March 24, 2014
You guys know I love getting out and about and meeting people. Today’s guest is a Triberr friend, and you guys know I dig my Triberr friends.
Without further ado, here’s SM Johnson to talk about her book, Jeremiah Quick.
The answer is almost impossible. There are so many songs on my playlist for Jeremiah Quick – six and a half hours’ worth, actually. It took me two days of browsing that playlist to finally pick “>Behind Blue Eyes by The Who as the answer to this question.
A lot of the music on my JQ Playlist is similar in tone and message to Behind Blue Eyes, only most of the others have more words. So I figured for this one choice, I’d keep it simple. Jeremiah and Pretty try (but fail) to connect through music, so there are a lot of references to songs and artists in this book, especially near the beginning. This is actually the first song mentioned in the book.
Jeremiah Quick is, at base, the story of high school companions Jeremiah Quick and Pretty Loberg reconnecting twenty years after they’d been friends – and how the most benign relationship can have a huge impact on our character and moral development. The story is a mix of past and present, and because of this, I feel comfortable choosing a song that’s survived over the course of decades, made and remade by many different artists… and yet… the song, at its heart, remains the same. I don’t want to spoil anything here, so I’ll say only that this concept is well-reflected in Jeremiah Quick.
For me, this song was damn near the start of my obsessive need to know the lyrics of songs. I was, oh, somewhere around eight or nine years old when my brother started playing The Who, very loudly, behind his closed bedroom door. I remember the green shag carpeting in the hallway tickling my nose as I lay on the floor outside that door, my ear pressed as close as I could manage to the space at the bottom of the door, barely breathing because I was trying to decipher the lyrics. So, really, this song was the very first song of my life that I memorized on purpose.
That makes it special.
And it’s interesting to me that my first song was damn dark. Huh.
Thanks for asking!
Wow! What a story! But if it’s not enough of a story, check out SM’s in-depth answer, posted at her own blog.
Need to know what the book’s about? Me, too. Here’s the description.
Jeremiah is Other, he’s always been Other, and he’s always fascinated Pretty Loberg with his Otherness. He doesn’t give a fuck about society, or middle class values, or following the crowd. He believes in anarchy, self-education, doing the research, and making up one’s own mind. He believes in asking cui bono? – who benefits?
To pampered and spoiled middle class good-girl Pretty, Jeremiah was terrifying. And she couldn’t stay away.
She’d been trained since her earliest years to follow the crowd, not stand out, don’t embarrass the family. Stick to the status quo and not only will everything be fine, but everyone will like you.
Jeremiah didn’t like her. Not at all. In fact, sometimes she thought he hated her.
When he finds her twenty years after high school, Pretty gets into his car, even though she knows Jeremiah will disrupt her marriage and her life.
Behind blue eyes is a man with a quick brain, a cynical outlook, and a penchant for the subversive. He’s kinky, mean, controlling, and more than a little bit broken.
Pretty wants to fix Jeremiah.
Jeremiah wants to break Pretty, remake her, and talk her into doing something terrible.
Only one of them will leave the dungeon alive.
Behind Blue Eyes as performed by The Who. Here’s a studio version with a cool slide show. The song has been covered by many other artists, as well. For a more interesting viewing, here’s a link to the song performed by The Who in 1979.
Need a copy? I think I might!
Buy it at Smashwords (affiliate link)
Amazon
Get to know SM Johnson!
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