Oh My Stars : A Novel
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
It's 1937, and shy, homely, 18-year-old Violet Mathers-battered by a mother's desertion, a father's contempt and an accident that cost her her arm-has decided to travel from her Kentucky hometown to the Golden Gate Bridge, from which she plans to jump. But when her bus is totaled in North Dakota, she's put up by a warm local family, whose heartthrob son, Kjel, dreams of musical stardom with his black friend Austin, a guitar virtuoso. Pitying Violet, Kjel ropes her into a journey to retrieve Austin's brother, Dallas, a sullen but musically gifted ex-con. By happy accident, the three men fill in for a no-show band at a carnival, enthralling the first of many crowds. As the Pearltones, they soon inspire a mania of Elvis-like proportions, and Violet blooms in their company and proves a savvy manager. Landvik cuts her light, sweet prose with dashes of wryness and pinches of reality: appalled stares, clenched fists and even a burning cross greet the band as they make their way South, while bad apples threaten it from within. Landvik strings the escapades into a playful and poignant narrative, even as a backdrop of Ku Klux Klan violence and Depression-era hardship keeps the fairy tale in check.
This is such a nicely written, very emotional read. There are many twists in the story that kept me turning the pages, eager to learn to learn where Violet, Austin and Kjel's musical journeys would take them. I really enjoyed reading about the struggles that the Country was facing during the World War, the Depression, the racial tension, Violet's feelings of suicide and how she felt to have someone care for her..... and most of all the true friendship that bonded the three of them together. If only the world could feel as they did about one another. It didn't matter that they were black or white, handicapped, musically gifted or challenged......the world held so much promise for them, but in the end the real gift was friendship. I believe this title will be in back of my mind for a long time.
This is such a nicely written, very emotional read. There are many twists in the story that kept me turning the pages, eager to learn to learn where Violet, Austin and Kjel's musical journeys would take them. I really enjoyed reading about the struggles that the Country was facing during the World War, the Depression, the racial tension, Violet's feelings of suicide and how she felt to have someone care for her..... and most of all the true friendship that bonded the three of them together. If only the world could feel as they did about one another. It didn't matter that they were black or white, handicapped, musically gifted or challenged......the world held so much promise for them, but in the end the real gift was friendship. I believe this title will be in back of my mind for a long time.
Journal Entry 2 by ShyAnn at Controlled Release in -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, trades, California USA on Thursday, September 8, 2005
Released 18 yrs ago (9/8/2005 UTC) at Controlled Release in -- Mail or by hand-rings, RABCK, meetings, trades, California USA
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