BOOK REVIEW: RARE SINGLES by Benjamin Myers

BOOK REVIEW: RARE SINGLES by Benjamin Myers
Bloomsbury, August 2024
Paperback, rrp AUD$29.69
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
71%

If you can muscle past Benjamin Myers belabouring his main themes (addiction, withdrawal, grief) relentlessly, and accept that a promoter would hire a singer to travel to the other side of the world for a small town festival despite not having sung a note for fifty years and not be given any opportunity to even rehearse in the three days before his big comeback (which is also long enough to go cold turkey and experience the occasional epiphany) then there’s a really engaging story to enjoy here.

Two stories, in fact. Soul one hit wonder Bucky Bronco’s disappearance after his first single Until The Wheels Fall Off is a revelation to modern fans, and goes a long way to explaining his future struggles physical, emotional and narcotic.

Finding himself in serious withdrawal in the north of England, forming a bond with minder Dinah – a woman with her own struggles, mostly of the useless husband and pathetic child variety, and that’s the parallel story – despite the aforementioned issue with the timeline and dude’s rubbing our nose in Bucky and Dinah’s woes repeatedly, we actually find ourselves caring about these two hard done by oddballs.

Myers writes with warmth and a lot of heart about his characters, and the storyline about how Bucky could have been a soul contender had he caught the breaks instead of having them pulled violently from under him all ring very true, and make this book rise above the previously mentioned unlikelihoods.

Category: Book Reviews