Losing Graceland: A Novel - Softcover

Nathan, Micah

3.65

103 ratings by Goodreads

9780307591357: Losing Graceland: A Novel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0307591352 ISBN 13: 9780307591357

Publisher: Crown, 2011

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An irreverent tale about a recent college grad, a mysterious old man who may be Elvis, and a perilous road trip that could lead to the old man’s final comeback.

When Ben Fish responds to an ad that reads “Driver Needed Seven Days Excellent Pay No Druggies, Drunks, or Felons,” it’s because of the money ($10,000) but also to get away from his dead-end life. He has just graduated from college with a useless degree, has gotten dumped by his longtime girlfriend, and is still mourning his father, who died in a freak accident. Yet Ben finds himself in for more than he expected, as the old man who placed the ad seems to be a still-living Elvis who leads Ben on a 900-mile journey to Memphis in search of his granddaughter. Along the way they brawl with biker gangs, consult a backwoods oracle, rescue a hooker named Ginger from her one-eyed pimp, and ultimately find some answers about themselves and their place in the world.

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About the Author:

Micah Nathan's bestselling debut novel Gods of Aberdeen (Simon & Schuster, 2005) was published in six countries. His essays and short stories have appeared in Bellingham Review, Glimmer Train, Gettysburg Review, Diagram, Boston Globe Magazine, Eclectica, and other national publications. He was an Epstein Fellow at Boston University's MFA program, where he received the 2010 Saul Bellow Prize in Fiction, and his short fiction has been a finalist for the Tobias Wolff Award and the Innovative Fiction Award. Micah currently lives in the Boston area, with his wife, their dog, and an assortment of curiosities.

From Publishers Weekly:

In his fair-to-middling sophomore effort, Nathan (Gods of Aberdeen) resurrects Elvis Presley--or a bloated old man named John Barrow who wants to be the king--and follows him from his suburban Buffalo, N.Y., hideout to Memphis, Tenn., where he hopes to find and liberate his estranged, illegitimate granddaughter, Nadine Emma Brown, recently reported as missing. Though the quick narrative slips into "the old man's" point of view at irregular intervals, most of the narrative is channeled through the perceptions of Ben Fish, the 21-year-old anthropology major Elvis hires to drive him cross-country. Ben is reeling from the death of his father and the loss of his "hot" girlfriend, and goes along for the promised ,000, which will fund his dream of moving to Amsterdam. The duo's adventures--brawling with the biker gang Hell's Foster Children, competing in Elvis impersonator contests, visiting hillbilly oracles--are entertaining, but it's the old man's battle with his ailing body, pain pill addiction, and legacy that will leave readers wishing for more from a novel that travels too much through the light terrain of Ben's insubstantial struggles with growing up. (Jan.) (c)
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