Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Contemporary Fiction/Humor
Approximate word count: 125-130,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
Danny
Gillan was raised and still lives in Glasgow, Scotland. His first ambition was
to be a musician, but ended up in the pub and hotel trade for a number of years
in a wide variety of roles, interspersed with periods in social care.
Danny has
written two novels, and a series of short stories which have appeared in
several magazines and anthologies.
You can
learn more about Danny on his blog.
Description:
Claire
Rivers returns home to find her husband, Bryan, has committed suicide, no
longer able to deal with his depression. A music executive, Jason Clemence,
calls and offers Bryan the recording contract he’d always craved, unfortunately
the artist is no more. Claire however, at Clemence’s suggestion, agrees to
publish Bryan’s music posthumously, to massive success…
Appraisal:
History is
full of artists who didn’t become famous until after they died and there are a
ton of musicians who, despite fame before, showed that death was a great career
move. If there’s a Rock and Roll Heaven, they not only have a hell of a band,
but great sales, too.
The hook
for Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
is a little of both, with a songwriter and musician finally getting discovered
just days after his death. But the issues it addresses are weightier than music
(and in my opinion, music is pretty damn important). Those issues mentioned in
the book description (death, depression, grief, loss, friendship, and family)
all figure in the story.
As in Scratch, Gillan’s other novel, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow tackles
serious issues, but lightens what could have easily been a dark story with
humor. It’s a fine line to include humor without trivializing the heavier
subjects. Gillan walked that line by using subtler humor and sometimes making
the subject of the humor someone (or something) not as involved in the more
serious subjects. For example, he described a “20-year-old goth pretending to
check out the porn magazines but actually trying to sneak a surreptitious look
at Investments Today,” or described
the family dog as a great listener and “the perfect confidant” because he was “smart
enough to appear to empathise, dumb enough to be unable to judge or pass
comment.”
A good,
thought provoking read. Well worth your time.
FYI:
Some adult
language.
Format/Typo Issues:
A small
number of typos and proofing issues.
4 comments:
Excellent points, BigAl. Although I think that fine line deserves five stars. Each and every character was handled expertly with a descerning pen. So, I will have to respectfully disagree with your stars. :P
Good review Al!
Thanks, Keith. (But yours was better. :) )
A little disagreement is good, ?wazi. I went back and forth on this one. It was a close call.
I'll take four stars from Al any day! Very pleased you enjoyed the book, Al, and really appreciate the double review.
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