Hello again, literary agents. At our
last briefing, we analyzed "Lucy" by Laurence Gonzales, which as you
know, is sort of a Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for the new millennium, for this
clandestine book briefing, however, I thought we would discuss an interesting
sort of travelogue by Adam Gussow, entitled "busker's holiday" you
could think of this book sort of as Rick Steve's meets Jack Kerouac, wrapped in
the perspective of a graduate student street musician which makes for an
extremely interesting perspective. I first came across Mr. Gussow. When I
stumbled across his YouTube channel, while looking up lessons on how to play
blues harmonica, Mr. Gussow transfixed my attention in the first 30 seconds of
an hour-long video introducing the history of the blues harmonica, and/or blues
in America, for videos later. (Three hours and 25 minutes in real time). I was
still watching his lectures. One of the videos mentioned his book "Mr.
Satan's apprentice." (Another phenomenal book, which I will probably
schedule a briefing for sometime soon) about his experiences as a Harlem street
musician in New York, which is a great book in its own right. Wanting to see
what other literary offerings Mr. Gussow has made to the universe. I paid a
visit to his author page and discovered busker’s holiday which sucked me in to
this story from the very first page. As I've always wanted to just pick up and
take off for Europe for a month or two. Mr. Gussow meets plenty of interesting
characters on a journey that will make you laugh, think and cry. His story
(although a fictional account of his own expenses) provide a unique and
interesting perspective on the old standby of the travel log in venture story.
Due to the unique perspective his street musician's eyes, bring to your ups
cobbled stone streets. If you've ever wondered what it's like to backpack
through Europe earning money along the way, or if you're looking to rekindle
memories of your own backpacking trip through Europe in College, or if you're
simply looking for a unique and travel log adventure story. Mr. Gussow will
take you on a fantastic and eye-opening journey....
Adam Gussow, a professor of English and
Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi, is among the best younger
scholars of blues culture one is likely to come across. He is no less, a
superb, stylish, and gritty blues harmonica player who has, in his time,
traveled and plied his trade as street musician and busker, most notably as
part of the duo Satan and Adam, with guitarist/vocalist Sterling McGee. Gussow
is the author of several fine books related to Southern and blues culture in
America, and wrote a fine memoir of his relationship with McGee, “Mister
Satan's Apprentice". This is mentioned just to establish that Gussow isn't
a mere dilettante on the blues, mastering a few tricks and signature moves and
then resting on laurels and a reputation made long ago; Gussow continues to
gig, with McGee , as a solo performer, and in collaboration with a number of
other musicians, often times in public, on the street, the hat out for loose
change and scattered change, keeping himself honest with what he plays and
maintaining a connection his vibe with the world of experience that is the
energy the blues channels. He is a scholar who continues to seek the source, to
find that invisible "it" behind the mere description and appearance
of things as they present themselves.
His first novel, "Busker's Holiday", is, I imagine, a fictionalized accounting of his own quest, a young man at particular moment of his life when what he's been doing in terms of study, romance and location no longer fits the skin he wears and gets an itch to try something else, to what happens. Set in the 80s, the novel regards the plight of McKay, a doctoral candidate in literature whose life has hit a rough patch. Reeling from problems in his relationship with his girl friend, McKay jumps at the chance to go on a five week trip to Europe with his friend Paul. A blues fan, McKay gathers up his harmonicas and his amp, eager to perform before crowds on the Continent.
There is something akin to novelist Henry James here, the 19th and early 20th Century American novelist who had as a major theme the confrontation of the New World (America) and the Old World (Europe). But where James' novels--"The American", "Wings of a Dove"--were long, measured, slow paced and geared to consider the interior lives, the changes of psyche, occurring over long stretches of time, Gussow instead goes for the Beat-influenced insistence on sensation, speed, the influx of sound, smell, and blurred vision. There is the velocity and mania of Jack Kerouac here, that point where the novel opens up with its landings in Paris and beyond, but author Gussow has a better command of the technique. He keep the tone and pacing right; Kerouac and the Beats are an obvious and working influence on the style of this tale, but what we have here is something better and, I think, more honest to the experience. Kerouac is problematic for many of us, and for me the issue was his willingness, his chronic need to make his already made pace even more intense with infusions of hip-argot, haphazardly placed modifiers.
