Dana Spiotta teaches creative writing at New York's Syracuse University. Her first novel featured in the New York Times Notable Book list, while her second gained a book award.
Spiotta's latest, Stone Arabia, reflects back on the LA music scene of the 1970s and has gained glowing reviews in its home country. Which makes me feel like a bit of a sour duck.
Reading books is a bit like sampling wine. The glass you have in hand can be affected by what you have just eaten, the company, the setting, even memory. I think this novel, with its admirable premise and detail, was thrown off kilter by the books I have recently read.
I was tempted to ditch it at page 88, but I was curious enough to see how it would all fit together (or not) so I kept going.
This is the story of a brother (Nik) and a sister (Denise) who were raised by their mother after their father left. Everything revolves around Nik and his obsessions, although a sense of Denise emerges from this.
Nik used to be in bands and never stopped writing songs and producing music of all descriptions, from pop to low-fi to experimental. This is where you hit the crossroads. You will either love Nik's endless self-promotion (and see it as a remarkable device to bring the 70s music scene to life) or you will find it slightly tedious and not feel the 70s pulse at all.
Nik invents himself in the bands he forms, in the music he self-publishes, in the reviews he writes under pseudonyms, in the daily chronicles he writes. His fan club is pretty much his sister and perhaps his mother.
