Hari Kunzru

Two ambitious young musicians are drawn into the dark underworld of blues-record collecting while navigating the fallout of a scam involving one's claim that a viral video of an unknown singer is a long-lost recording of a famous blues musician.

White Tears

I couldn't put it down - a very enjoyable read that addresses cultural appropriation in a compelling way.

Another reviewer mentioned the issues of men writing about women, which I agree with. Some of the scenes with the sister kinda took me out of it. At times the writing was a little bro-y, but you know. Babies, bathwater, etc.

All in all I found Red Pill to be better and more sophisticated, but this was more of a page turner.

Sarah E

I couldn't put it down - a very enjoyable read that addresses cultural appropriation in a compelling way.

Another reviewer mentioned the issues of men writing about women, which I agree with. Some of the scenes with the sister kinda took me out of it. At times the writing was a little bro-y, but you know. Babies, bathwater, etc.

All in all I found Red Pill to be better and more sophisticated, but this was more of a page turner.

Lindy

Basically White Tears is Amanda Petrusich's Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78rpm Records in novel form. The story itself is well-constructed and engrossing to read and captures the madnesses of living with ghosts and of attempting faithful witness to the past. However, I simultaneously think Kunzru didn't take the premise far enough and that many of the points were conveyed heavy handedly, especially when in dialog. There's also the typical men-writing-about-women problems (e.g. sexy corpses).

The other book to which I would compare White Tears is Long Division by Kiese Laymon; the treatment of collapsed time is similar.

Aubrey Hicks

The more I think about this book, the more I love it. Kunzru covers so much ground with beautiful writing and great pacing. Summarizing this novel is difficult, there is so much going on. Ostensibly, it begins as two recent college grads start a recording studio, one obsessing over collecting and disseminating race records from the early 20th century.

Very quickly thought, this becomes about authenticity and cultural memory. As Utah Phillips said, "the past didn't go anywhere." In this novel the past reaches out to these two young men with a vengeance. 

Dark. Lovely. Important. I'd rate a must-read.

We covered this (with many spoilers) on the Bedrosian Bookclub Podcast, here.

Melanie Richards

Perhaps more like 4.5 stars, but dang this book cuts to the heart of some really timely issues. As for style, I love how the author is able to play with reality/unreality without losing the reader. That's a hard thing to do.

Nicholas Hertz

Helen Bright

Jordan

caleb keller

Jacob Mishook

New Yorkers Carter and Seth are music producers, obsessed with the sounds of the past. They are young, hungry and talented. But one day they stumble on an old blues song - an undiscovered gem just waiting to be found - and accidentally summon the ghosts of a brutal past . Seeking answers, Seth travels deep into the heart of the old South, accompanied by Carter's bewitching sister Leonie. But this is America, where tugging one loose thread can unravel a bloody history of injustice. Yet the closer Seth gets to the haunting truth, the more he feels pursued . . .

Elle Geoghegan 

Jonah Ollman

Ari Hertz

'Like Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch... A stunning novel of ideas that becomes a page-turning thriller... ' Stylist 'A fast-paced, ambitious, hallucinatory mystery' Publishers Weekly A dizzying, nail-biting ghost story about modern America from the bestselling author of The Impressionist Two twenty-something New Yorkers: Seth, awkward and shy, and Carter, the trust fund hipster. They have one thing in common: an obsession with music. Rising fast on the New York producing scene, they stumble across an old blues song long forgotten by history -- and everything starts to unravel. Carter is drawn far down a path that allows no return, and Seth has no choice but to follow his friend into the darkness. Electrifying, subversive and wildly original, White Tears is a ghost story and a love story, a story about lost innocence and historical guilt. This unmissable novel penetrates the heart of a nation's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge and exploitation, and holding a mirror up to the true nature of America today.

Daniel Cleveland

Johanna Kenrick

Tracey O’Rourke

Summer Stanley

Moray Lyle McIntosh

Maytal

Catherine Nicolai

zaeema 🍒

Sameer Vasta

Eryn Morgan 

"Carter and Seth are worlds apart - one a trust fund hipster, the other a suburban nobody - and yet they are united by a love of music. Rising fast on the New York scene, one day they stumble across an old blues song long forgotten by history - and everything starts to unravel. Carter quickly becomes obsessed with the unknown singer, drawn down a path that allows no return, and Seth has no choice but to follow his friend into the darkness. Trapped in a game he doesn't understand, Seth plays the same cards that have been played before, says the lines exactly as they have always been spoken, acts the old familiar parts as if for the first time. He moves unsteadily across a chessboard of white and black, performer and audience, righteous and forsaken, caught between the man who makes the music and the one who calls the tune. But we have been here before, oh so many times over, and the game always ends the same way . . ."

White Tears

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