To paraphrase Gore Vidal, Kerouac used adjectives, verbs, similes, metaphors “the way truck drivers uses ketchup at a diner.” Again, Gussow has a better command of the style, the instrument, which that he gets closer to the Charlie Parker concern of “making it all fit”, the Spontaneous Bop Prosody that Kerouac’s principle aim with his prolix excursions.
Adam Gussow's writing is vivid, alive, the mellifluous sentences flow when he goes at length and the shorter sentences have something of the Hemingway craft of resonating terseness. It is a recollection that resonates. McKay is delivered very well; an engaging, seeking, impatient, naive, curious man in search for knowledge and new means to express a growing feeling of a rich inner life. The writing is swift but disciplined, loose but always aware of where the rhythm truly is, is a match for the harmonica playing and instrumentation you’ve described. It is a wonderful and engaging accounting of being within the experience of performance, of when the chops fail and where they come together.
As always, agents thank you for attending the
briefing. And remember "reading is recreation for intelligence."His first novel, "Busker's Holiday", is, I imagine, a fictionalized accounting of his own quest, a young man at particular moment of his life when what he's been doing in terms of study, romance and location no longer fits the skin he wears and gets an itch to try something else, to what happens. Set in the 80s, the novel regards the plight of McKay, a doctoral candidate in literature whose life has hit a rough patch. Reeling from problems in his relationship with his girl friend, McKay jumps at the chance to go on a five week trip to Europe with his friend Paul. A blues fan, McKay gathers up his harmonicas and his amp, eager to perform before crowds on the Continent.
There is something akin to novelist Henry James here, the 19th and early 20th Century American novelist who had as a major theme the confrontation of the New World (America) and the Old World (Europe). But where James' novels--"The American", "Wings of a Dove"--were long, measured, slow paced and geared to consider the interior lives, the changes of psyche, occurring over long stretches of time, Gussow instead goes for the Beat-influenced insistence on sensation, speed, the influx of sound, smell, and blurred vision. There is the velocity and mania of Jack Kerouac here, that point where the novel opens up with its landings in Paris and beyond, but author Gussow has a better command of the technique. He keep the tone and pacing right; Kerouac and the Beats are an obvious and working influence on the style of this tale, but what we have here is something better and, I think, more honest to the experience. Kerouac is problematic for many of us, and for me the issue was his willingness, his chronic need to make his already made pace even more intense with infusions of hip-argot, haphazardly placed modifiers.
To paraphrase Gore Vidal, Kerouac used adjectives, verbs, similes, metaphors “the way truck drivers uses ketchup at a diner.” Again, Gussow has a better command of the style, the instrument, which that he gets closer to the Charlie Parker concern of “making it all fit”, the Spontaneous Bop Prosody that Kerouac’s principle aim with his prolix excursions.
Adam Gussow's writing is vivid, alive, the mellifluous sentences flow when he goes at length and the shorter sentences have something of the Hemingway craft of resonating terseness. It is a recollection that resonates. McKay is delivered very well; an engaging, seeking, impatient, naive, curious man in search for knowledge and new means to express a growing feeling of a rich inner life. The writing is swift but disciplined, loose but always aware of where the rhythm truly is, is a match for the harmonica playing and instrumentation you’ve described. It is a wonderful and engaging accounting of being within the experience of performance, of when the chops fail and where they come together.
- Paperback: 228 pages
- Publisher: BookBaby (October 15, 2015)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0996712402
- ISBN-13: 978-0996712408
- Kindle price $5.99
- Paperback price $14.99
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