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6th out of 11 books
—
3 voters
Northline
Fleeing Las Vegas and her abusive boyfriend, Allison Johnson moves to Reno, intent on making a new life for herself. Haunted by the mistakes of her past, and lacking any self-belief, her only comfort seems to come from the imaginary conversations she has with Paul Newman, and the characters he played. But as life crawls on and she finds work, small acts of kindness start t...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
February 7th 2008
by Faber and Faber
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disclaimer in the first 2 paragraphs of this review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
This is a book that was better than his first book and maybe not as good as his third book will be.
He's stories are rich in plot and character and strong in realistic dialog.
Here is an author that rarely gets spoken of w/o his band being mentioned. so here's the mention, I recommend the following songs by Richmond Fountaine:
polaroid
Hallways
Barely losing
come to think of it, those are all from the same albu...more
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
This is a book that was better than his first book and maybe not as good as his third book will be.
He's stories are rich in plot and character and strong in realistic dialog.
Here is an author that rarely gets spoken of w/o his band being mentioned. so here's the mention, I recommend the following songs by Richmond Fountaine:
polaroid
Hallways
Barely losing
come to think of it, those are all from the same albu...more
Northline by Willy Vlautin is the kind of book that makes me wonder if I will ever truly love a book again, or if I'm destined for reading purgatory, where everything gets three stars on Goodreads: Not quite bad enough to ditch it in the toilet tank at a truck stop, but not good enough to dangle it over someone's head, taunting "You know you want to read it!"
This one stars Allison Johnson, a high school drop out with an abusive boyfriend who dabbles in white supremacy, brands her with a swastika...more
This one stars Allison Johnson, a high school drop out with an abusive boyfriend who dabbles in white supremacy, brands her with a swastika...more
2 likes · like · see review
Jun 03, 2008
camilla
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to camilla by:
Bonnie Mccullough
Shelves:
read-2008
This book was exhausting. The story of a young woman living in Nevada working crappy jobs at casinos, getting drunk every day, and trying to get away from her brute of a boyfriend. I appreciated the writing, it sets the scene of the desert and the monotonous depressing lifestyle well. However, I was frustrated with how weak the female protagonist was. I felt a little better when I read the author interview in the back and he said he hated writing all the sex scenes where Allison is either forced...more
Vlautin knows how to create compelling characters, and he has skill writing dialog. This was an easy read, which surprised me because his characters are troubled and dark. His main character is especially interesting: Allison struggles with alcoholism, and panic attacks, and low self-esteem. She's made some bad choices in love and career, too. But she manages to find connections with other people who have their own problems and complications. Her inner conversations with an imaginary Paul Newman...more
Amazing book. This is an incredibly fast read, I literally got it done in one evening sit down consisting of 4 hours. It is basically about our main character, Allison, who is fucked up 7 ways from Sunday in her own right, but she is in an abusive relationship. I found it curious that we didn't read a lot about the actual abuse- you get brief snippits throughout, but yet you knew that it was extremely abusive in every way possible right off the bat. The writing is really superb- maybe that's why...more
I'm trying to make my ratings more realistic. Not every book I like should get five stars!
You can tell that Willy Vlautin isn't an accomplished novelist, but there is certainly talent with room for growth. Some of the writing and storyline seem a bit juvenile, but it does clean up at points.
What's interesting with Vlautin is that the tone of his writing doesn't fit with any particular era--I feel like, except for the small revealing details, this book could take place decades ago and still be qu...more
You can tell that Willy Vlautin isn't an accomplished novelist, but there is certainly talent with room for growth. Some of the writing and storyline seem a bit juvenile, but it does clean up at points.
What's interesting with Vlautin is that the tone of his writing doesn't fit with any particular era--I feel like, except for the small revealing details, this book could take place decades ago and still be qu...more
1 like · like · see review
I sort of want to go and live in Vlautin's beery night-time off-neon desert soda can America and I want to soak in the no-hope sad/sweetness. That is if it feels like this.
