Also, rather than being written from one character’s perspective as a pseudo-memoir, Mitchell employs multiple points of view. What mostly differentiates Mitchell’s foray is the nostalgic aspect occasioned by the fact that all of this happened firmly 50 years ago. This recurring conceit can amuse or annoy in equal measure, depending on one’s attitude and patience.įrom foundational texts like Don DiLillo’s Great Jones Street, through Salman Rushdie’s The Ground Beneath Her Feet, on to Sway by Zachary Lazar and Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta, right up to more recent essays in the sub-genre (Toby Litt’s I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay, Joseph O’Connor’s The Thrill of It All, DJ Taylor’s Rock and Roll Is Life, David Keenan’s This Is Memorial Device), the list of rock novels is already long and getting alarmingly longer. Set mostly in and around Soho in 1967-1968, the epicentre of Swinging London, with sorties to Italy, New York and California, the narrative features walk-on appearances by many of the great and good of the time, including, but not limited to (deep breath) Sandy Denny John Martyn David Bowie Marc Bolan Syd Barrett Allan Ginsberg Brian Jones Steve Marriott Francis Bacon Lucian Freud John Lennon Jimi Hendrix Leonard Cohen Janis Joplin Frank Zappa Jerry Garcia and various members of The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane. A failed musician, he is estranged from his Christian evangelical family back home in Toronto because of his homosexuality. Also integral to the set up is mild-mannered Canadian manager Levon Frankland, who has the vision to put the band together. Their drummer, gruff Yorkshire man Griff Griffin, who learned his trade on the northern jazz circuit, is - as the only non-songwriting member of the ensemble - very much the shadow man, although he does endure a personal tragedy. This recurring conceit can amuse or annoy in equal measure, depending on one's attitude, or even one's patience As well Jasper has spent time in a Dutch psychiatric institution after being hidden away at a posh English private boarding school. Virtuoso Hendrixesque guitarist Jasper de Zoet is the ‘illegitimate’ scion of a wealthy Dutch family who, in a characteristic call-back to one of Mitchell’s previous novels, 2010’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, suffers from schizophrenia/demonic possession (delete where applicable). Home counties folksinger Elf Holloway is going through a bad breakup from her garrulous Australian boyfriend Bruce – who also happens to be the other half of her performing duo. Oh, and he’s just been kicked out of his band. He also has ongoing issues with an alcoholic, abusive father. When we first meet Gravesend-bred blues bassist Dean Moss, he gets mugged, loses his bedsit and his job in a cafe, all within the space of a few hours.

Not that things were always so rosy during their rapid rise along the rocky road to rock'n'roll stardom. After all, they are called Utopia Avenue. Utopia Avenue is a happy book about a happy band.

Kildare and utopia avenue