The Last Rock Star Book: Or: Liz Phair, a Rant

By Camden Joy

Book Overview

Camden Joy's hero is writing a quickie bio of rock star Liz Phair, but increasingly finds himself recounting his own troubled life. His ex-girlfriend (possibly Brian Jones's illegitimate daughter); Liz Phair (whom he's never met); and a mystery girl in an old photo all start to blur together. Joy's novel is a witty and cogent meditation on celebrity and obsession.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891241079
• ISBN13: 9781891241079
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Verse Chorus Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

I want read and watch cartoons...

Camden Joy offers us a book that will make you laugh, or think he's insane! A well writen romp through a dysfunctional relationship, and a mysterious missing kid sister. This book will give you something to think about like "Why would Sting brag about his billard skills in a song?" This book is actually isn't "about" Liz Phair,although she may or not be in there somewhere... I often wonder.. The pictures (art work) are too hilarious to miss, reminds me a little of Vonnegut's pictures in breakfast of champions I highly reccomend this book...

Complicated but simple novel

Camden Joy has written a minor masterpiece here called "The Last Rock Star Book." Joy is the main character of his novel (mostly likely not "really" him), and his past is at times a little cloudy from huffing too much as a teen. But the book is unpredictable. The direction the book takes you lead me to believe that Liz Phair is the love child of Brian Jones (an explanation for the seeming links made between "Exile in Guyville" and post-Brian Jones Stones' masterpiece "Exile on Main Street"?), but you can't be sure. The idea was great, and his prose was simple articulate and at times poetic. The narrator is very likeable at times, but ultimately unlikable. The ending was anticlimatic, but still carried out the authors revisionistic aims.

Brilliant - a classic for this generation.

Camden eloquently expresses the anger and frustration felt by so many of us today regarding the "genericized" musical industry and the increasing lack of intelligent musical taste. The ultimate symptom of the musical malaise is the pervasive hero worship of _rock_stars_themselves_ in the absence of quality music to adore. In parallel with Camden's disgust with the state of music today there is a clear lingering feeling of his love of rock and roll. I can empathize completely with this dilemma.This book certainly displays a stark atmosphere of fatalism, but it does so in an unthreatening fashion -- we accept with little emotion that life is not going to be a fairy tale for Camden, and we are not called by his writing to stand up and cheer for a happy ending (although human nature cannot but hope for one). Isn't this an accurate reflection of the cautious and nearly fatalist attitude of many of our youth today?One great surprise for me is that imbedded within Camden's rather informal dialogue are nuggets of incredible poetry. For example, "Outside the window, stick-bare windswept trees of winter spoke of witch trials". I would love to see Camden further explore his obvious potential for poetic prose in future works. Camden Joy is a voice that I hope we continue to hear in modern literature. Buy this book.

enticing weave of intrigue, and past and present

The author tells a story about trying to write a story. While he never actually finishes this, we are drawn into his search to find the woman who is the (supposed) subject of his book. Instead we join him in his journey through his past and the present and he enticingly weaves the stories of his life and the lives of the characters he presents. He leads us on a journey. While we are never sure where we are headed, we delight in the journey, not in the supposed destination.

what a trip!

this book ROCKS! a real page turner, the best ive read in awhile. & what an ending! cant wait for the movie!