book cover of The Art of Falling Apart
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The Art of Falling Apart

(2001)
A novel by

 
 
Let's get my disclaimer out of the way, as cliche as it is, this is not the type of book that I normally read. I'm not sure what that says about me though because this book had, hands down, the best imagery and detail I've experienced in a book. Seriously, this book would be an amazing read for anyone aspiring to be an author....unless of course you're of the "less is more" school of thought, then you just better move on!

I'm ashamed to say but I'm a contemporary romance gal and haven't picked up a book this deep in a long time. But, I have this obsession with all things rock and thought this would be a good read. Notice I didn't say fun read, easy read or hawt read! It was none of those. This was very interesting and while the characters were extremely believable, not every aspect of the story was..but it's fiction.

The book introduces us to a struggling rock band in England that eventually hits it big, their manager, a DJ, a drug dealer, a band member's girlfriend and a few other people get cameos but the death, destruction, music business, sex, drugs, rock n' roll, drugs, (and did I mention drugs?), and thousands of words of detailed description of the world around them focuses on that cast of interesting people. The best part is an obsessive fan and her daily emails to one of the band members. It was highly entertaining but only because you read her insane ramblings and think "there are people out there that do this!"

The author uses intense imagery and while that's great, it wore on me a bit from time to time. Having someone stare out the window and watch planes taking off into the sky and describing them as floating off like a children's balloon was good...a full paragraph to describe the face of a waitress, maybe not so much. There were times I didn't feel like the details were taking me anywhere either. Overall the story does a great job of coming full circle, although there were a few aspects/characters that we spent time with, and more detail, only to have them left somewhat up in the air. Again, not that big of a deal, but I was actually pretty interested in what happened with them, which is a credit to Dawson's writing.



Genre: Thriller

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