Bert Murray's Blog, page 7
April 8, 2011
Paula R's Amazon Review of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled
5.0 out of 5 stars Twist and Shout!, March 31, 2011
By PaulaR - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
Colin Preston- 19 years old, a good-looking, prestigious prep school grad and sophomore at Elerby University, has a great life. Then he falls in love with Jasmine, the girl of his dreams. My heart broke for Colin when Jasmine broke his.
Murray has an eloquent narrative style, and he punctuates Colin's emotions with music from the 80's, the setting of this novel, each song bringing me back to a memory of my own.
The secondary characters are deftly portrayed, and, as each situation prompted, I hated and liked and pitied them.
With COLIN PRESTON ROCKED AND ROLLED, Bert Murray delivers a real and poignant portrayal of college-age angst.
By PaulaR - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
Colin Preston- 19 years old, a good-looking, prestigious prep school grad and sophomore at Elerby University, has a great life. Then he falls in love with Jasmine, the girl of his dreams. My heart broke for Colin when Jasmine broke his.
Murray has an eloquent narrative style, and he punctuates Colin's emotions with music from the 80's, the setting of this novel, each song bringing me back to a memory of my own.
The secondary characters are deftly portrayed, and, as each situation prompted, I hated and liked and pitied them.
With COLIN PRESTON ROCKED AND ROLLED, Bert Murray delivers a real and poignant portrayal of college-age angst.
“Hey Jude” is at the top of Colin Preston’s list of Favorite Songs
Colin Preston’s Favorite Ten Songs:
1. “Hey Jude” – Beatles
2. “Strawberry Fields Forever” – Beatles
3. “Let It Be” – Beatles
4. “All You Need Is Love” – Beatles
5. “Imagine” – John Lennon
6. “Maybe I’m Amazed” – Paul McCartney
7. “Helter Skelter” – Beatles
8. “Gimme Some Truth” – John Lennon
9. “All Things Must Pass” – George Harrison
10. “I’m Looking Through You” – Beatles
1. “Hey Jude” – Beatles
2. “Strawberry Fields Forever” – Beatles
3. “Let It Be” – Beatles
4. “All You Need Is Love” – Beatles
5. “Imagine” – John Lennon
6. “Maybe I’m Amazed” – Paul McCartney
7. “Helter Skelter” – Beatles
8. “Gimme Some Truth” – John Lennon
9. “All Things Must Pass” – George Harrison
10. “I’m Looking Through You” – Beatles
April 5, 2011
added to "New and Recommended" fiction list
Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled added to “New and Recommended” fiction list
Novelist and professor at NYU, Meredith Sue Willis added Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled to her list of New and Recommended fiction, Books to Know About on her website. (March, 2011)
Novelist and professor at NYU, Meredith Sue Willis added Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled to her list of New and Recommended fiction, Books to Know About on her website. (March, 2011)
March 10, 2011
From Kirkus Reviews
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
(This review is also now available to view on the Kirkus website.)
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
(This review is also now available to view on the Kirkus website.)
February 18, 2011
Author Meredith Sue Willis on Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled
Meredith Sue Willis's
Books for Readers # 139
February 10, 2011
MSW ON COLIN PRESTON ROCKED AND ROLLED
COLIN PRESTON ROCKED AND ROLLED by "Bert Murray" is a novel that does a wonderful job of capturing the voices and lives of a certain time and place. The use of music– both music contemporary to the characters and Colin's beloved Beatles (already, of course, at the time of the novel, classic)– works especially well. Instead of using words, Colin, when in the grip of a strong emotion, puts on an appropriate song. Overall, the compactness of the story and the ease with which one identifies with Colin and his situation create an inevitability about the events that has an almost tragic quality as well as a strong structure. I felt I experienced it all with Colin, and it was a pleasure to read.
About Meredith Sue Willis:
A well-known speaker and writer about the teaching of writing, her own novels include A Space Apart, Higher Ground, Only Great Changes, Trespassers, and Oradell at Sea. Her short story collections are In the Mountains of America and Dwight's House and Other Stories. Her work has been praised in periodicals like The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many other periodicals.
She has won major awards including literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the arts, and her fiction has won prizes like the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and the West Virginia Library Association Award (1980), as well as the Chaffin Award for fiction.
Books for Readers # 139
February 10, 2011
MSW ON COLIN PRESTON ROCKED AND ROLLED
COLIN PRESTON ROCKED AND ROLLED by "Bert Murray" is a novel that does a wonderful job of capturing the voices and lives of a certain time and place. The use of music– both music contemporary to the characters and Colin's beloved Beatles (already, of course, at the time of the novel, classic)– works especially well. Instead of using words, Colin, when in the grip of a strong emotion, puts on an appropriate song. Overall, the compactness of the story and the ease with which one identifies with Colin and his situation create an inevitability about the events that has an almost tragic quality as well as a strong structure. I felt I experienced it all with Colin, and it was a pleasure to read.
