When Disaster Amnesiac espied the copy of The Last Days Of the Midnight Ramblers at my local library branch, I figured it would be alright to take a chance on it, mostly due to my being a fan of the Rolling Stones. Its jacket cover makes it clear that this book is not about the Stones, but the Midnight Ramblers sure do seem to be a lot like Mick 'n Keith and the boys.
The novel's central tension arises from the mysterious death of Ramblers founding member, Mal, in the Summer of 1969. Ghost Writer Mari has been brought in first by one of the inner circle ladies of the band in order to write this lady's account of her own fascinating life. Mari cannot resist circling over again and again to Mal's early demise, and goes so far as to act unethically in order to discover the truth of the matter, an act which gets her canned from the gig. Fortunately for her, she quickly winds up with a gig upgrade in the form of getting hired by the Midnight Ramblers suave lead guitarist, Dante. Deeply embedded within this new work dynamic for Mari is the unsettling presence of an East German manager named Sigrid, a fixer with the cold precision one would expect from a woman that had learned from and escaped the land of the Stasi. Many manner of intrigue ensues as Mari attempts to discover the genuine acts leading to Mal's passing, and this alone makes The Last Days Of the Midnight Ramblers a worthwhile read, especially for hardcore Stones fans. They'll surely enjoy this fleshing out of one of the important occurrences within that history, even as it's developed within a lateral, "fiction" style.
Of even more import for Disaster Amnesiac however are the ways in which author Sarah Tomlinson treats the more deeply subjective issue for any and all humans as we navigate our mortal passage. Familial relationships and their potential and actual damages, feelings of alienation and loss, acts of tenderness between people that have loved each other, the reality of human passing; these Tomlinson has written about in ways that have brought me to tears, especially within the novel's denouement. The Last Days Of the Midnight Ramblers packs an emotional punch therein that will give sensitive readers much to ponder, and the emotional weight from that seems so much more significant than the show biz glitz which, for this reader anyway, enticed him to pick up the novel in the first place.
After their ends, and often during our actual lived lives, we can function as ghosts of one sort or another. Surely we also feel the presence of our own ghosts as we navigate our ways through time spent within this realm. The Last Days Of the Midnight Ramblers author Sarah Tomlinson does a brilliant job of imparting this insight. Find a copy and be moved by it.
No comments:
Post a Comment