Heather’s Bookshelf: The Driftwood Tour
Author: JP Lane
Released: 10/31/22
Genre: Literary Fiction
“One time I said that I would be happy to take a photo of them, not with them. Then I put my smashed thumb in the corner of the photo as a joke so they’d know it was me. That photo ended up in a magazine and it became a thing, like you can only call yourself a real fan if my thumb is in the photo. It’s ridiculous, but I like it that way.”
“The Driftwood Tour” starts in 1998 and introduces Thurston Underwood or “Wood”, a musician who wakes up from a coma in Tokyo, handcuffed to a bed, and unable to remember what happened. While awaiting his fate and healing, he reminisces about how he got here and the time he spent as part of a two musician group, Driftwood.
Wood, his bandmate Jesse, his basset hound Margaret, and their manager Rachel, experience one adventure after another in their pursuit of sharing music around the world, while making a profit. Rachel’s full of some great, good, and just bad ideas. The great: incorporating local acts and arts into their shows; The good: investment ideas to expand their audience; The bad: not fully investigating ideas before Driftwood engages in them. This dynamic combination leads to complex relationships and crazy situations. Some he is able to overcome, some turn out for the better, and some change lead to heartbreak. Will Wood be able to remember what happened, his music, and stay out of jail in order to keep sharing what he loves?
Trigger Warning: violence, adult/discriminatory language, reference to rape, reference to prostitution, animal death, sexual situations
Overall, I really enjoyed this story. It is not particularly fast-paced, but written in a way that flows and follows one adventure after another in many different cities around the world. The protagonist, Wood, is certainly flawed, but means well and is seemingly a good guy with a love for music and his friends. Jesse and Rachel are also well developed characters and their relationships with Wood develop as the novel continues. In the beginning of the story, the author references a playlist to go along with the book. I absolutely love this idea and while I could not find the referenced playlist, I did look up many of the songs I was unfamiliar with and moved a couple of favorites “Creep” and “Faith” up on my playlist. The author does a nice job in integrating memories of the past into current events and pulling the reader along to learn more. I did not want to put the story down as I was reading and the intent to read 10 pages quickly turned into 25. I absolutely cared about the characters by the end of the story and was crushed by one particularly emotional scene which I will not spoil. There were a couple of surprises in the second half of the tale that were a little random but didn’t deter from the rest of the antics in the story. The end of the story wraps everything up nicely and feels finished. I would love to see a spin-off following Jesse or maybe a Driftwood reunion tour with both of the guys.
As a side note: As a PT, the depiction of physical therapy was soul crushing for me. I get it was in the 90s in Japan, but I hope everyone doesn’t think all PT’s do is massage and stick you on a traction machine. If that’s all you’re getting out of it, go to a different one.
I received a copy of this story in exchange of a fair and honest review.
UPDATE: Here’s the link to the playlist!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8kpyQRb20IULIBVLjbplYduaDfJyqpWx
OVERALL REVIEW:
A music forward tale about a musician, his successes, failures, loves and losses.
Want to learn more about the author?
Check out my interview with JP Lane
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Find it for purchase here or Kindle Unlimited
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