Vexation Lullaby
A Novel
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2017 Maine Literary Award for Fiction • One of Amazon's Best Books of the Month, April 2016
"Justin Tussing rocks the rock novel. Vexation Lullaby is pure raw pleasure from start to finish."—Lily King, author of Euphoria
Peter Silver is a young doctor treading water in the wake of a breakup—his ex–girlfriend called him a ""mama's boy"" and his best friend considers him a ""homebody,"" a squanderer of adventure. But when he receives an unexpected request for a house call, he obliges, only to discover that his new patient is aging, chameleonic rock star Jimmy Cross. Soon Peter is compelled to join the mysteriously ailing celebrity, his band, and his entourage, on the road. The so–called ""first physician embedded in a rock tour,"" Peter is thrust into a way of life that embraces disorder and risk rather than order and discipline.
Trailing the band at every tour stop is Arthur Pennyman, Cross's number–one fan. Pennyman has not missed a performance in twenty years, sacrificing his family and job to chronicle every show on his website. Cross insists that ""being a fan is how we teach ourselves to love,"" and, in the end, Pennyman does learn. And when he hears a mythic, as–yet–unperformed song he starts to piece together the puzzle of Peter's role in Cross's past.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tussing's second novel, following The Best People in the World, is a clever, satisfying story about the struggle to find meaning in the lives we've made for ourselves. Jimmy Cross is an aging rock star accompanied on tour by Peter Silver, his new traveling physician; he's followed by Arthur Pennyman, a fan who has been at every show for the past 20 years and blogs about it. Told from alternating perspectives, the story toggles between Peter's reluctant submission to adventure, after being convinced to tour with the rock band, and Arthur's pursuit of enlightenment through fandom, which ultimately becomes a metaphor for love. Arthur, who abandoned a suburban life as a husband and father after hearing Cross play for the first time, has structured his life around the singer's touring schedule, while Peter struggles to move forward following a recent breakup and is now just going wherever the tour bus takes him. Both men have yet to discover their final destination. The novel weaves together the mystery of Peter's connection to Cross, while offering surprising insights into the nature of identity, legacy, and what we owe to the people we love. Tussing uses startling and memorable details to punctuate scenes with a cinematic flourish, and he is particularly adept at using dialogue to reveal how much we actually aren't saying to each other. And the ending is dazzling.
