New Book: Chicago by David Mamet

Last week, I finished reading Lou Reed: A Life by Anthony DeCurtis, a fascinating look into the life of one of the most influential figures in rock history.  Reed, of course, was the lead singer of The Velvet Underground in the late '60s and early '70s before going solo for the next 40 years or so before he died in 2013.  From forced electroshock therapy as a teenager to hard drugs to the underground New York gay scene to making an album of industrial noise as a "fuck you" to his record label to dating a trans woman to getting married and going "straight" to that strange collaboration with Metallica, Reed lived a life full that won't soon be duplicated.  He was a notorious curmudgeon, but also had a total soft side and was a loyal and caring friend to many.  I definitely recommend this if you have any interest in the VU or Reed.  My favorite anecdote was from 1987.  Reed was going to be performing at Farm Aid, and he stayed with John Mellencamp in Bloomington.  You see, my favorite bar in Bloomington is The Bluebird, a live music venue.  On the back wall, there's a big picture of Reed performing, and I just figured that was an homage, but it turns out Mellencamp arranged for Reed to play an unannounced warm-up show at the Bluebird with Mellencamp's backing band.  So that was cool enough, but then Reed showed up to visit Glenn Gass's history of rock and roll class for a Q&A session.  Gass is my favorite professor or teacher at any level of education.  These Bloomington details seemed a little odd and too specific when I was reading it -- not that I was complaining -- but then I remembered that the author, Anthony DeCurtis, is a fellow IU alum.

Next up is Chicago by David Mamet, which came out last year and is Mamet's first novel in 20+ years.  It's historical fiction set in 1920s Chicago (Mamet is a native Chicagoan), so it should be pretty good.  Is there anything he can't do?

Books Read in 2019:
-The Anatomy of Evil by Michael H. Stone, M.D.
-The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
-Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix by Charles R. Cross
-Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century by Chuck Klosterman
-Lou Reed: A Life by Anthony DeCurtis