Moody Food: A Novel - Softcover

Robertson, Ray

Softcover

ISBN 10: 097767990X ISBN 13: 9780977679904

Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project, 2006

Synopsis

Inspired by the exploits of ill-fated country-rock visionary Gram Parsons, this mid-60s tale of idealism and escape traces the trials of a fictionalized draft-dodging flower child from the United States to Canada and back. It is the late 1960s in Yorkville, Toronto's hippie ghetto of artists, intellectuals, drunken poets, and would-be rock stars. In this idyllic haven, narrator Bill Hansen, a drummer, meets Thomas Graham, an American musician on the lam from the draft. The two form a band, but even as they revel in music and freedom, Graham is hobbled by another love: a drug habit that becomes his reason for living and, eventually, for dying. Graham's emotional trip and failed, revolutionary life reflect the rise and fall of an entire generation's aspirations.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

From critically acclaimed novelist Ray Robertson comes the rollicking Great Gatsby of the ?60s ? a sex, drugs, and rock?n?roll?suffused modern tragedy.

For Bill Hansen, things couldn?t be better. He?s got a beautiful folk-singer girlfriend, a job at Toronto?s coolest bookstore and, most of all, he?s got Yorkville, which in 1966 is nothing short of paradise for a boy from Etobicoke.

And then Bill meets Thomas Graham, who with his white snakeskin cowboy boots, red sequined shirt and Southern drawl doesn?t quite fit the Yorkville hippie mold. Soon, the charismatic Thomas draws Bill into an obsessive quest to create what he calls ?Interstellar North American Music,? a mixed-race, cross-generational musical hybrid fusing rock and roll, country and western, and rhythm and blues. Augmented by Bill?s girlfriend, Christine, and Slippery Bannister, a one-time Nashville session man and now an infamous drunk, The Duckhead Secret Society is born. The band is spotted by a record company scout and is soon launched on a whirlwind tour of bars, taverns and dives across America, finally landing on LA?s Sunset Strip.

In the haze of harder and harder drugs, it all starts to come undone. As Bill recounts the rise and fall of Thomas Graham and his musical vision, he simultaneously tells the story of frustrated idealism and the passing of an entire generation.

From the Inside Flap:

From critically acclaimed novelist Ray Robertson comes the rollicking Great Gatsby of the 60s --
a sex, drugs, and rock?n?roll-suffused modern tragedy.

For Bill Hansen, things couldn?t be better. He?s got a beautiful folk-singer girlfriend, a job at Toronto?s coolest bookstore and, most of all, he?s got Yorkville, which in 1966 is nothing short of paradise for a boy from the suburbs.

And then Bill meets the charismatic Thomas Graham, who draws Bill into an obsessive quest to create what he calls ?Interstellar North American Music.? Augmented by Bill?s girlfriend, Christine, and Slippery Bannister, a one-time Nashville session man and now an infamous drunk, The Duckhead Secret Society is born and launched on a whirlwind tour of bars, taverns and dives across America.

In the haze of harder and harder drugs, it all starts to come undone. As Bill recounts the rise and fall of Thomas Graham and his musical vision, he simultaneously tells the story of frustrated idealism and the passing of an entire generation.

About this edition

• Publisher: Santa Fe Writer's Project
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 097767990X
• ISBN 13: 9780977679904
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400