'The Cost of Living' by Rob Roberge
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Synopsis: To the shock of lovers and rivals, indie guitarist Bud Barrett is finally—if tenuously—married, clean, and sober. Now he faces the challenge of staying that way. To avoid repeating the past, Bud needs to confront the ghosts that dwell there. After decades of seeking redemption in the arms of “pervy Florence Nightingales,” Bud finds himself still haunted by his mother’s abandonment, his own array of crimes, and a murder he witnessed as a child. As he revisits his life of grief and reckless excess, all paths lead to his long estranged father, a man with his own turbulent history and the only one who can connect Bud’s fragments, unlocking the answers that just might save him.
Author: Rob Roberge is the author of the novels Drive and More Than They Could Chew and the short story collection Working Backwards from the Worst Moment of My Life. He's the guitarist for the seminal punk band The Urinals.
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I feel like we're late getting to this one. But I had a schedule mostly planned before everybody started raving about this. It's cool though, we'll give it a second wind. And judging by all the praise people are giving it, I can't wait to get started on this one. I can't wait to see what everybody has to say.
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I'm in, yo! Just finished More Than They Could Chew and, wow..Nicely done, Rob.
wild book. i'll definitely try to stop by and chat about it.
Been meaning to get into this for months. Maybe this will give me the push.
I'm brazilian and Bookdepository took a while to send it.
When it comes, I'll have to read pretty fast to participate here.
First book here, gotta do it right
it's a wild ride.
it sounds great!
I'm about half way through. There needs to be more books like this.
Hey, Rob,
Before I even noticed that you had a real sound track to this book- http://robroberge.com/tcol-soundtrack/
-there seemed to be an obvious soundtrack thrumming beneath the prose as I read. Did you listen to specific music throughout the writing of this book or did you mix it up according to which section you were working on? Does the music you listen to add an energy or rhythm to the writing you're doing?
One of the very best books I've read lately. I've been fan since More than They Could Chew (end hipster cred). More than They Could Chew definitely reflects a, maturing isn't the right word, but an evolving storyteller, one that was plenty evolved even with Drive and More than They Could Chew.
And now for the sexiest The Cost of Living video you'll see today:
Hi kater-
I get pretty obsessive about the music. I'm not as locked into it as my friend Stephen G. Jones, who makes himself a playlist for each book and won't change it at ALL until the book's done (come to think of it, that may be why he has greater than double the number of books I have...you might get sick of one playlist and write FAST). That said, I get VERY obsessed...I went through an intense Ike Reilly (who's AMAZING...more people should know his stuff) period on seemingly endless repeat when writing this. I don't remember every artist I was listening to...but a lot of them get mentioned in the book just because they may have been playing that day.
For the new memoir I'm finishing up, I seem to be listening to nothing but the Brian Jonestown Massacre. It's working...why mess with it? Ha! Thank for the Q. Sorry I don't have a better answer. I know there was a lot of Ike Reilly. Jay Bennett's THE MAGNIFICENT DEFEAT. There was some 13th Floor Elevators/Roky Erickson boxed set. A few more. But I get pretty locked in to a few artists and let them sort of be the soundtrack. Steve Wynn/the Dream Syndicate often figure(s) in somewere.
I always write with music on. It bothers me if i don't...the quiet...or rather the noise in my head.Though it bothers my wife for me to play the Brian Jonestown Massacre on repeat for 10 hours, so good headphones are a must. Thanks! And thanks all for reading/particpating.
Rob
Oh...and if anyone has a questions, I'll be checking in from time to time and try to answer to the best of my abilities, but please don't let it (me being here every once in a while) dictate the flow of the conversation.
And/but, i'd be happy to answer any Q's about TCOL, or any other writing stuff. Or, hell...non-writing questions...about the chicken carcass guns they shoot into jet engines to make sure they're safe. Stuff like that. So...yeah...any Q, really.
I'm in! Great book and yeah, wild ride.
After picking this up at AWP (being a fan both of Chew and Working Backwards), I read it in the spring in a single day—one itchy, bloodshot, selfish, nostalgic, regretful, guilty, euphoric, and glorious day. Obviously a page-turner. Lemme think back …
I remember the dad stuff being devastating, that familial fatalistic element looming over the proceedings, never letting us get comfortable for too long of a stretch. I've heard about some autobiographical elements to the book, and I'm wondering if you maybe do what I sometimes do, which is to rely on actual experiences to get to the core of writing emotional truths, but apply them to different circumstances to suit plot. Sorta like an actor's sense-memory.
