IT'S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL

by Bruce Pollock ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 1980

A young career story about the young career most likely to light up stars in young eyes. Locally prominent at 18, singer-songwriter Eugene Maybloom gets a dubious break that has him hanging around New York, kept ""on hold"" by a flashy agent who finally arranges some exhausting tours and three albums for an obscure label. The second album is respectably reviewed, climbs to 78, and stops; but the third, titled ""Give the People What They Want,"" bombs to accusations of ""sell-out."" Which is essentially what Eugene has been doing all along, playing to his agent's bubble-gum audience and submitting to the other man's decisions. Somehow, though, Eugene remains an innocent through it all, and now changes his name from Maybloom to Bloom and retires to an obscure town. There he is happy, independent, and again locally popular--until the end when an old single is revived, the agent seeks him out, and Eugene decides he's ready to return to the race, presumably his way this time. Without the raunch, fast-living, or cutthroat business usually associated with rock, Pollock manages to make the mild success story seem a realistic inside view--from the early dreams and hesitations to the hype and the high-powered run-around. And his passive hero-narrator is bestowed with a sort of hip sincerity well attuned to his likely audience.

Pub Date: April 23, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1980

Categories: FICTION