Sway: A Novel

By Zachary Lazar

Three out of Five Stars

I’m conflicted as to what I should say about Zachary Lazar’s Sway. The book was a quick, enjoyable read, which is why I gave it three stars out of five stars. Lazar is a more than competent writer, capable of stringing together sentences that paint a vivid picture in the readers mind. Sway is well written, but poorly plotted – or should I say, simply plotted if you’re a fan of the Rolling Stones.

Sway focuses on three real-life figures of the 1960’s. There’s Manson family member and killer, Bobby Beausoleil, who starred in two of Anger’s short films, Lucifer Rising and Invocation of My Demon Brother. Bobby, who wanted to be a musician, was a lost soul, who lost his way even further under Charles Manson’s cult-like spell.

There’s indie filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who had a hard time finding his way as a filmmaker, as well as with coming to grips with his homosexuality at a time when being gay was actually a crime in Great Britain. Anger, who knew Bobby, also came in contact with members of the Rolling Stones.

Finally, there’s the Stones, namely founding member Brian Jones, who while having trouble dealing with fame and his inability to write songs, let his insecurities drive him to drug use, and his eventual release from the band he founded. As a result of this, Jones was the first member of the ’27 Club’ having died at that age, quickly followed by Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and in more recent times, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse.

Sway is supposed to focus on these three factual storylines, but is really a book about Brian Jones and the Rolling Stones. The other two stories – historical figures – are given short shrift and could be removed without harming the book. As for its fictionalized tale of the Rolling Stones, while Lazar has done his homework, I couldn’t help wondering why I didn’t just read one of the many biographies written about the band or its individual members.

In writing historical fiction, author John Jakes, who wrote the Kent Family Chronicles, which follows generations of the Kent family from the Revolutionary War to the 20^th Century, touches upon American history and historical characters, but sees them through the eyes of his fictional family, allowing us a perspective on these people and events. In E.L. Doctorow’s Billy Bathgate, the author uses the fictional character of Billy Bathgate to explore a period in New York gangster Dutch Schultz’s life, the character arc of the story coming from Billy changing from a youngster who idolizes gangsters to one who sees their true nature and grows as a person. Sway needed a character like this; a character that could interpret the historical events of the Rolling Stones early years during the 1960’s. Without this character, what we’re simply reading is a straightforward history of the Rolling Stones, and if you really want to do that, as I’ve said above, there are some excellent biographies out there.

Having read extensively about the band, I kept questioning why I kept reading Sway, as it offered me nothing new, but instead a rehash; but for those not as well read on the band, it might be an excellent introduction.

The Girl on the Train

By Paula Hawkins

Four out of Five Stars

Paula Hawkins has taken commuting to work and made it a lot more interesting and exciting than it ever should be. The Girl on the Train is a fast, engaging read that very quickly draws the reader into its world of flawed characters, specifically Rachel, a woman whose life is quickly unravelling due to alcoholism.

Rachel rides the train every day to work. This train passes by her old neighborhood, the one in which she lived happily with her husband, Tom. He still lives there with Anna and their daughter – Anna being the woman he had the affair with when they were married. Unable to let go of Tom and what once was, Rachel is still in his life, tormenting him and his wife with her neediness, but on most days doesn’t look to their house, instead observing another married couple, on their back porch or in their back yard when the train passes, and has developed a story of who and what they are. This all changes when that woman goes missing, and for reasons I can’t relay here, Rachel has to insert herself into the police investigation.

Hawkins tale is told in the first person, namely Rachel relaying her thoughts, feelings and actions, along with Megan, the woman who has gone missing, and Anna, the woman who stole Rachel’s husband. While The Girl on the Train is a psychological thriller, with a crime involved, its true strength for me was as a character study. While Rachel’s battle with alcohol could have become tedious, Hawkins was able to find the right balance and maintain it throughout the novel, while also making the other characters and their flaws equally as entertaining.

I don’t want to say too much about the book, as its joy lies in the story slowly unfolding; and while I eventually had an idea of where it was going, and wasn’t too surprised, that didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of delving into these characters lives for the time I did spend with them. As such, The Girl on the Train is definitely worth adding to any reading list – you shouldn’t be disappointed.

Mick Jagger

By Philip Norman

Four out of Five Stars

As a matter of full disclosure, I should mention that when all is said and done, I am more of a Beatles fan than a Rolling Stones fan, although, truth be told, the difference in my interest is relatively negligible; simply, if I had to pick one over the other, I’d side with the Beatles.

The Beatles ended in 1969, although they have a lasting legacy, whereas the Rolling Stones still endure. One would assume, any rock ‘n’ roll band that has celebrated their 50^th Anniversary, would be nothing more than a nostalgic act – a shell of their former selves – not the Stones. Their image has changed, yes. Today when I think of the Stones, I think of guitarist Keith Richards as the ‘heart’ of the band, and lead singer Mick Jagger as its cold-calculating ‘Machiavellian’ leader. Reading Philip Norman’s biography of Jagger, simply titled Mick Jagger does nothing to dissuade that image.

Riding on the wave of the Beatles musical success, and London teenage boy’s fascination with American R&B’s music, the Rolling Stones came into existence, British record labels determined not to make the same mistake they made by turning down the Liverpool group. In writing about the band, Norman, who has written biographies of The Beatles (Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation) and John Lennon (John Lennon: The Life), cannot help writing about both groups and rightfully so, as it was the Beatles who gave the band their first hit, I Wanna Be Your Man, as well as their image. Realizing that Beatles manager Brian Epstein cleaned up the Fab Four to make them more palpable to Britain at the time, the Rolling Stones manager, Andrew Loog Oldham decided to market his band as the anti-Beatles, providing them with an image as dirty troublemakers that certainly didn’t help them in the more stodgy 1960’s. It’s interesting to note that the Rolling Stones image suited the Beatles more, as they lived the hedonistic life playing rock ‘n’ roll in Hamburg, Germany and what not, while the Stones never did that, but instead Jagger was a economics University major while gigging with the band and trying to make it. They didn’t get nearly as dirty as the Beatles did.

Of course, despite their early connection with the Beatles (they were all friends), the Rolling Stones soon broke out on their own and proved themselves equally exciting as songwriters and performers once Jagger and Richards found their writing footing. Norman’s book is a fascinating and fun read, because he wisely focuses on Jagger’s life from childhood, through the 1960’s and the 1970’s. This compromises about 80 percent of the biography, and truly works, as that is the most interesting time in both Jagger and the Rolling Stones life and career. Whether he reveals anything new, I don’t think so. Jagger comes across as the pompous, cold, money-driven leader of a world-class band that he’s portrayed as in numerous other biographies and books on the Rolling Stones. Add his addictive womanizing, and for the most part, he comes off as quite unlikeable – unlikeable, but truly talented. There is no questioning his abilities as both a songwriter and singer-performer, nor his place in the rock ‘n’ roll pantheon – nor the fact, that because of all this, he is a fascinating personality.

I still think if given an opportunity, I’d like to hang out with Keith Richards listening to Blues albums, but as someone interested in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, and those influential members within it, I was glad I picked up Philip Norman’s biography Mick Jagger, and would highly recommend it. And for those individuals who would pick the Rolling Stones over the Beatles, yes, I’m aware my review is highly biased in mentioning the Beatles, and I make no apologies; I expect you’ll sway your blog another way when you write about the subject, and I respect your choice in doing so – all I know, and can guarantee is that in both our vinyl and CD collections, we have albums by both groups.