I had put this book, While I'm Dead... Feed the Dog, in the giveaway pile before moving and ended up bringing it on holiday to Thailand, fully not expecting to read it what with our jam-packed schedule. On the flight back home, the book received an eleventh-hour reprieve and I zoomed through the strange, blunt and witty prose. I was sort of reminded of Salinger because of the first-person, smarter-than-thou, anti-establishment style of writing, but it was the plot that really hooked me -- sort of like Snatch, the movie, played from the perspective of a small-town high-school kid.
Imagine my surprise after I had finished, when I read the author bio, that Ric Browde wasn't even a novelist. He was until about a decade ago a multi-platinum record producer, behind the likes of Poison, Joan Jett and Ted Nugent. And then, when his records ceased to find commercial success, he switched to writing. Wikipedia claims the book is being made into a novel, but you shouldn't place all your research confidence in Wikipedia really. Don't you hate it when someone who's already good at one thing, is also really talented at doing something else? And you're barely good enough at doing one thing in the first place. Ah, petty jealousy directed at random people who don't even know you, you've reared your head again.
That said, if you're interested in reading a fast-paced book that features teenage lust, inappropriate parenting, transvestites, silent nuns, a shiny red Corvette, David Bowie (and entourage), a real aversion to Latin and excessive sexual innuendo... then let me know, I'll pass you the book. Or buy it for yourself at Amazon.
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