Allison Johnson is an alcoholic who cuts herself to control frequent panic attacks, who has a skinhead neo-Nazi boyfriend who beats her up, and writes in her notebook that she is a horrible person and deserves to
be miserable. Somehow, she tries to change her life. She leaves Las Vegas
for Reno so she can escape her boyfriend. She may not have God but she
has Paul Newman who visits her to tell her that she is a good person
who should stay away from booze and should get her GED and even go to
college...more
This is a character-driven novel, looking at a year in the life of a lonely Nevada waitress, on the run from her psychopathic boyfriend. Willy Vlautin is also a musician, and unusually, this book comes with its own soundtrack. 'Northside' reminds me of an independent movie, or a song by Tom Waits. In the literary sphere, I'd compare it to the works of Steinbeck,Bukowski or Fante. It's very much an 'outsider' take on life and may be too bleak for some and I found the heroine's repeated humiliatio...more
If I could, I would have given this book 3&1/2 stars-I was torn between the three and the four. Northline is about a Allison Johnson a 22 year-old alcoholic, high school drop out who is nocked-up by her abusive boyfriend. She leaves Las Vegas to escape her boyfriend and ends up in Reno. This book is very short and very spars. Vlautin reminds me a lot of Steinbeck in that he isn't one for really setting the scene or getting into his characters head. He tells it like it is. Very depressing and...more
Meh. This is a mediocre book full of cliches and incredulous characters. The author is the lead singer of Richmond Fontaine. He's no idiot, but maybe he should stick to writing songs instead of novels. The frequent, startlingly in-depth discussions of Paul Newman's early film career is the only thing that kept me going.
Unfortunately, this is required reading for the students in our Anthropology of Rock and Roll class. The only explanation I can think of for this is that perhaps the prof cut a de...more
Unfortunately, this is required reading for the students in our Anthropology of Rock and Roll class. The only explanation I can think of for this is that perhaps the prof cut a de...more
Really enjoyed this one. Haven't listened to the soundtrack to the book yet but can't wait!
After reading it I sat here writing a bit with the soundtrack on. The author Willy Vlautin who grew up in Reno convinced the publisher to include a CD in the back with a soundtrack. Willy is a musician as well and it is a really great idea. Not sure it would work for every book, I don't want to have pick up a Stephen King book and have a soundtrack featuring P.O.D. and whoever else wanted to be on board. But with the prose and music from the same mind it really is a great compliment. I'm listeni...more
This novel is very character driven and cinematic. It reminds me of seventies films like Alice Doesn't Live here anymore and Five Easy Pieces, where the action took its own, uncluttered pace without needing everything to be underlined with an obvious path. In many novels and films, the road to redemption takes a very direct "fall / realisation / salvation" sequence. This book takes a more realistic view. Vlautin manages to get vivid description and dialogue into a fairly economic style. I look f...more
I know Willy Vlautin from his great alt.Country band Richmond Fontaine, 'Post to Wire' and 'We Used to think the Freeway Sounded Like A River' are tremendous albums; and I was skeptical whether he would be able to convert his, admittedly literate, lyrics into satisfying prose, but Vlautin makes the form his own immediately, so much so you can as easily class him as an author in a band as a singer who writes.
Northline is a distinctly depressing novel, a unflinching look at an American underclass...more
Northline is a distinctly depressing novel, a unflinching look at an American underclass...more
1 like · like · see review
Not for the faint of heart — or folks who, unlike me, don't like depressing books/music. Willy Vlautin writes books that are unequal parts real, horrific and hopeful. Like in his other book, Motel Life, the lead character, Allison, is making her way through a shit life. There are times — after thinking "this can't get worse" — that it does. But you hold out hope, maybe foolishly, for her. Reading this back-to-back with The Good Wife probably amplified the darkness and there are a lot of similari...more
Nick Cave, Henry Rollins, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Buffett, Mark Everett van Eels, Colin Meloy van The Decemberists, Eugene Robinson van Oxbow, Bruce Dickinson van Iron Maiden, David Berman van the Silver Jews, John Darnielle van The Mountain Goats, etc. Er zijn genoeg voorbeelden van rockmuzikanten die zich ook al gewaagd hebben aan het geschreven woord, maar een van degenen die de beide disciplines het best onder de knie heeft, is ongetwijfeld Willy Vlautin. Overdag songschrijver bij americana ba...more
Vlautin combines a hard look at some of society’s fringe members with a whimsical touch that makes it all go down much easier. Allison Johnson is in her twenties, with an abusive, skin-head boyfriend, Jimmy, a bad alcohol dependence and not exactly the highest opinion of herself. When she discovers that she is pregnant, Allison heads for Reno, desperate to get away from Jimmy, wanting to give birth there. She knows she is not up to raising a child, so gives it up for adoption and builds a small...more
