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Tracey Thorn’s memoir My Rock ’n’ Roll Friend vibrates with love Thorn’s paean to her friend Lindy Morrison is much more than the dynamic of a personal relationship. Friendship often begins in aspiration and projection, as one or both parties see in the other qualities – frequently intangible and nebulous – that they admire, or envy, or that they believe themselves to lack. Sometimes we feel that something of the other might rub off on us, that we might be, to invert Philip Larkin’s thoughts about procreation, increased rather than diluted. We might also believe that such impulses are less powerful than those in romantic relationships. On this last, art, literature and our own experiences suggest we are wrong.
… are you reading now?
Luster by Raven Leilani a novel about a young black woman trying to navigate the worlds of work and love and relationships.
It manages to capture a modern landscape of sexual and racial politics, while also being very funny.
I love reading books with a vivid heroine at the centre and by that I don t mean she has to be perfect, or some stereotype of a strong woman , but just a woman who is unique, complicated and dealing with the business of being alive.
Tracey Thorn (pictured with Max Porter) said she would take the complete works of Elizabeth Taylor or Anthony Powell s A Dance To The Music Of Time to a desert island with her
Lindy Morrison, Robert Forster, Grant McLennan, John Willsteed and Amanda Brown of the Go-Betweens. Photograph: EMI TRACEY Thorn first met Lindy Morrison backstage at the Lyceum Theatre in London on March 31, 1983. Thorn was only 20 then, still a student. The Marine Girls, the band she was in at the time, were supporting Orange Juice that night. “I was terrified and out of my depth,” Thorn recalls in the opening pages of her new book My Rock ’n’ Roll Friend. Also on the bill that night was the Australian band The Go-Betweens, one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the decade, but one that would find success frustratingly elusive. As Thorn sat in the dressing room, the door opened and the Go-Betweens drummer Lindy Morrison walked in asking to borrow some lipstick at the top of her voice. Older, noisier, more self-assured, Thorn was enthralled. “You looked like confidence ran in your veins,” she writes of that first encounter.
Memoir, biography, essays and more. By Aoife Barry Saturday 9 Jan 2021, 7:00 AM Jan 9th 2021, 7:00 AM 12,406 Views 0 Comments
Image: Shutterstock/patpitchaya
Image: Shutterstock/patpitchaya
YES, THERE ARE still more books to look out for this year. We already told you what Irish books to watch out for, and what international fiction to keep track of.
Here’s our list of mostly international non-fiction for those who prefer things out of the fictional realm.
Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley Ford
Ford, a features writer, has a huge amount of fans in the US – but many here too in Ireland. This book, about the imprisonment of her father and its effect on her life, is sure to be a fascinating read.