THERE'S MORE TO LIFE THAN BOOKS, YOU KNOW, BUT NOT MUCH MORE: THE BEST OF THE ROCK NOVELS(via Terry K.)If You Want Me to Stay, Michael Parker (2005).
Look for a full review of this wonderful new novel next month. A brilliant work of Southern fiction, the characters in If You Want Me to Stay are obsessed with soul music — Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding, Archie Bell, the Stax/Volt and Muscle Shoals sounds. Funny at times and wrenchingly sad at others, this is one of the most perfectly realized novels I've read in recent years. Very highly recommended.