I just finished Vlautin's The Motel Life and was so impressed I went out the next day and bought this one, his follow-up. Vlautin has an uncanny knack for creating characters you believe in and root for. Like his main character, Frank Flannagan, in Motel Life, Northline's Allison Johnson is too emotionally crippled to prevent terrible things from happening to her. And yet, she does possess self-awareness and does do just enough to improve her conditions that we never lose hope in her. In his spa...more
Plenty of heartbreak in this one, maybe enough for two books. The protagonist, Allison, is a young alcoholic dragging around a multitude of anxieties she can’t seem to shake. In the beginning of the book a speed-addled brute of a boyfriend has Allison caught, and not always metaphorically, in a relationship of menacing highs and lows. Amid thoughts of suicide, among other complications, Allison escapes and leaves town, heading out across Nevada on her own. The chapters are short and compact and...more
This book took a little while for me to get settled into. The book deals with Allison Johnson, who is a bad situation. Nothing is going her way. She has an abusive, neo-Nazi boyfriend. She makes some bad decisions. The beginning of the book does a great job putting the reader into the hell of Allison Johnson's life. Some of the thoughts and actions of the supporting characters are tough reads. Those thoughts expands on the subject of a song by Richmond Fontaine, Willy Vlautin's band, "The Disapp...more
kelly loves this author, and i read this one on his recommendation. the sheer volume of crappy things that befall the main character, allison, sometimes threatens to topple the whole thing into unbelievable melodrama. and although the paul newman thing is a nice idea, it gets in the way as frequently as it works. but vlautin has such a sincere & swift touch that it doesn't matter. allison's inner dialogue broke my heart. let's not even start on the ferret guy.
Northline is graphic, desperate, and often frustrating. I longed for the main character to have more agency, yet I could not put it down. Vlautin writes about a brave and broken person who, despite suffering, abusive relationships, and multiple sexual assaults, manages to pick herself up by her bootstraps and start over each time life knocks her down. It's not a difficult read either. I finished it in one night, something I haven't done in years.
Great book, great character. Extremely depressing, even hard to read at certain points. Allison Johnson is one of those rare characters you'll remember long after you've forgotten certain plot points or details. Vlautin is a really interesting writer. Each scene is like a piece of a collage that at first glance seems too small and whose edges look jagged but when put onto the canvas fits perfect. Best novel I've read in a while.
The atmospherics in this book are so solid that it really negates my feeling that I might have liked a story about one of the supporting characters more. I kind of wish the book was longer, as to really capture the dumpiness of the casino towns. The fact that the edition of the book I read came with a CD, supplying even further dreary atmosphere pushes this book up to a definite four. Would like to read a longer one by Vlautin if it's in the cards.
Willy Vlautin has a way of telling the reader about the seedy side of life but without disrespecting the characters and their poor choices. If your life like mine is pretty privileged, then it might give you a taste of what it would be like to have less opportunities, predispositions to addictions, and other heart felt tragedies. This is raw and real and reminds me that human connection can be very healing.
I don't feel like saying much right now, except that I just loved this. Story of a drunkard girl who leaves her abusing speedfreak boyfriend. Tries to break away from the life she doesn't enjoy. Such a beautyful novel in a melancholy kind of way, and yet with the strange sense of optimism underneath. Can't wait to get my copy of Lean On Pete.
I love Vlautin's stories. His writing is simple and honest. There is no pretense in his use of words. He makes the telling of a story seem so effortless. I find myself totally connected with the characters in his books. The main character in this story, Allison, was no exception. I so wanted good things for her.
Now I must wait patiently for whatever Mr. Vlautin will write next.
Now I must wait patiently for whatever Mr. Vlautin will write next.
Took a while to get into this one. The writing style at the beginning felt too sparse and oddly un-engaging, and characters one-dimensional. I had warmed to the authors style by the end, and the book is an easy read. Another reviewer suggests this is better than his earlier novel, and his next might be another step in the right direction, so I won't give up on him just yet.
Oddly, I think I bought this book on vacation only to discover the writer lives here in Portland. I'm listening to the CD that comes with the book as I type this. The author is a musician and the CD 'soundtrack' really does capture the tone of the book - so that's a fun little find with this book. I found the characters real - almost too real, as they (sadly) feel like some people I grew up with. I couldn't put the book down as I had to follow Allison on her journey for better or worse. Good rea...more
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Willy Vlautin is a member of the internationally acclaimed band Richmond Fontaine. he lives in Portland, Oregon. (from the publisher's website)"
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P.S. "B." blew me a kiss today.
Sep 09, 2008 10:17am
Sep 09, 2008 10:24am
(dave -blame it on spell check not being able read my mind).
Sep 09, 2008 11:35am