Review: Broken Records by Lilah Suzanne
Broken Records
by Lilah Suzanne (December 17, 2015); 280 pages.
Available from Interlude Press here.
Come and listen to a story about a man named Nico
A lonely stylist to the stars, assistant Gwen, and
life oblique, oh
Then one day he was he was working for his pay,
And in through the door walks a country
star named Grady.
Oblique is gay, that is, homosexual, into boys.
Well the first thing you know Nico falls in love,
and how,
Kinfolk said “Nico, go with that
dreamboat now!”
Said “With your boyfriend Grady is the place
you ought to be"
But Grady packed up his bags and lived on some
wheels.
Tour bus, that is. Music tour, lonely nights.
I won’t torture you with another verse.Suffice it to say I was a poet at one point, and still take great pleasure in writing terrifically horrible rhyming poetry. More to the point: my sister used to religiously watch The Beverly Hillbillies, as well as Dolly Parton’s variety show,
and then my college roommate freshman year listened exclusively to top-40
country radio (and she had a radio alarm clock), so I’m fighting back a little
against the fact that, more than 25 years later, I can still sing “Trainwreck
of Emotion.”
However, after reading this novel—which I
did not put down for one entire day—I am now sold. I would listen to Grady Dawson, this novel’s
dreamy, sloe-eyed and honey-voiced love interest, sing pretty much
anything. Including country music.
Broken Records is the story
of Nico Takahashi, son of a barber, from humble beginnings, now a stylist to
the stars, and how his life changes when he meets—and falls for—country music
star Grady Dawson. Grady’s a bad boy
with a love-‘em-and-leave-‘em reputation in the press (his open bisexuality is
no help to that, since the public often interprets this as an “anything that
moves” orientation) who wanders into Nico’s office and asks for style
help. There begins a shaky, entirely
sexy back-and-forth flirtation and eventual romance between Nico and Grady.
This is juxtaposed against the teetering
relationship of his assistant Gwen and her wife (and finally, a lesbian who’s something
other than a sexless mate-for-life cliché), against Nico’s struggles with his
own career decisions and reluctance to submit himself to the public eye (a
consequence of dating a star).
Grady’s band isn’t homophobic. Neither does his audience seem to be, though
he is marketed in a photo with two jeans-shorts-wearing girl groupies on his
lap at one point, even as he’s dating a man. Even Grady’s ex-girlfriend seems ok with his
sexuality. It’s a really lovely world to spend time in. So much of this novel is about public appearance (Nico is a stylist, after all, and Grady is in the press a lot), which wants to speak so directly to the experience of being queer. It does so here in quiet, oblique ways.
The novel moves in directions I didn’t expect
but fully enjoyed. It’s about the fact
that merely feeling something isn’t enough—one has to work, and to do things
actively. It’s about give-and-take,
about the fact that if one loves enough, one should be willing to give up
anything to keep loving. The metaphor of
“falling in love” is pretty weak. Here,
it’s more like “struggling into love,” and that’s what makes it wonderful.
Oh gosh thank you! Such a lovely, thoughtful review that I was not expecting today and really needed.
And I love your song, we should get that recorded asap ;)
