review #02: DEEP CUTS by Holly Brickley
** Reviews will be written with capitalization going forward for better accessibility! **
As a concept, writing a novel about a writer can be overdone, lazy, and self-involved. But writing a novel about a writer who writes about music? And even dabbles in songwriting herself with her will-they-won’t-they musical paramour? At least in Holly Brickley’s debut novel Deep Cuts, I was certainly along for the ride.
The journey, however, was not without its roadbumps. After the first hundred pages or so, I couldn’t help but ask, “Is Percy Marks just a thinly disguised stand in for Holly Brickley?!” Both the author and the protagonist went to UC Berkeley and then Columbia for an MFA. I learned a new word in researching my question — autofiction — and it seems that yes, Brickley based her protagonist on herself. Which would have annoyed me greatly, except that both Holly and Percy share one very standout trait in common: boy, do they know how to write about music.
Not since I have read Jack Kerouac’s descriptions of the sonic experience of live jazz in his 1957 hit novel On The Road have I felt writing so perfectly encapsulate the sound of a genre. For Holly Brickley, it’s the indie rock scene around the turn of the millennium that sits center stage, along with a smattering of other great American music from decades prior. Her writing elsewhere is superb as well, particularly when it comes to dialogue and the often unexplored inner thoughts that bubble up in Percy Marks’ brain as she tries to navigate the whirlwind that is her early twenties. Percy’s oddly specific job in second half of the novel is hilarious. The plot overall is stable.
But, this is a romance novel at its core, and despite focusing on Percy’s tumultuous romantic/musical affair with a rock musician named Joe, I found the standout parts of their time together leaned largely in favor of the musical side of things (and Holly’s ability to capture the creative process so movingly). By the end, I felt that if I looked too closely at any one part, if I removed the beauty of the music that brings everything together, the whole story might collapse. But therein lies the power in this transporting novel: not any sort of timeless appeal, but, like Kerouac, its timeliness. And, unlike Kerouac, its ability to conjure and convey the zeitgeist of an age which has already past and which is rapidly being forgotten.
Part of my joy in reading this story was knowing how the world was going to change around the characters, but not knowing how those characters were going to react. It’s a book for nostalgic Millennials and hipster Zoomers, for music lovers who can conjure to mind the great hits of the last sixty years, and for those who love a quirky, intelligent, and often prickly female protagonist who fights for the freedom to find out what she really wants out of life. I look forward to watching the A24 adaptation. (7/10)