Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell - #BookReview

 

The girl may have been the end for him. The end's beginning, like the bend of a road too slight to notice where it leads. She could have happened to him a day later or a day before, but she was there on that day, in that moment, just hours after Circus Palmer turned forty, a predictable time for a certain kind of end to come, and just seconds after Maggie slid her hand from his wrist and with her lips parted just enough to slip his finger through if he'd wanted, whispered, "I have something to tell you."

***

Love is messy. Love can make us feel alive. It can also bring us down. Sometimes we look for it in all the wrong places. This is a novel about longing, desire and dreams; about passion and risk and all the places in between.

Maggie is pregnant with Circus Palmer's child. This may be her last chance, but she craves her freedom.

Pia is Circus's ex-wife, still in love with the fantasy of the man who conjured jazz tunes for her into the night, but who left many years before.

Koko, Circus's daughter, is lost in the maelstrom of teenage years, the confusion of awakening desire and yearning for the father she barely knows.

Peach is a barmaid who just wants someone to see the person she is inside.

Odessa is on the run from a mistake that can't be undone.

And then there's Circus, Circus Palmer, a jazz trumpeter whose moment of glory is fading. Selfish, damaged, scared, perhaps the only person Circus is fooling is himself.

Delivered in a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is a provocative and gripping novel about the desire to be loved, and the need to belong.

***

The writing is this book is beautiful. It is about a jazz musician, and the lyricism of the narrative appropriately echos this.

The book is about Circus Palmer and his relationships with a number of women; an ex-wife, a daughter, a woman carrying his child, and so on. There are plenty of women that move in and out of his life. He seems to have a woman in every town in which he performed his music.

Circus is not a particularly likeable character. He is a user of women, although every now and then we see a flicker of genuine emotion. What makes this book stand out is the narrative feel of the book. The chapters are told not only from Circus's perspective but from the women who orbit his world. Thus, each chapter has a different voice being told from the viewpoint of the various women in his life.

It is a very character driven novel. There is little in the way of plot. However, for me, the book focussed on the loneliness of Circus. Despite being charismatic, with a bevy of women fawning over him, he was unable to make any emotional connection. 

This book is an interesting study of character written in a beautiful style. For a debut novel it is impressive, and I think Ms. Warrell is one to watch. If this book is any indication, then I think we can expect great things from her in the future.

ISBN:  9780857529442

Publisher: Doubleday

Formats: e-book, audio and hardback

No. of Pages:  368 (hardback)

About the Author:

Laura Warrell is the author of Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm, named a ‘best’ or ‘must-read’ book by Vanity Fair, People, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Apple Books, The Root, The Millions, Hollywood Reporter, Bustle, Today, Debutiful, and elsewhere. The novel was chosen as a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, and an Indie Next List Pick.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm has been long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and short-listed for the Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. It is also a finalist for the Golden Poppy Book Award through the California Independent Booksellers Alliance. 

Laura, named a “Writer to Watch” by Publishers Weekly, grew up in Kent and Columbus, Ohio. She graduated from the Creative Writing Program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and she has attended residencies at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Tin House Writer’s Workshop where she will teach in the online Winter Workshop in 2023. She has taught Creative Writing and Literature through the Emerging Voices program at PEN America Los Angeles, at Writing Workshops Los Angeles, and at the Berklee College of Music and other academic institutions in Los Angeles and Boston. 

Laura’s writing has been published in Lit Hub, Los Angeles Review of Books, Huffington Post, The Rumpus, The Writer, and other publications.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm is her first novel. 

(ARC courtesy of the publisher)

(author photo and bio courtesy of the authors website)