Bert Murray's Blog - Posts Tagged "strawberry-fields"

The year was 1985. Madonna was making waves up and down the Top 40 charts. The Bee Gees were `staying alive'. Colin Preston was in his sophomore year at Elerby University; the toughest period in his life.

I remember seeing this book again and again in various giveaways from GoodReads and LibraryThing and I never won it. Until the author directly contacted me and graciously offered to provide a copy of the book for review. I received this book in the mail before my trip to San Francisco (in fact, a trip to San Francisco on a Greyhound bus was mentioned in the book. That was exactly what I did).

Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled is the debut novel of author Bert Murray. It has a big cast of characters that a lot of readers can relate to. As the author said, this is not a YA novel. It's not an entirely adult contemporary either. Somewhere in between. Having already gone through college, I definitely saw and even went through some of the situations mentioned in the book. And yes, I am old enough to remember what a cassette tape is. If I were a young teen picking this up, I would probably see this as a cautionary tale or "the older kids are crazy" kind of thing.

So Colin falls in love with the most beautiful girl on campus, Jasmine. She's one of those trust fund babies with one foot stuck in the Age of Aquarius. Colin's best friend is Karl, Mr. Popular. Among his other friends Big Ty, Mrs. Vesquez and her cat Quixote, Liz, Susan, and my favorite, Chester, the stoner. Things don't go the way Colin would've wanted it and eventually, he uses booze and sex to numb the pain. With a little help from his friends (oh, Beatles!), Colin finds a way to recover and get his life back on track.

The book is split into 3 parts. The first part started off well but it became monotonous with all the "Jasmine issues". How many people and how many pages does one need to show what the other characters thought of her? The story was progressing well enough without all the filler. The "Jasmine issues" gets carried over to parts 2 and 3. There were parts where I wanted to grab Colin and shake some sense into him. He sure could use some Brokeback Mountain wisdom... "I wish I knew how to quit you." I did like the conversations between Colin and Mrs. Vesquez. And also with Chester. I think that among all the characters, he had the most layers and I felt that I got to know him the most.

The setting is in the 80s but the music selection is definitely 60s-70s. Mentions of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Doors, The Police, Led Zeppelin... the only thing missing from this book is a mixtape to go with it! There's even a mention of Hair, one of my favorite musicals. I think Liz, Karl, and I would be best friends music-wise. In fact, I drew a heart beside the songs that I really dug. I just found it so frustratingly fitting that there's a song to every situation that Colin goes through. It's as if his tape player knows what Colin is feeling and cues up a song for him. I believe that there are certain songs that stir emotions and memories within us but I found this a bit too convenient.

There are a lot of cliches in this book. Pretty girls, hot guys, betrayals, rebounds, music to fit the mood, sex, beer, expectations. It got predictable after a while. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this novel a lot. The cover art is really cool; that's one of the main reasons why I really wanted a hard copy of this book. It's an easy read and very entertaining. Not just the music, mind you. I am very familiar with Manhattan and it was nice reading about places that I've visited myself - Strawberry Fields, Penn Station, Central Park... even Dalton School where Colin spent his high school years (no joke!). I can easily see this as a TV show produced by the CW Network. I'm not sure how a teen male narrator would appeal to audiences but to me, it was very effective.

Rating: 4/5.

Recommendation: College kids, no matter where you're from, can find themselves enjoying this. Also, if you like music from the 60s-70s, you'll find some familiar tunes mentioned in this book.

- Cate

http://readinggoodbooks.wordpress.com....

I literally couldn't put this book down. It captured me from the first couple of pages and kept me interested till the end. While reading, I almost felt like I was in college again and experienced all those emotions that were once so important and volatile.

I loved references to the music and if you are Beatles fan you will LOVE this book!

Anyone who had a crush in college should definitely read this book and it will make you feel again and experience again those crazy irrational actions that you were willing to take just to be with that person.

This is defnitely one of my favorite books and I look forward to reading more Bert Murray's creations!

(Read in April, 2011)

Naomi's review Sep 30, 2011

(Read on September 30, 2011)

This book was sent to my Kindle from the author Bert Murray so that i could read & review it so i would like to say thank you for that:o)
I really enjoyed this story. It's about a college guy named Colin Preston & his trials & tribulations of his college love-life. I got so engrossed in the story line that i swear i could feel Colin's anger & frustration at the heartbreak Jasmine (the bitch) caused him. I would actually like to slap her myself lol. It kind of reminded me of a YA novel with swearing, drugs, sex & tons of alcohol.
There is lots of humour too so not a boring moment to be found.
I would certainly recommend this to anyone that likes realistic fiction & will be recommending it to my Goodreads friends.