About Meredith Sue Willis:
A well-known speaker and writer about the teaching of writing, her own novels include A Space Apart, Higher Ground, Only Great Changes, Trespassers, and Oradell at Sea. Her short story collections are In the Mountains of America and Dwight's House and Other Stories. Her work has been praised in periodicals like The New York Times Book Review, The Nation, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many other periodicals.
She has won major awards including literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Jersey State Council on the arts, and her fiction has won prizes like the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and the West Virginia Library Association Award (1980), as well as the Chaffin Award for fiction.
Five Star Amazon customer review of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive Sophomore, February 5, 2011
By porter h. warren, M. D. (Cornwall, N. Y. United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
Young Colin Preston is not a happy sophomore. Although nineteen and handsome and loved by women, he is sensitive and sincere and when hurt has only The Beatles and other Rock stars and their songs for consolation. He has attended a prestigious private school before college and receives everything he needs from his Upper East Side parents except the one crucial thing, total acceptance. He longs for this, and gets a considerable amount from his best guy friend and his beautiful girl friend until he encounters a disaster. His music tapes and a Visiting Professor from Spain enable him to barely survive. His story is beautifully told using the short-hand expressions of his time. He is such a "noticer"that the tale is intricate and penetrating. One eagerly turns the page completely caught up in the ways Colin will use the methods of coping with life expressed by the artists from the Beatles to Frank Zappa. It is a story rich in romance, intensity, sexuality and psychology- a winner.
By porter h. warren, M. D. (Cornwall, N. Y. United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
Young Colin Preston is not a happy sophomore. Although nineteen and handsome and loved by women, he is sensitive and sincere and when hurt has only The Beatles and other Rock stars and their songs for consolation. He has attended a prestigious private school before college and receives everything he needs from his Upper East Side parents except the one crucial thing, total acceptance. He longs for this, and gets a considerable amount from his best guy friend and his beautiful girl friend until he encounters a disaster. His music tapes and a Visiting Professor from Spain enable him to barely survive. His story is beautifully told using the short-hand expressions of his time. He is such a "noticer"that the tale is intricate and penetrating. One eagerly turns the page completely caught up in the ways Colin will use the methods of coping with life expressed by the artists from the Beatles to Frank Zappa. It is a story rich in romance, intensity, sexuality and psychology- a winner.
Five star Amazon customer review of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled
5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Pains, February 12, 2011
By S. Hammer - See all my reviews
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
A story of first love, of loss, of a boy on his way to becoming a man, set to a classic rock soundtrack. Colin is a quiet, sensitive boy who unexpectedly has a narcissistic jock as a best friend and a beautiful but damaged girlfriend. He feels his father doesn't understand him. He attends a small, private college in the mid-1980s and is obsessed with classic rock, especially the Beatles. While navigating the ups and downs of his first love, he is learning about life. Colin's tale is told in the first person, and through his voice you experience how it feels to be a teenage boy suffering and learning to grow up.
By S. Hammer - See all my reviews
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
A story of first love, of loss, of a boy on his way to becoming a man, set to a classic rock soundtrack. Colin is a quiet, sensitive boy who unexpectedly has a narcissistic jock as a best friend and a beautiful but damaged girlfriend. He feels his father doesn't understand him. He attends a small, private college in the mid-1980s and is obsessed with classic rock, especially the Beatles. While navigating the ups and downs of his first love, he is learning about life. Colin's tale is told in the first person, and through his voice you experience how it feels to be a teenage boy suffering and learning to grow up.
Who might want to read this novel?
If you like...
Coming of age novels
Novels written from a 19 year old man's perspective
Novels about friendship
Honest portrayal of first love and sexuality
Novels about college life
Classic rock, Beatles or John Lennon
You might enjoy reading Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled
Coming of age novels
Novels written from a 19 year old man's perspective
Novels about friendship
Honest portrayal of first love and sexuality
Novels about college life
Classic rock, Beatles or John Lennon
You might enjoy reading Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled
February 13, 2011
Happy Valentine's Day!
Hi everyone,
Happy Valentine's Day! Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled is about first love, friendship and betrayal. Here is an excerpt:
We walked down the hall quickly. The smell of lavender and honeysuckle in her perfume, the way she looked at me with her big green eyes, the sweet sound of her voice. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. She was a total 10.
I unlocked the door and let her walk through first. I put the Beatles' Rubber Soul in my tape deck, and I'm Looking Through You blasted out of my speakers. I removed a book of Keats' poems that I'd left on my bed and put it in my bookcase. We locked eyes.
