Not Fade Away, Or, Quality Woodwork: An American Myth

Keisling (The Meltdown) lets his mordant wit run rampant through this voluminous, entertaining novel, set in the Cold War-preoccupied 1970s. This is the story of a 17-year-old high school drop-out and wannabe rock star who believes he's the reincarnation of Buddy Holly -- hence the book's title, taken from Holly's hit song. That story, however, is woven together with two others -- one concerning the development of Prometheus, a super computer capable of world destruction, and the other about a megalomaniacal but unimportant career army officer who misunderstands an order given long ago by a paranoid president. All of this is wonderfully written--there are some memorable characters and lots of satire, whimsy, and irony....At moments the book is reminiscent of John Barth's early work. --Jo Manning, Univ. of Miami

This book has it all--rock and roll, crazy generals trying to blow up the world with nuclear weapons, action, suspense, you name it. A real page-turner, the plot is more fun than a barrel full of monkeys.