Rock Bottom

by Michael Shilling

Book Overview

Once, the Blood Orphans had it all: a million-dollar recording contract from Warner Brothers, killer hooks, and cheekbones that could cut glass. Four pretty boys from Los Angeles, they were supposed to be the next big thing, future kings of rock and roll.

But something happened on the way to glory, and now, two years later, along with their coke-fueled, mohawked female manager, they have washed up in Amsterdam for the final show of their doomed...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316031925
• ISBN13: 9780316031929
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Back Bay Books
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A unique and well written novel

Reviewed by April Sullivan for Reader Views (02/09) "Rock Bottom" is a hard-hitting novel that covers the sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle (in that order) of the band Blood Orphans. The band is in Amsterdam on their final day of a two-year tour. Traveling together, living together, making music together has taken its toll on this four-piece band. Shane, Darlo, Adam, and Bobby have had enough of each other and this tour. They are ready to head back to L.A. as soon as possible. But first they must make it through this last day. Michael Schilling has expertly written a novel that covers the entire drama of what this band has been through together, plus some of their life before Blood Orphans, all while taking place over the span of one single day. On top of that, each chapter is told by the point of view of a different band member or their female manager, Joey. Schilling's writing had to be tight to pull that off while providing full character sketches and a complete story, and he did it amazingly well. Schilling not only knew how to write this story, he also knew what he was writing about. The nitty gritty of life from the perspective of a young band who has made it to the top and is toppling from the mountain just as fast. The anger, bitterness, hatred, and rage are all out there in this darkly comic tale. A dream come true reveals its nightmarish side. I enjoyed "Rock Bottom" for so many reasons. As I read about the downward spiral of Blood Orphans, I was hearing my husband and his band mates talk about the road to success that they were planning. Arguing over the perfect band name, deciding which covers to start with, defining their style. It all seemed so innocent and optimistic. Much the same as I expect Blood Orphans began. To read about the dark side of the music business while listening to that at the same time was amusing to me. Although it seems I am portraying this book as dark and negative, the final day of the tour has its upside as well. New relationships are made, old ones are mended, both good and bad memories surface, and new beginnings lie ahead. Michael Schilling has really created something special and unique in this novel. "Rock Bottom" is unlike any other book I have ever read. It will stick with me for some time to come. Rock on, Michael Schilling!

A Day In The Demise

Rock Bottom is about the final day of a band's collapse. The Blood Orphans are formerly ironic former rock gods turned Ugly Americans in a washed up band. None of the characters are particularly likable in the beginning, but by the end of the novel I found myself rooting for all of them. Rock Bottom is fast paced, mostly funny, and occasionally touching. It's not the next Great American Novel, but it's a strong first showing from Michael Shilling. Highly recommended.

Behind the "Behind the Music"

In rock and roll mythology, there are two linked stories that seem to be told over and over again: Pride, and The Fall. We admire a band's success, marvel at its excess -- and then, like motorists passing a grisly accident, we rubberneck at its self-immolation. VH1's Behind the Music series has made an industry out of telling and retelling this story -- adding, for the sake of narrative, a Part Three (call it Aftermath, or Redemption) and bending over backwards to force every band into their up-down-up, N-shaped rubric. The effect, of course, is facile, the glossy television product of elided facts and carefully edited interview snippets. Rock Bottom, Michael Shilling's debut novel, bears a paradoxical relationship to this old rock and roll story. In recounting the very bad last day of the Blood Orphans -- a very bad band that could, once upon a time, have been very good -- Rock Bottom is at once a raucous celebration of rock mythos and magic and a searing portrayal of what it might actually be like to be caught at the center of a VH1-worthy storm. What makes this novel noteworthy is Shilling's ability to reconcile these objectives. Rock Bottom embraces the myths of rock even as it explodes them. This feat is the product of an apparently egoless author. Like a good impresario once the band has taken the stage, Shilling makes himself invisible: the narration of the novel is given entirely over to its central characters, the four band members and their female manager. Jumping, in successive chapters, from one troubled head to the next, Shilling writes in an extremely close third-person that occasionally verges on stream-of-consciousness. The effect is remarkable: constructed completely from the actions, memories, and language of the characters themselves (none of that intrusive Behind the Music narrational presence), a complete picture of the Blood Orphans' dissolution emerges. The language may be salty, but one of the pleasures of this novel is the way in which it speaks through its characters. To deny them their F-bombs would be to deny them a certain degree of reality on the page. Shilling, to his credit, never flinches. It would be unfair to call these characters "unlikeable" and leave it at that -- more often than not, these characters don't like themselves. Each is responsible, in his or her own way, for the failure of a band that began with such promise; the power of the novel lies in its relentless plot, which forces each bandmember and their manager to face that fact. Think of that line from Nixon: "Mistakes were made." With the passive voice, he camouflages his culpability. Scene by scene, Shilling strips the camouflage of passive denial from his characters until at last they see themselves -- and we, as readers, likewise see them -- clearly. Because of this, though it brims with brio and black comedy, Rock Bottom is also a novel haunted by the specter of what could have been; a keenly rendered awareness of loss inflects many of its b

A Fantastic Bulldozer of a Book

Mr. Shilling's terrific comedic imagining of a band's burnt heart is as hilarious as it brutal. This book is no acoustic jam session by a bonfire on the Oregon Coast-- it's a long storm of its characters in lust, insecure, angry, frantic, and thoughtful. Yes, it does employ the F-word more than a few times, but, like James Kellman's excellent "How Late It Was, How Late," "Rock Bottom" takes us to a dark side for the best reasons I can think of-- because it's there and thrilling. Don't miss this book.

Funny, pitch black, brilliantly written rock'n'roll novel

This debut novel by talented debut author Michael Shilling is dark and funny and shows enormous promise. Set in Amsterdam, the action takes place on the last day of their final tour as the members of Blood Orphans, a rock band that had it all and then lost it all, try to take one last shot at fame and glory. Deeply insightful about the music business and gorgeously written, this is one of the best novels I've read in a long time. Can't wait for Shilling's next book!