(Rating - 4 stars)

Most reviewers talk about the music mentioned in the book. Don't get me wrong its a good mix of songs. But for me the real magic is the story. What a coming of age story! You've got it all in this book.
Love,friendship,betrayal,learning who you are as a person. Not to mention the drugs, sex and rock&roll.
Not many writers can really bring characters to life in a way that is believable but Murray does it so well. It makes me wonder if Murray will pull and Updike with Colin and give us other books as time passes in Colins life. I for one hope he does revisit Colin.
I got this copy of the book free from the author but in no way did it influence my opinion of this work.
Its a great contemporary book and if you like that genre you should definitely not miss this title.

3 Stars

I really loved this book. I rarely read books from a male point of view but this one was very amusing. Colin is a typical 19 year old college student and Jasmine is a free spirt. Colin falls in love with Jasmine but sadly she does not feel the same. Friendship, love, and partying makes a fun read. I love all the song references. All in all a great book and one i would love to read again...

5 stars

"Bert Murray has produced a novel that is simultaneously absorbing, moving and funny - a character-driven page-turner that captures lightning in a bottle, and preserves a moment in time for eternity. I found the Beatles (and especially John Lennon) material compelling on several levels - as a fan, yes, but more so as a symbol of a generation gap, a figure for a grasping adolescent (or adult) to use when trying to figure things out, and as a touchstone - something every character and situation can be informed by."

John Altman, A Gathering of Spies

November 3, 2011

Thought this book was really good. I enjoyed it so much and loved the story. I would recommend this book to anybody. I thought it had some really funny moments.

Murray charts a lustily tormented story of first love and heartbreak.

It's September 1985 in the bosky precincts of Elerby University (though it conveys the intimacy of a small liberal arts college) in upstate New York. Colin is entering his sophomore year with a lousy love life and a lousy relationship with his father, but he does have a good friend in Karl (a handsome natural athlete who has a way with women) and in the Beatles—"when you love a band so much that its songs fill the empty spaces inside your head and heart." But along comes Jasmine, a serious dish with lips like butter, who really gets inside Colin's head and steals his heart. Murray's writing is phonetic; Colin's voice lifts from the page—young and inexperienced, star-crossed and love-lost, which will come true soon enough as Jasmine drops him like a load of bricks and proceeds, that very afternoon, to have sex with Karl, into whose room Colin charges without knocking, looking for commiseration and finding betrayal: "'Yes! Yes! Don't stop'…the girl demanded loudly. Her voice sounded familiar." Murray draws Colin with immediate emotional pungency, and he doesn't lose the beat even when the situations turn slapstick. Nor does he tidy Colin up, rather letting him sink into a great morass of self-pity from which he must drag his own sorry butt toward whatever measure of salvation a decent, immature young man can find. Yes, the Beatles do offer the solace of shared experience, of meaning and even a little direction, but it is Colin's slowly gathering circle of friends—a very human society of odd fellows, including a dorm-cellar-dwelling delusional, a dark and mysterious Spanish professor on the run from her demons, big-hearted Big Ty and sweet Liz—who help illuminate the road ahead. Some of the sex scenes carry informational overload, but even then it is more humorous than cringing, perhaps even another epiphany that Colin collects: "There was no disappointment with Twinkies. You knew exactly what you were getting. Unlike Jasmine. Unlike love. Unlike life."

A coming-of-age story with plenty of sting, where love is not only blind, but it blindsides.

—Kirkus Reviews

Shelves: literature-present-day
Readers' Advisory information
Subject headings: first love, college life, 1980's period piece
Appeal factors: romantic comedy, coming-of-age
Pace: quick
Tone: bittersweet
Storyline: single narrator
Writing style: engaging

Full disclosure: I wouldn’t say I “know” this author, but I’ve corresponded with him a few times, and he seems nice enough. He gave me a free copy of this book, but I don’t think that influenced my review.

This is another instance where GoodReads has caused me to read and enjoy a book I otherwise wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have picked this book up in a bookstore, because the cover makes it look like yet another nostalgic-for-college romantic sex comedy, and I haven‘t seen one of those done well in, like, forever. My own undergraduate days were heavy on the studying and light on the everything else, so that genre doesn’t hold much nostalgia for me. With that in mind, I just wasn’t that interested when, in the first five pages or so, main character Colin Preston gets filated by the hottest girl on campus, just shortly after they first meet. If this were an in-flight movie, that would be about the point I started checking out what was on the other channels. It’s too early in the story to care about the characters, so if I’m going to vicariously live the sex life of somebody I don't care about, I'd rather just watch hardcore pornography. Why bother with pretenses, you know? I’m not trying to impress anybody.

But then… pressing on not much further, Colin Preston started to grow on me. He’s got this crazy internal monologue buzzing away constantly in the back of his mind- a barely self-aware amalgam of Id and Ego that rings true, both in its sincerity and its immaturity. Some of this material is hilarious, but in a cringeworthy way, for the memories it evokes. The first 1/3 or so of the book focuses on Colin falling hard for Jasmine (the blowjob girl mentioned above). On their second date, he’s already saying stuff like (p30):
“…We started making out and her lips were like butter.”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Oh. Wait… I would have totally said something lame like that too at 19.

