who were so important while you were taking classes.

Emily has captured the spirit of the past and has mingled it with the present with remarkable precision. Characters ethnicity though never overtly discussed soon emerges that some are black and one is Asian. There is a mixture with a common thread and that is music. “The Lola Quartet” is a high school jazz group, which plays for their own enjoyment and that of fellow students. Their last ‘concert’ takes place in the bed of a pick-up truck when abruptly it ends with the members each going their own way.

Flash forward to 10 years later and one of the members of the original players is no longer engaged in music, but instead is a journalist in New York City, far removed from his old hometown in Florida. His career apparently is solid and he has a bright future until he overtly makes his stories more interesting by creating interviews, which never took place. He is publicly disgraced and fired.

Returning to his hometown Gavin Sasaki moves in with his sister Eilo and becomes employed in real estate. Eilo while handling a real estate foreclosure encounters a girl who is roughly 10 years old who looks like her brother! She takes a picture and shows it to her brother. This is where the happenstances begin as Gavin’s quest to find the child who could have been his as her name is Chloe Montgomery. Ten years before his girlfriend Anna Montgomery disappeared and rumors were that she left because she was pregnant.

“The Lola Quartet” sounds so far like a soap opera, but there is so much more involved. Gavin meets with one of the old members of the group who is now with the local police department. Detective Daniel continually misdirects Gavin by giving him wrong leads to follow and disguises his relationship with Anna and Chloe. Another member of the group, Jack, lives in a tent and is a failure in every sense of the word in real life.

Throughout all this turmoil, Gavin cannot find his old girl friend and gain knowledge of the truth about his alleged daughter. Mandel has written an excellent imaginative book. This is her third novel, which follows on the heels of her second novel “The Singers Gun” that received the Indie Bookseller’s Choice Award.

Do not pick this book up and read the first few pages without expecting to spend a few hours getting into the story. This is a four star book which is highly recommended.

(less)

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Mar 16, 2012 Chelsea rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed Emily St. John's first book, Last Night in Montreal, and her second, The Signer's Gun, was just okay. This third novel is somewhere between the two.

The first thing I noticed was that like her first book, this was again about a mysterious girl and a man out to find her. Oh how I love stories like this! I just can't get enough of guys tortured by the girl that got away. The pain of wanting and having loved these women is completely romantic. The second thing I noticed is Emily's s...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Susan rated it 1 of 5 stars

The Lola Quartet, is the story of four friends in high school.
Gavin, Daniel, Jack, .

Gavin is about to leave Sabastian Florida to go up north for college, and working. Right before this he's girlfriend Anna, who will be left behind to finish high school. Anna, comes from a troubled family, she is constantly coming to school with bruises and cuts. She is in trouble, pregnant, and decides not to tell Gavin she is pregnant instead, she runs off with Daniel to his family in Utah.

In the meantime, Gav...more The Lola Quartet, is the story of four friends in high school.
Gavin, Daniel, Jack, .

Gavin is about to leave Sabastian Florida to go up north for college, and working. Right before this he's girlfriend Anna, who will be left behind to finish high school. Anna, comes from a troubled family, she is constantly coming to school with bruises and cuts. She is in trouble, pregnant, and decides not to tell Gavin she is pregnant instead, she runs off with Daniel to his family in Utah.

In the meantime, Gavin has graduated college and worked as a journalist in a top NYC newspaper. But, he is getting lazy at investigating his stories. The last few stories, he did not do his research, and was found out, and fired. In the meantime his live in girlfriend leaves him. He can't pay his rent, not food, no utilities.
He's sister offers him a job to move down to Florida. When he moves down to Florida, there is a picture, that looks so much like he's old girlfriend, Anna. He decides he wants to track her down

I have not read books by this author before, but heard so much about her. The first part of the book grabbed me, but then it lost steam.
I loved the suspense, it reminded me of old detective stories, Spencer Tracy, kind of movie. I really wanted to enjoy reading.

But the second part, when we learned about the characters and what their motivation was I did not care. I am not into the excitement of the drug scene, and gambling, and the risk taking. Anna, getting herself into trouble, and the mystery of how she got into this mess, and how she and everyone else came back a decade later, just did not do anything for me.

