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5 Reviews

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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Average Customer Review

3.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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3.0 out of 5 stars A Road To Nowhere, Sep 1 2002

By	A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Flesh Guitar (Paperback)

Definitely the weakest of the three Nicholson books I've read (the other two being Bleeding London and Still Life With Volkswagen), this novel haphazardly follows the career of Jenny Slade, an avant-garde female guitar player. Other readers have criticized it's lack of narrative framework or traditional plot, but I think it adheres fairly closely to the traditional "quest for knowledge" structure. The problem is that the various incidents and episodes fail to add up to the larger knowledge or truth that is implicit in such a structure.

Over the course of the book, Jenny appears as a vision and converses with various guitar gods right before they die, including Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, and Kurt Cobain, and also dispenses advice to a young Frank Zappa. Intermingled are her encounters with fictional musicians, the most captivating of which is the one-armed Freddie Terrano and his band of worshipers. Intermingled are excerpts from the "Journal of Sladean Studies", an uber-fanzine written by her favorite fan. Ultimately, it's a surreal hodgepodge that is intermittently entertaining, but kind of meanders to nowhere. In that sense, I think Nicholson is rather like Jonathan Lethem, who is also capable of great writing and wild ideas, some of which are genius, and some of which flop. For Nicholson, this is a flop.

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2.0 out of 5 stars Directionless and a bit pointless, Jul 25 2000

By	Miriam M. Lain "Douglas Lain" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Flesh Guitar (Hardcover)

This is indeed Nicholson's weakest book. A series of vignettes and anecdotes that taken individually would be fun, are presented in the place of a traditional narrative or even an overt message. These tales of the flesh guitar simply don't add up to much.

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1.0 out of 5 stars A big letdown, Aug 25 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Flesh Guitar (Hardcover)

As a fan of Nicholson, hands down, this is the weakest of his work. It's a surreal story set in a post-modern guitar rock fantasy world that goes nowhere. (Was he experimenting with a new style?) After all the brilliant plots, characters, and dialogue; this was a huge letdown.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars ...wildly inventive, my ass...
If you want to read a poorly written book with no plot and very little to no understanding of music or guitars or the creative process, Flesh Guitar is for you.

Published on April 29 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars A new twist on the guitar hero
Flesh guitar is an unusual book that really gets into the mind of the musician and the fan. It follows Jenny Slade (guitar goddess)through phases and stages of her life and... Read more

Published on April 28 1999