And in the End

In Smith’s music-tinged novel, two aspirational young people find love against the backdrop of the late career of a seminal 1960s rock band.

You’ve heard of the Fab Four, but have you heard of TheFab? No, not John, Paul, George, and Ringo—I’m talking about Brash Clannon, Will McNarty, Ralph Betterson, and Clifford Quark. These four lads from TheNorth, inspired by the music of NewWorld, started a band that soon had all the Bloomers of IslandLand shaking and rocking their bodies. It is in this context that Peter Winter, a second-tier copy editor at the Daily Mail and aspiring paperback novelist, meets Ashley “Jojo” Summerfield, a go-go dancer at the Three O’Clock Club. Technically, the precise circumstances of their meeting are that Jojo crawls through the open window of Peter’s flat to escape some sinister men and nearly lands on Peter as he soaks in his bathtub. It’s infatuation at first sight, and Peter is only too pleased to escort Jojo back to her own apartment to ensure her safety. When Jojo’s roommate is attacked—presumably by the men looking for her—Peter and Jojo escape to the countryside until the trouble dies down. As Peter begins falling head over heels for Jojo, another unexpected opportunity presents itself: TheFab are starting a new venture in TheCity called Fab Enterprises, and they are looking for people to staff their publicity and art departments. Peter and Jojo leap at the opportunity to work for “the pied pipers of [their] generation” and are soon participating in the roll-out of instant classic Fab albums like Colonel Curry’s Band of Lonesome Souls, Fantastical Mystery Cruise, and the self-titled album more commonly referred to by its packaging, Brown Bag. But with Jojo’s enemies still out there, and the clashing personalities of the four Fab members threatening the future of the band—and everyone’s jobs—can Peter and Jojo find lasting harmony?

Smith tells the story using pseudonyms for most of the proper nouns, which infuses the tale with a slightly fantastic—and decidedly Beatles-y—whimsy: “A generation (an outsized, blooming generation) birthed in the aftermath of GreatDestruction was coming of age,” narrates Peter. “Now, this onrush of young people—the Bloomers—of whom I was one, wanted to live, wanted to live very badly in its own, youthful way.” (Some places and things, such as Liverpool and the Daily Mail, unaccountably retain their normal names.) The text is littered with references to Beatles lyrics, and the book is just as interested in documenting the various turns of TheFab’s late career as it is in the personal lives of Peter and Jojo. To say that this novel will appeal almost exclusively to Beatles fans is not a knock: Smith’s devotion to the band is apparent in every line of the book, and his pseudonymous games succeed in crafting a universe in which TheFab truly does feel like the axis around which this alternative Swinging ’60s spins. Fellow Beatlemaniacs will enjoy picking out the myriad easter eggs, and many readers will see themselves in this pair of protagonists to whom the music means everything.

An inventive and not overly nostalgic Beatles tribute novel.