Black Sabbath's Master of Reality (33 1/3) - Softcover

Darnielle, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826428991 ISBN 13: 9780826428998

Publisher: Continuum, 2008

Synopsis

Black Sabbath's Master of Reality has maintained remarkable historical status over several generations; it's a touchstone for the directionless, and common coin for young men and women who've felt excluded from the broader cultural economy. John Darnielle hears it through the ears of Roger Painter, a young adult locked in a southern California adolescent psychiatric center in 1985; deprived of his Walkman and hungry for comfort, he explains Black Sabbath as one might describe air to a fish, or love to an android, hoping to convince his captors to give him back his tapes.

About this title

About the Author:

John Darnielle is the singer and songwriter otherwise known as the Mountain Goats.

Review:

Mention in Harp Magazine (Grayson Currin)

"[T]he focus of Darnielle's fans has always been on hislyrics and the stories contained within them. Now he's stepped off the stage and sat down at is typewriter to deliverMaster of Reality, his first novel and a stunning piece of rock criticism andappreciation.
Readers are likely to come to Master of Reality from avariety of backgrounds. Some will comeas Mountain Goats fans wanting to see Darnielle tackle a novel, others as BlackSabbath fans wanting to read about a favorite album. Some will simply be fans of the cult-popular33 1/3 series, which has now grown to dozens of books, yet kept its level ofquality very high. Hopefully, there willbe others who will pick it up as novel first, because it truly is a first-ratestory, full of moments that will pluck at your heartstrings as you're broughtback to the moment you first fell in love with a piece of music, when an albumprovided not just the soundtrack to your life but also the meaning behindit. If, by some strange chance, none ofthis happens, well, you're probably going to at least dust off your old Sabbathvinyl, and there's nothing wrong with that either." —NewPages.com
"[Darnielle] straightjackets the essence of Black Sabbathwhere 40 years of music musings and cultural damnation have failed." —Raoul Hernandez, Austin Chronicle (Raoul Hernandez)

"Total affection for, and strong identification with, musicis a cross-generational experience, and though the motivation behind the 33 1/3series meshes nicely with a post-Generation X obsession with the minutiae ofpersonal experience, it's also immediately accessible to anyone who's everwritten favorite lyrics on her algebra notebook. While nostalgia runs thick inDarnielle's book (the nature of the series essentially demands this), there's agreater point about music and memory to be found in Roger's story. Indulgencein the memory of intense feelings can be strangely comforting, and perhaps evennecessary. Or, as Roger puts it: 'It doesn't have to mean that to everybody, andit means more no matter what...'"— Thea Brown, The L Magazine (Thea Brown)

"Darnielle, singer and songwriter for the much-loved bandThe Mountain Goats, cuts right to the chase in his short novel, the blunt,direct tone of his adolescent protagonist Richard Painter perfectlyencapsulating the enduring appeal of metal's great progenitors. It's all aboutthe Mighty Riff when it comes to Sabbath; everything else is secondary, andwhile one could easily make a case for at least half a dozen albums thatdeserve the 33 1/3 treatment, the riffs that define this particular album are,to echo young Roger's sentiment, unfuckwithable." —Adrien Begrand, Popmatters.com
(Adrien Begrand)

"Mountain Goat John Darnielle's off-stage literaryproclivities are no secret, which makes us all the more excited for his firstnovel, a paean to Black Sabbath's Master of Reality. The book is the latest in Continuum's 33 1/3series ultrasmart series of elegant, pocket-size appreciations of rock albumsas diverse as the Beatles' Let it Be and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. Darnielle unpacks the classic, riff-erificalbum as a scrabrous series of diary entries written by a teenager in a Southern California mental institution. Those curious tosee the budding rock critic off-stage or who are simply bonkers for Sabbath areadvised to check out this reading." —Tayt Harlin, New YorkMagazine
"With his short stories masquerading as songs, JohnDarnielle—founding member of the Mountain Goats—has crafted a wide range ofoff-kilter characters. He continues thistradition with Roger, a fifteen-year-old patient in a psychiatric hospital andthe protagonist of Darnielle's first book, a loving diary-style exploration ofBlack Sabbath's Master of Reality, part of Continuum's 33 1/3 series...Inspiredby his real-life experiences as a psychiatric nurse (and love of all thingsmetal), Darnielle's literary debut is a fast, addictive read that also tugs onthe heartstrings of sensitive Ozzy fans." —Exclaim magazine

Interviewed in Philadelphia Weekly

"The Mountain Goats' John Darnielle Is Good At Writing!
People love The Mountain Goats because all their songscontain SAT vocab words and are like little stories. So it's unsurprising that JohnDarnielle can also work up some music-free compositions, like his contributionto Continuum's 33 1/3 series of books inspired by classic albums, a novel aboutBlack Sabbath's 'Master of Reality.' He also recently wrapped up a stint of guest blogging atPowell's excellent blog, which is worth revisiting if you're curious about hisfeelings about heavy metal (he likes it! and is very knowledgable about it!).And if you live in New York,you can come to a reading of the Black Sabbath book next Saturday at HousingWorks and witness his non-singing talents in person." —MediaBistro's Galleycat
Interviewed by Gothamist

About this edition

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0826428991
• ISBN 13: 9780826428998
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112