You know that time during your adolescence when you weren’t sure if girls were ever going to be into you, music defined every single moment and you began to realize turning into your parents was inevitable?
Author Matthew Specktor knows those brutal moments with empathy, grace and profound self-awareness.
In Specktor’s new novel, That Summertime Sound, he rolls those unspoken feelings of our youth into a coming of age narrative I couldn’t put down.
The book is set in the mid-80s and follows a college student who finds himself bound for Columbus, OH — what he’s been promised is the capital of rock — for the summer break, surrounded by a most believable cliche of drugs, sex, rock n roll… and consignment hipster clothing.
His friends, girlfriend and idol band fill out the subplots, complete with a house fire, embezzlement, positive HIV test, frat boy fight and the climax of the book where it all comes together.
If you value good music as much as me, you’ll find yourself enamored by the cast of characters’ choice in music, their hatred of sell-out bands and ability to play a record single over and over…even postponing sex to hear it one more time. Ah youth.
Excerpt read by Gwyneth Paltrow.
Excerpt read by Morgan Freeman.
Buy it here.
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