LISTENING BETWEEN THE NOTES: JIM FUSILLI'S A SONG FOR KATY SHAYNE

Before and during his practice as a fiction writer, Jim Fusilli worked as the rock critic for The Wall Street Journal. He's written about and interviewed everyone from Bruce Springsteen to Kendrick Lamar and even wrote a 33 & 1/3 book on The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds. He taps into that experience for his latest, A Song For Katy Shayne.

Jack Fiorello, a rock critic in his sixties, world and identity are rocked when his paper downsizes him on his birthday. It sends him in a depression that concerns his friends and wife, the beautifully realized Molly. He gets a lifeline when Donald Emerson contacts him to look into the life of his sister, Katy Shayne, an aspiring singer-songwriter who apparently committed suicide when she fell from a building in the Seventies. Jack becomes obsessed with her story and and music talking to people from the old New York folk era to following leads down to Nashville where he uncovers crimes that some people will kill to keep secret.

Fusilli shares his experiences and his love for the music scene He vividly guides us through the clubs of the New York night. He captures the personalities of the survivors of the Greenwich scene and Music Row hustlers. He connects the intersections of art and commerce and depicts the desperation on both sides that can lead to desperate measures. He also relates his life as a critic to us. He has a love of the profession and conveys the sense of discovery it involves. He explains the link the critic provides to musician to music lover.

This book critic could be biased about this story of a music critic. However, I have always been a fan of Jim Fusilli, especially how he artfully places his heart on the page. Here it is at its fullest, filled with love for all he loves. He shows how the best critics in the business hold that love up to the audience to see or in this case hear.