The band dynamics and circustances felt very real and believable to me, too, without sensationalizing it too much. I liked how it didn't start off with him living those glory years at the beginning with a predictable linear downfall. You dropped us in medias res with his struggles right away.
i did a review of this at TRIQUARTERLY, if anybody cares to peruse it
http://www.triquarterly.org/reviews/cost-living-rob-roberge
i think this is a great book on addiction and the cycling, the up and downs. and it also speaks a lot to family and how sometimes we put up with it no matter what, and sometimes we walk away with a hole inside unable to deal with, or forgive, or reconcile the absence. i'd love to hear you talk about either of those subjects, rob.
second question, how important was it to you to inject humor into this novel? i found it a nice breath of fresh air, and i could relax for a moment, plus what's that saying? tragedy + time = comedy?
great book, rob. and a please hanging out with you here in chicago.
First of all, thanks to everyone who's commented...I'm going to try to answer the Q's (Gordon and Richard's in order)...so:
Gordon: I think (I could be misreading it...and I'm sorry, if so) you're asking if I'll change events to service the plot, but keep the emotional autobiographic elements? Sometimes yes, sometimes no...Some things fall pretty much as they happened. But even THOSE end up getting embellished...I'm working on a memoir now and event when telling a "factual" event, giving it narrative shape changes it. Memory is already a revision.
But...on a literal level: my mother didn't commit suicide, but family members and friends have. It worked better for the plot that it was the mother. My father, as far as I know, hasn't killed anyone. But he scared the living shit out of me most of my life.
For me, it it's a book about family, about fathers and sons, at least as much as it's about addiction...the drugs/drinking were a symptom...a way to deal with the real problems. That doesn't mean I was successful, or that mine is the only reading of the text...another reader could make a perfectly valid case that it's a book centered on addiction...it's not like there is a shortage of drinking and drug use in the book...
But I view it through the lens of family...one of the narrative obsessions is paternal dysfunction...with Bud, obviously, Johnny Mo's dad, the father of the cheerleader, Olivia's father. A lot of people have dad issues in the book-ha!
As far as autobiography...The addiction stuff and the mental health issues are, at times, the way things fell. At times, emotionally true, but factually imagined/invented. I hope that's some kind of answer...Is that what you do in your writing (and what you were talking about), or is it a different process, Gordon?
Richard...the addiction was a tricky thing to write about, because it's a pretty tired subject and can fall into cliche pretty easily. But, I had a lot of lost years to addiction...I wouldn't be who I am without all that having happened...wouldn't see the world the same way, and so on. And I wanted to deal with it honestly in a book.
One thing I do find interesting is that the addiction and the mental health issues are the two most autobiographical things (I've been in touring bands, but not one as big as in the book, and so on)...and no one ever mentions (and I'm not talking about your comment, Richard...just thinking out loud about what's been said/written/interview Q's about the book) the rather severe mental health issues the protagonist has. I wonder why that is. Rapid cycling bipolar is very rarely written about. Much less is known about it even than than general bipolar. And it's not a common character issue,,,,Drugs/addicts frequently are written about. Maybe it's just that people are more familiar with addiction. Because, in life, I took one (drugs) to deal with the other (issues of mental health...which I'm being more open about since they're the memoir i'm finishing...so, whoever cares will know my craziness then, so why not now?), more or less.
But, about the drugs: I didn't want to glamorize them or demonize them. Most drug narratives I've ever read either made drugs hip and cool....OR they were morality plays that said "don't do this." I just wanted it to be part of the character's life without editorializing, if that makes sense?
What was the other Q? Let me scroll up. Oh, the comedy. Well, I don't think you can really have shadow without light. Being totally dark is as limited a view in its own way as a hallmark card. Plus...I like comedy. I don't think enough books are funny. And comedy, I think, doesn't get enough respect in the literary fiction community.
But dark humor tends to show up in all my novels (some stories don't have it). I'm not sure I'd ever want to write a book length manuscript without humor in it. This is a bonecrushingly bleak world a lot of the time. A major asskick. And. thankfully, it's pretty funny some of the time too.
Thanks for reading/taking the time to comment/question, all.
And, yes...a pleasure meeting/getting to hang out in Chicago, Richard.
Oh, Pete. "The Four Queens" (in a somewhat different form) WAS edited and published as a short story in an issue of Black Clock. So, good eye-ha!
Thanks, Rob. Yeah, that answered it. "Memory is already a revision," indeed. Like playing a solo game of Telephone, embellished a little with each recollection until that 12-pound striped bass on your hook becomes a blue marlin.
A solo game of television...love that Gordon. Thanks!
Errr...telephone that it. Duh. Sorry!