This book was chosen by my bookclub. It's doubtful I would have read it otherwise. Though there were some interesting parts, overall I really struggled with the author's style. The third person Omniscient Narration made it hard for me to get attached to any of the characters. The almost total lack of dialogue made the story too dry for my tastes as well. Flowery prose seems to be this author's strong suit, and some of the imagery was beautiful. But many parts were clunky and read like a thesaurus had thrown up on the page. He also seemed to be carried away with excesses analogies, often using conflicting ones to describe the same scene. The story itself was also difficult for me to care about. The Browns were a real live singing group, but after some simple fact checking, it appears not much of the book was based on real events. For example, the book refers to their many number one hits, where a quick internet search revealed they had only one. It appears the book isn't simply a fictionalized biography, but rather almost totally fiction story that just borrows very loosely on a handful of characters who existed in real life. This bothered me - I would have much rather he used fictional characters than write such a book about people who are still living, but bears such little resemblance to their real lives. Nashville Chrome by Rick Bass takes us on a wild ride to a time before rapper MC Hammer told us “You Got The Power”. A time when a young truck driver shocked a nation by showing that raw power with his swiveling hips and curled lip, Presley would be called King. The face of music was about to change. Jerry Lee was pounding the ivories and howling to the moon, and the Brown family rose to stardom with a sound so pure, so full of life and yearning, that it reached right down in the soul. Roots in the south, a dad who loves the bottle too well, and hardscrabble poverty shape them. Fame brings its own debts to pay. This is the life story of the very real Brown Trio, but it is far more, it is also the story of a music revolution that started in Nashville Tennessee. Rick Bass hits all the right notes in Nashville Chrome.
What do You think about Nashville Chrome (2010)?
Great read on the Historic band 'The Browns'. I didn't know who they were, but now I know!
—monique