When I realized this was a story about teenagers getting themselves into trouble, further, and further and digging themselves further and further in a hole. I realized this was not for me.
I did not care for the characters. It just was not my cup of tea.

Liked the writing, but did not care for the story or the characters, overall. I liked Part 1 of the story, but lost it at Part 2.

Thank you for the review copy, from Caitlin at Unbridled Books.(less)

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May 03, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks

In Emily St John' Mandel's latest book: The Lola Quartet, four former high school friends who were part of a jazz group in high school, (The Lola Quartet), find their lives intersect after many years, having reconnected under unusual circumstances. When the novel's protagonist, Gavin Sasaki, a journalist from NYC, is fired from his job in 2009, he moves to Sebastian, Florida, when his sister, Elio, offers him a job in her real estate business. His job is working with clients whose homes will soo...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Barbara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm not sure that either term is exactly accurate but the words "noir" and "dystopian" kept coming to mind while I was reading this book. "Haunting" also works. It's a sort-of detective story, written in a very spare style. And it describes our actual world of urban/suburban sprawl. It's about a lot of broken, damaged people, all of whom ended up falling apart in different ways before or around the age of 30 (the novel takes place about ten years after their high school graduation). One is a rep...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Janet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc, review-ideas, one-day-reads

On Thanksgiving Day, I took an entire day off work and stayed in bed all day reading. It was heavenly, and I owe much of that happiness to Emily Mandel, who is three for three in my book. I adore her writing and was thrilled when she sent me an advanced copy of this newest book, The Lola Quartet.

The story itself is a fascinating one (and as someone who doesn't like for even the first chapter's contents to be revealed, I'll not give even the smallest spoilers!), but it's the way that it so deftl...more

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May 10, 2012 Michelle added it

Emily St. John Mandel's The Lola Quartet is an expose of sorts that focuses on a group of four high school friends and how their life turns out ten years after graduation. This is not one of those stories where the unpopular kid becomes wealthy and all of the jocks and cheerleaders get their comeuppance. Rather, these four continue to struggle and exist to survive rather than thrive. It is as depressing as it sounds.

There are several issues with The Lola Quartet to prevent one from enjoying it f...more Emily St. John Mandel's The Lola Quartet is an expose of sorts that focuses on a group of four high school friends and how their life turns out ten years after graduation. This is not one of those stories where the unpopular kid becomes wealthy and all of the jocks and cheerleaders get their comeuppance. Rather, these four continue to struggle and exist to survive rather than thrive. It is as depressing as it sounds.

There are several issues with The Lola Quartet to prevent one from enjoying it fully. For one, the characters are flat and uninspiring. All of them, including Gavin as the main character, remain one-dimensional and fail to learn anything throughout the novel. Every one of them justifies their actions with the weakest of excuses. This does not endear any of the characters to the reader, although that is not necessary for one's overall enjoyment of a novel.

Even though she is at the heart of the novel, driving every character's actions from almost the opening chapter, very little is actually learned about Anna and her reasons for leaving Gavin and hiding her pregnancy from him. A reader never truly understands Anna nor is able to get into her mind to be able to sympathize with her, and yet, she has a profound influence on the rest of the characters. Unfortunately, the story is not helped by keeping Anna this mysterious force and only continues to limp along under the premise that readers will accept without proof that everyone falls in love with Anna and is willing to risk their life for her. It is a premise that will not sit well with discerning readers.

The other issue with The Lola Quartet is the fact that the story itself is uninspiring and predictable. The reader can hypothesize with accuracy how the story will end almost from the very beginning. None of the characters are in danger, creating no tension that compels one to keep reading. Combined with the insipid characters, The Lola Quartet becomes rather forgettable.

The Lola Quartet is an adequate story but not an exciting one. As such, a reader will never be truly able to become completely immersed in this tepid story about actions, their long-term consequences, and the journey that is life. With so many outstanding novels being released in the next few months, The Lola Quartet just cannot compete.

