Belshangles
Susan Altstatt
Fithian Press/Daniel
& Daniel Publishers, Oct 12 2015, $15.95
ISBN: 9781564745781
In 1983, superstar Tommi Rhymer and his band the Belshangles
complete a tour at Bill-Graham-Presents Oakland Day-on-the-Green concert. After the show the twenty-nine years old
rocker and his mates expect the usual sex with groupies and the affluent, and
plenty of drugs at the hotel. Fifteen
year old Miranda Falconer loves the Belshangles and worships Tommi as she has
since she was a tweener. She and her BFF
Skye Milligan attend the concert.
When the police raid the hotel, band member
Harlan Parr pushes Tommi to get his underage friends out of there. Tommi, Miranda and Skye leave the party
before he passes out. Miranda bullies a scared
Skye to drive them to the former’s family’s cabin in the Sierras with an
unconscious Tommi. Frightened, Skye
drops them off, but heads back to Stanford.
His next waking moment finds a confused Tommi
wondering where he is and how he got there.
As Miranda dreams of having her God to herself, Tommi begins to suffer
cold turkey withdrawal and proves dangerous to his underage companion.
Capturing the essence of the pre-digital instant
YouTube legend-making era, Belshangles is a fascinating drama that looks back
to the near end of three decades in which sex, drugs and rock and roll
converged. Character-driven by the lead
couple and a strong support cast, armchair rockers (figuratively though some of
us geriatrics might be literally) will enjoy Susan
Altstatt’s homage to a different musical period.
Harriet Klausner
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