Or “She carried me away with her magic. I’d never want anybody else. I was sure of it.”
(Brian looks around sheepishly)
What?? Why are you looking at me? I’ve (gulp).. never been as corny or naive as that!
(a single bead of sweat appears on my forehead)

So, yeah. It’s an awkward age, and most social interactions from that time are embarrassing to look back on. Colin’s basically a nice kid, if slightly neurotic… nowhere nearly as cynical as Holden Caulfield, but plagued by a lot of the same insecurities about his future. I like that his maturity and immaturity manifest unevenly, because that just happens to be very true to life. One minute, he’ll be obsessing about how a poorly-executed Frisbee catch may have diminished him in Jasmine‘s eyes (puh-leeze)… but then a few minutes later, he’s the only one in his dorm who doesn’t see Chester- the weird kid down the hall- as a total loser. He befriends him, and encourages him to come out of his shell. By page 50 or so, I was on Colin‘s side. Thank God the plot moved along though, because I can only tolerate so much lighthearted hijinx before I start to get impatient, wondering where this is all going.

Where it was going was to the dark side… starting with the introduction of Colin’s friend, Karl. I hate to make excessive comparisons to other books here, but I am a big fan of John Knowles’ A Separate Peace (ASP). The dynamic between Colin and Karl is not quite as morose and brooding as that between Gene and Finny in ASP, but the parallels are unmistakable. Karl is easy-going, confident, athletic, and popular. Colin is more thoughtful and intelligent, but introverted, less secure, and less socially skilled. This is universal human experience here. Murray does a good job exploring the dynamics between these two, and any guy who’s passed through this age will recognize the primal wranglings between two dudes who are, on one hand “buds”, but who are also staking out their respective territories and competing for women. I don’t want to overstate things; I’m not putting this book on equal terms with A Separate Peace, in fact a very important difference exists between Karl and Finny: Finny was good natured. Karl, we discover, can be an asshole. Still, I thought the scene with the chess game between Colin and Karl was spot-on realistic, and most of Colin’s interactions with Karl are actually more interesting than his relationship with Jasmine.

Yeah… poor Jasmine. Her character is not extensively developed, which is too bad, but it serves the purposes of the book: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (CPRR) is very much about Colin’s internal psychology, and readers would do well to remember that. Most of the romance between Jasmine and Colin, particularly when their relationship is in trouble, has much more to do with what’s in Colin’s mind than anything Jasmine actually says or does. Young love is very narcissistic. Developing Jasmine’s character would have been interesting, but it may have derailed what I think Murray was trying to do here. This is just very much a book about guys. Before anybody rushes to accuse CPRR of misogyny, I am pleased to inform you that the mentor figure in Colin’s life, and in some ways the most interesting character in the book, is Mrs. Vesquez. Is this a common situation? A nineteen year old kid having a woman twenty-odd years his senior as a (purely platonic) mentor? I ask because I really did have somebody like that in my life at one point, but I thought it was probably an uncommon experience. Mrs. Vesquez naturally has more depth to her (that is revealed) than Jasmine, and is probably the one character in the book the reader can unconditionally respect. Colin’s gradual maturity over the course of the book is self-propelled, but Vesquez serves as a hand extending out from the adult world, encouraging him. She’s a character it would be easy to imagine a writer getting wrong (e.g. by having her develop a sexual relationship with Colin, or conversely making her into a sort of maternal surrogate). Murray didn’t do any of that; he got Mrs. Vesquez just right.

Complaint Dept
So no book is perfect, and my complaint with CPRR is the whole Beatles angle. Colin Preston is a huge Beatles fan, and he’s constantly relating his personal situations to lyrics from their songs. Don’t get me wrong: I like the Beatles too, and I recognize there are times when our favorite music can be comforting or inspirational- especially at Colin’s age, when personal tastes tend to be conflated with identity, and idealism mixes with hero-worship in odd ways. Writing this into a 19 year old character is not unrealistic, but it can get to feeling a bit overdone here, which then makes it more like a gimmick. CPRR has good characters, and I like the way Bert Murray writes dialogue, so there is no need for a gimmick; this book is better than that.

A final thought
Looking at my copy sitting on the table next to me as I type, the cover looks to me like a movie poster. With no trouble at all, I can imagine this book being made into a movie. The question is, what kind of movie? Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled is unfortunately exactly the sort of book that somebody at Touchstone would piss all over, turning it into a moronic vehicle to promote some Mouseketeer to her first skank role on the big screen, or as the next step in Justin Beiber‘s career, when he hits his 20‘s. Alternatively, a thoughtful screenwriter with some respect for the characters could turn this into a bittersweet movie that people would enjoy and remember. I’m not asking you to be a starving artist, Mr. Murray. I’m just hoping, as a reader and moviegoer, that you negotiate for some creative control, should Hollywood ever come knocking on your door.

(May, 2011)