Acknowledgments: Thank you to NetGalley and to Alexa Villanueva from Unbridled Books for my review copy!(less)

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Mar 11, 2012 Glenda Christianson rated it 4 of 5 stars

The title and the book cover art of The Lola Quartet give very little indication of the books' contents. Instead of causing me to bypass this book, both the cover and the title intrigued me. I am not sure what I was expecting, but the story within was a pleasant surprise.

I am not sure that this novella fits into any one genre. It is a little bit of a mystery, a bit noir and a bit of a commentary on the mistakes we make during our youth and the ability for these choices to follow us into adulthoo...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Diane S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Four friends, and a girl who is the girlfriend of one and the stepsister of the only female, start a jazz quartet in highschool. It is their last concert and their last year in high school and they all have bright plans for the future. I can relate to this because I remember being in that position, didn't like jazz much, but music was always around. Thought at 17 I was all grown up and the future was limitless. A decade passes and the group is brought together again by a picture, find out their...more

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May 16, 2012 Laura de Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, review-copy

4.5 stars

Emily St. John Mandel writes books that are unlike any others I've read. For her books, that's a very, very good thing. I've really enjoyed all three of them.

In this case, I don't know whether to describe this more as a thriller with a very literary bent, or a novel about the uncertainty we all face as we move from our teenage dreams into adulthood (which has a mystery/thriller plot as a frame). It doesn't matter. I enjoyed it as both, although probably more as a look at life than as a...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Natella rated it 1 of 5 stars

My rating is actually 1/2 of 5 stars.

This was not a suspenseful mystery as it was described; instead it’s a drama examining a set of friends’ past and current lives. Between a runaway, theft, and a pregnancy kept secret- their connections to one another have become quite convoluted.

Had I realized quite how much emphasis was placed on the drama rather than the noir mystery aspect, I probably wouldn’t have chosen this book. As it was, I apathetically trudged through this book. I didn’t find any of...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Cat rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, netgalley, library

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel is another of those novels I picked up because something about the title and the cover (there I go again, initially judging a book by its cover) intrigued me. It turned out to be a pleasure to read - a well-paced mystery exploring all those complicated issues surrounding the juxtaposition of who we are compared to who we thought we'd become.

The novel is named for a high school jazz quartet consisting of most of the novel's central characters, who are pul...more The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel is another of those novels I picked up because something about the title and the cover (there I go again, initially judging a book by its cover) intrigued me. It turned out to be a pleasure to read - a well-paced mystery exploring all those complicated issues surrounding the juxtaposition of who we are compared to who we thought we'd become.

The novel is named for a high school jazz quartet consisting of most of the novel's central characters, who are pulled back together years later by a dangerous coincidence. Gavin Sasaki is a fedora-sporting, noir-loving, soon-to-be disgraced journalist on an assignment in his Florida home town when his sister informs him that she has come across a young girl who looked exactly like she did when she was that age. They suddenly both wonder what became of Anna, his high school girl friend, who seemed to vanish after his senior year of high school, right before he moved to New York. The picture his sister takes of the eerily familiar-looking child leads to an unforeseeable chain of events as the mystery slowly unravels.

We spend a little time with each of the main characters: the members of the original quartet, and Anna. The story also shifts between past and present, giving us glimpses into how each came to be living a life so far from their youthful, hopeful renderings of the future.

He stopped halfway to look up at the sky. He'd been reading about constelations recently, and had fallen particularly in love with the North Star. It always took him some time to find it in the haze of the streetlight, but there it was. True north, the direction of his second life, New York. He felt in those days that he was always on the edge of something, always waiting, his life about to begin.

Everyone seems to be in some state of flux - and none of their lives have turned out remotely as they'd imagined. Their self-imposed isolation and loneliness doggs them all in varying ways, but they also manage to find solutions to their stases - although whether or not they are good solutions is up for debate. Nevertheless, the novel manages to end on a hopeful note.

