Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Review: Busker’s Holiday by Adam Gussow


Genre: Literary Fiction

Description:

Busker's Holiday is the story of McKay Chernoff, a Columbia University grad student with a harmonica in his pocket and a blues band in his background. Desolate and despairing after a disastrous romantic breakup, McKay decides to fly off to Paris and reinvent himself as a street performer.

What follows is an epic summer voyage into the busking life, propelled by the mad exploits of Billy Lee Grant, a fearless young guitar shredder whose Memphis-to-Mississippi pedigree and Dylanesque surrealism make him, when he explodes into view, precisely the partner McKay has been yearning for.”

Author:

An associate professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Adam Gussow is also a professional blues harmonica player and teacher.” This appears to be Gussow's first work of fiction. He has written at least three works of non-fiction.

Appraisal:

In the beginning, I wasn't sure about McKay and (even more so) his classmate Paul who he befriended. They seemed a bit too pretentious. But as I shared in their European adventures, I slowly came around. Busker's Holiday read like a fictional version of a slightly over-the-top travel memoir with a lot of self-discovery for the main character. Kind of a coming-of-age for a twenty-something, yet with the writing style you'd expect from literary fiction. Not a combination I've seen before or would have ever dreamed might exist.

Buy now from:      Amazon US      Amazon UK

FYI:

A minimal amount of adult language. Adult themes.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 45-50,000 words

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