Never Mind the Pollacks: A Rock and Roll Novel

by Neal Pollack

Book Overview

The most important document in the history of rock 'n' roll since the liner notes to Killroy Was Here.(This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060527900
• ISBN13: 9780060527907
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Neal Pollack, the Mel Brooks Of Literature

In his writing, Pollack plays with genre cliches just like Mel Brooks did. Instead of seeing Never Mind The Pollacks as the end-point of literature, as some critics seem to insist, look at it as the early work of one of our great satirists. Rock-n-roll is a little overplayed as a topic, but this book is still hilarious. I look forward to seeing Pollack's work develop as he takes on weightier material.

Best Rock Novel Since "You Shall Smell our Velocipedes"

Few writers sizzle my steak like Big Dave Eggers, and Neal Pollack's NEVER MIND THE PUPPETS, a life-size bio about Ecko Unltd. and his Bunnymen--sex-starved "garmentos" living, loving, walking, talking, and eating kasha knishes in midtown Manhattan--outdoes even the Great One. Pollack's premise is deceptively simple and dangerously polemical: does the good boy from Winnetka go with his feelings and Rock On to the big town of Sault Ste. Marie, or does he stay home, put in his four sorry years at Winnetka State, and then inherit his father's money-lending operation? It may seem like a touching homage to the work of Sherwood Anderson, but in fact what we have here is the most searing examination of the values and desires articulated by that mantra "Sex, Drugs & A Rock Polishing Machine for your Tenth Birthday." Plus some of that Sherwood Anderson stuff, but more in the vein of "The Torrents of Spring" than "Winesburg, OH." At any rate, Pollack is definitely a man with a future announcing professional roller derby matches. The sport's louche chic and direct appeal to Bachman-Turner Overdrive fans probably will have the cultural critics standing and cheering sometime in the next two-three weeks. Hope Pollack hears the call.

Like Sam Phillips, In Search Of The White Wail

Rock and roll is the people's music and in Never Mind The Pollacks, A Rock And Roll Novel by Neal Pollack, Neal Pollack, the critic, bounces off the people who make the music to always hilarious and often pointed effect.When he stops bouncing he usually finds himself down and out, yet luckily beneath the soft white underbelly of the holy cow of rock and roll, its teats thankfully there to squirt its rejuvenating fluids into Pollack's grateful face. That and he's watched over by the magic bluesman, Clambone, as enigmatic yet down to earth as the blues itself. Pollack often seems oblivious to his journey through rock, while we are fortunate enough to enjoy the likes of Elvis, Iggy, Dylan, The Stones, et al as they pass through the zonked out haze that is Pollack's world. But hey, that world is rock and roll.Don't think Pollack is some insignificant Forest Gump-like character batted around existence like one of Gump's ping-pong balls: Pollack is important enough that another rock critic wants to write his biography. And though it seems the lame and effete Paul St. Pierre may never truly grasp Pollack's importance or meaning to the world they both inhabit, a final face off with his subject gives him a double shot of the rock and roll life that Pollack has lived and St. Pierre has only written about from a distance.But screw the analyses. If you like to rock and like to laugh you can do both of these things until it hurts. Plus there's an apocalypse at the end. And it's not just some damn high school blowing up or something. So, I rate Never Mind The Pollacks #1. With a bullet.

Roll Over Lester Bangs And Tell Hunter S. Thompson The News!

Prior to this amazing book, Hunter S. Thompson was the undisputed monarch of Gonzo journalism. And Lester Bangs was his counterpart in music criticism. Their storytelling was channeled through massive quantities of drugs and sex and rock 'n' roll and drugs and drugs (they liked drugs) weaving wild tales of life and adventure. Yep, 'ol HST and Les, I sure-enough hear Neil Pollack knockin' at the door.To describe this book in a word: outlandish! A brilliant voice tells the (you really want to believe) story-behind-the-story. Even though it's all a farce, I couldn't help loving every word. Every punctuation mark, for that matter. And I don't even like the guy, much less completely agree with his point of view. Somehow, virtually every major rock artist and event get chronicled with Pollack dead-center on the action. Elvis gave him his non-Jewish name at his bar mitzva. He and Dylan hung tight in the early days. Along the way Pollack also influences The Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Lou Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop, The Sex Pistols, Springsteen, and Kurt Cobain -- and a the prime component at Monteray Pop, Woodstock, and the Fillmore -- amongst lots of others.Be forewarned. Proceed very carefully here. You might make a mistake and assume this is a casual read because the story simply flys along at the speed of -- well pure crystal meth, I suppose. Nuh-uh! No sir-re-bob-a-roo! This here book's the making of a monumnental new member of Gonzo journalism at its damnable best.Roll over Lester Bangs and tell Hunter S. Thompson the news.

Like a Clam (With a Bone in It)

Never Mind the Pollacks is just like every other sanctimonious book that tells the history of rock 'n' roll and why we're supposed to care, but with one significant difference: this one is actually entertaining. I read it straight through in the course of one very empty day, which, in retrospect, probably was not a great idea, as this is a thing to be savored, but I couldn't help myself. I tried, Lord how I tried, but I simply could not help myself. So, if you're the least bit interested in the history of rock, or just enjoy being amused, or like seeing various icons skewered with needle-sharp wit, or merely enjoy buying things, this is the book for you!