Anatomy Of A Rock Star by Charles Steed

Genre: Contemporary/Pop Culture Fiction

Rating: **** Four Stars

Estimated word count: 50,000 words

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Author:

“I think I spent the first 30 years of my life daydreaming, creating strange and unlikely scenarios and playing what-if in my head. I managed to honorably get through the Navy as a medic and later went on to putting in 12 years as an RN. I followed that with several years buying and selling real estate in a tri-county area of Puget Sound, Washington. I can’t say I wasn’t happy but I will say I was unsettled. It seems that everything I’ve done has led me here.

I was past the age of 40 when I had the urge to document the techniques I’d used as a real estate investor. That led to my first published book. I’d always been a storyteller but now I had stories to tell. And in between a long stint of writing nonfiction how-to books I’d steal time to work at my passion, writing fiction.”

Description:

“At 29 Drew Langley’s life is at a crossroads. By now he expected to be an international rock star. Talent certainly isn’t the issue. Drew’s been writing, singing and playing since the age of five. By all standards, the man is a gifted musical prodigy. He’s sat in as a session player for marquee bands. He’s got a kickass catalog of more than 700 radical tunes. He’s a great singer, a virtuoso on guitar and keyboards, and he’s light years ahead of most established session producers for creativity and ingenuity. 

His good friend Billy keeps urging Drew to pull off a dramatic publicity stunt, something of the shock and awe variety. But Drew thinks everything really crazy has already been done. But has it? After a revealing session with a savvy Hollywood psychic he playfully calls the Voodoo Lady, Drew comes up with a stunt that’s sure to send him to the top with a bullet. It should also make his girl Beth, happy. But things don’t quite turn out that way as serendipity enters the picture.”

My Two Cents:

This was not what I expected, but in a good way. Anatomy of a Rock Star is hard to toss into a particular genre. As self-aware as you’d expect from literary fiction, but with enough humor not to come off stiffly. I mean, I’ve never read a book that incorporates circumcision as such an integral plot device!

The only strange thing is that you never really doubt the eventual success of the main character. He’s intelligent, disciplined, focused… he’s got his act together. The big change is that he just dumps some baggage, gets even better at what he does and mellows out a bit.

All in all, a breezy and witty read. The sexual parts are pretty tastefully done, a hard balance for any author to strike.