I also had the good fortune to meet the adorable Ms. Mandel yesterday evening at Left Bank Books, one of my favorite local bookstores! It was not the largest turnout, but the four of us managed to have a nice time sitting in a circle, chatting about the novel, writing, and musing about life in general. Meet the author events always seem to have a certain level of awkwardness (or, perhaps it's just me that's awkward!), but this one felt more intimate, like a new book club getting off the ground. At any rate, I highly recommend both reading The Lola Quartet and meeting the warm and unassuming Emily St. John Mandel if you get the chance. I've already picked up a copy of her second novel, The Singer's Gun, and hope it won't remain in my substantial TBR pile for too long.

*I originally received this novel from NetGalley & Unbridled Books in exchange for my review, but have since bought a hard copy.(less)

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Mar 15, 2013 Erika rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-reading-challenge, canadiana, fiction

I seem to be on a roll with previously unread authors. This was an interesting story, yet one I initially wasn't sure would be for me. Five main characters, all of them in their mid to late 20s, are haunted by their choices. One wouldn't think that anyone so young could have such a past, but broken dreams make no exceptions on the grounds of youth. Each character is flawed, some with more redeeming qualities than the others, all of them grappling with an unhappy past and an even more uncertain f...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Jeff Tucker rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book has a lot in common with the author’s other work Last Night in Montreal. Both books are about a young man searching for a mysterious woman from his past. Both books have characters that inhabit the fringes of society (my favorite kinds of characters by the way). The traveling theme is also in both books. Characters are traveling to escape from danger, traveling to start a new life or traveling back home because they can’t think of anywhere else to go. Both books have chapters that alte...more

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Feb 25, 2012 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nook-net-galley

Four friends form a jazz band in High School, the eponymous Lola Quartet....add one more (the drummer's step sister/trumpet player's girlfriend) and you have the cast of characters playing in this story

You also have a pregnancy-kept-secret, a runaway, a theft of mucho $$$$ from a meth dealer, a ruined journalist, and a cold-blooded murder. Oh my!

Gavin and Anne were High School sweethearts, until Anne became pregnant, and decided to run away with Daniel (because he had a place to run to in Utah)....more Four friends form a jazz band in High School, the eponymous Lola Quartet....add one more (the drummer's step sister/trumpet player's girlfriend) and you have the cast of characters playing in this story

You also have a pregnancy-kept-secret, a runaway, a theft of mucho $$$$ from a meth dealer, a ruined journalist, and a cold-blooded murder. Oh my!

Gavin and Anne were High School sweethearts, until Anne became pregnant, and decided to run away with Daniel (because he had a place to run to in Utah)....Anne spends a lot of time in turmoil, wondering if the baby will look half-Japanese, like Gavin, or Cocoa brown, like Daniel...Anna slept around a bit. Once the baby is born all pink and shiny, Daniel splits...and Anna steals over $100,000 from her crazy Meth dealer landlord....so begins her Life on the Lam....Meanwhile, 10 years on, Gavin's successful career as a journalist tanks miserably once he's caught faking stories...he has to return home to Florida to work for his sister, foreclosing properties....Jack the erstwhile Boy Genius is a Vicodin addict who spends his days reading books about jazz arcana...Daniel is an embittered police detective with a trashed marriage, two kids, and no life...Sasha the drummer spends her days hiding from reality..her nights working at a roadside diner..her spare moments devising a plan to save Anna from that hellhound Meth dealer..

The death of High School dreams...the harsh bite of reality...the way people we once thought we knew, can change into monsters...the way we accept all of this as "just life" but still keep an eye peeled over one shoulder...that's what this book is about. It's no "mystery" any more than life itself

While not earth shattering, I thought this was a good story, well told...it made me consider some of my youthful indiscretions...and what the fallout would have been, if i'd stayed in touch with people from college...and if anything would have survived from those friendships, besides regret

Recommended

4 Stars

***This was a Net Galley***(less)

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Oct 02, 2012 Amanda Byrne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: unfinished-books

Another one for the unfinished book shelf...The first two chapters were dull. I wanted this book to be good. I really did. The title and the cover drew me in (always the first two things I look at). But I should have heeded my misgivings when I read the logline on the back of the book-it was...not spicy. It had no voice at all. It was like, I have to funnel this story down into two or three sentences, and I'm going to recite them in monotone.

Yeah.

There's always the possibility I'll attempt this...more

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