She stepped toward me and placed her hands around my waist, our lips melting together. My heart beat faster and faster. Jasmine took my shirt off and began to kiss my chest with the softest, most sensuous kisses I'd ever felt. Magic, pure magic.
I ran my hand through her silky hair, the strands slipping easily through my fingers.
"When I really get to know you, what am I gonna think of you?" I asked between kisses.
"That I have a lot of secrets," she whispered.
"Like what?"
"Not now. I want to kiss you again."
Happy Valentine's Day! Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled is about first love, friendship and betrayal. Here is an excerpt:
We walked down the hall quickly. The smell of lavender and honeysuckle in her perfume, the way she looked at me with her big green eyes, the sweet sound of her voice. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. She was a total 10.
I unlocked the door and let her walk through first. I put the Beatles' Rubber Soul in my tape deck, and I'm Looking Through You blasted out of my speakers. I removed a book of Keats' poems that I'd left on my bed and put it in my bookcase. We locked eyes.
She stepped toward me and placed her hands around my waist, our lips melting together. My heart beat faster and faster. Jasmine took my shirt off and began to kiss my chest with the softest, most sensuous kisses I'd ever felt. Magic, pure magic.
I ran my hand through her silky hair, the strands slipping easily through my fingers.
"When I really get to know you, what am I gonna think of you?" I asked between kisses.
"That I have a lot of secrets," she whispered.
"Like what?"
"Not now. I want to kiss you again."
February 12, 2011
Amazon Customer Reviews of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled
Dear Goodreads members,
I am posting two Amazon reviews of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled for you to read.
Best,
Bert Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive Sophomore, February 5, 2011
By porter h. warren, M. D. (Cornwall, N. Y. United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
Young Colin Preston is not a happy sophomore. Although nineteen and handsome and loved by women, he is sensitive and sincere and when hurt has only The Beatles and other Rock stars and their songs for consolation. He has attended a prestigious private school before college and receives everything he needs from his Upper East Side parents except the one crucial thing, total acceptance. He longs for this, and gets a considerable amount from his best guy friend and his beautiful girl friend until he encounters a disaster. His music tapes and a Visiting Professor from Spain enable him to barely survive. His story is beautifully told using the short-hand expressions of his time. He is such a "noticer"that the tale is intricate and penetrating. One eagerly turns the page completely caught up in the ways Colin will use the methods of coping with life expressed by the artists from the Beatles to Frank Zappa. It is a story rich in romance, intensity, sexuality and psychology- a winner.
5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Pains, February 12, 2011
By S. Hammer - See all my reviews
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
A story of first love, of loss, of a boy on his way to becoming a man, set to a classic rock soundtrack. Colin is a quiet, sensitive boy who unexpectedly has a narcissistic jock as a best friend and a beautiful but damaged girlfriend. He feels his father doesn't understand him. He attends a small, private college in the mid-1980s and is obsessed with classic rock, especially the Beatles. While navigating the ups and downs of his first love, he is learning about life. Colin's tale is told in the first person, and through his voice you experience how it feels to be a teenage boy suffering and learning to grow up.
I am posting two Amazon reviews of Colin Preston Rocked And Rolled for you to read.
Best,
Bert Murray
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive Sophomore, February 5, 2011
By porter h. warren, M. D. (Cornwall, N. Y. United States) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
Young Colin Preston is not a happy sophomore. Although nineteen and handsome and loved by women, he is sensitive and sincere and when hurt has only The Beatles and other Rock stars and their songs for consolation. He has attended a prestigious private school before college and receives everything he needs from his Upper East Side parents except the one crucial thing, total acceptance. He longs for this, and gets a considerable amount from his best guy friend and his beautiful girl friend until he encounters a disaster. His music tapes and a Visiting Professor from Spain enable him to barely survive. His story is beautifully told using the short-hand expressions of his time. He is such a "noticer"that the tale is intricate and penetrating. One eagerly turns the page completely caught up in the ways Colin will use the methods of coping with life expressed by the artists from the Beatles to Frank Zappa. It is a story rich in romance, intensity, sexuality and psychology- a winner.
5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Pains, February 12, 2011
By S. Hammer - See all my reviews
This review is from: Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled (Paperback)
A story of first love, of loss, of a boy on his way to becoming a man, set to a classic rock soundtrack. Colin is a quiet, sensitive boy who unexpectedly has a narcissistic jock as a best friend and a beautiful but damaged girlfriend. He feels his father doesn't understand him. He attends a small, private college in the mid-1980s and is obsessed with classic rock, especially the Beatles. While navigating the ups and downs of his first love, he is learning about life. Colin's tale is told in the first person, and through his voice you experience how it feels to be a teenage boy suffering and learning to grow up.
