About this item
Beautiful Music has been named a 2019 Michigan Notable BookAdult Fiction Winner for the 2018 Great Lakes Great Reads programOne of McLean & Eakin's Favorite Michigan Books of 2018One of the Voice news Michigan Bestsellers for 2018 in Fiction"Danny Yzemski tunes out a dysfunctional family with Frank Zappa and Iggy Pop, shaking his countercultural fist at The Man in this eight-track flashback of a novel set in 1970s Detroit."--O, the Oprah Magazine, included in Summer Reading Picks/One of 'O's Top Books of Summer"Beautiful Music is a sweet and endearing coming-of-age tale measured in album tracks."--Wall Street Journal"For Danny, cracking the seal on a fresh piece of wax and dissecting cover art and liner notes are acts of nigh religious experience that unveil to him a community of fellow rockers across Detroit...It's in these small moments--a lonely boy experiencing premature nostalgia--that Zadoorian shines."--Washington Post"His third novel--Beautiful Music, about a radio-loving teen's transformation through music during the early '70s in Detroit...[is] rich with Detroit details (Korvette's, Bill Bonds, Iggy Pop) , [and] follows Danny through racial tensions at high school, his changing body and his imploding family life."--Detroit Free Press"[Zadoorian's] new novel speaks of death, race, music and youth in a voice that has been compared to Nick Hornby and Tobias Wolff. It is set in 1970's Detroit at the cusp of punk, and centers around high school loner and music fanatic Danny Yzemski. One to look forward to for fans of rock music and sad, funny writing."--Cleveland Plain Dealer"Zadoorian takes us back to Detroit in the 1970s, which was still throbbing from the 1967 rebellion, and was in the throes of the energy crisis and the sexual revolution. Protagonist Danny Yzemski finds that growing up in such times can be...complicated. But with a little help from Iggy Pop, the MC5, and Led Zeppelin, he finds just the boost he needs to survive--and even grow a bit."--Detroit Metro Times, included in Summer Reading roundup"Beautiful Music is not only a testament to the rockin' jams that propelled Motown to become reknown as Detroit Rock City, it swells with the beautiful music of a lively soul...Beautiful Music is touching, hilarious, and heartbreaking, much like the gamut of emotions you may have felt the first time you heard your favorite song. And much like that first, mind-opening musical experience, you'll return to certain passages within this novel because like the perfect song, it hits all the right notes--something you can feel deep in your gut."--Michigan Quarterly ReviewSet in early 1970s Detroit, a divided city still reeling from its violent race riot of 1967, Beautiful Music is the story of one young man's transformation through music. Danny Yzemski is a husky, pop radio-loving loner balancing a dysfunctional homelife with the sudden harsh realities of freshman year at a high school marked by racial turbulence.But after tragedy strikes the family, Danny's mother becomes increasingly erratic and angry about the seismic cultural shifts unfolding in her city and the world. As she tries to hold it together with the help of Librium, highballs, and breakfast cereal, Danny finds his own reason to carry on: rock and roll. In particular, the drum and guitar-heavy songs of local legends like the MC5 and Iggy Pop. In the vein of Nick Hornby and Tobias Wolff, yet with a style very much Zadoorian's own, Beautiful Music is a touching story about the power of music and its ability to save one's soul.
About the Author
Michael Zadoorian is the author of five works of fiction, including THE LEISURE SEEKER was recently made into a Sony Pictures Classics film starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland. His new novel is THE NARCISSISM OF SMALL DIFFERENCES. Set in bottomed-out 2009 Detroit, it's the story of Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek, an unmarried Gen X couple with no kids or mortgage, as Midwestern parents seem to require. Now on the cusp of forty, both work at jobs that they're not sure they believe in anymore, yet with varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering--both caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development. THE NARCISSISM OF SMALL DIFFERENCES tells of an aging creative class, doomed to ask the questions: Is it possible to outgrow irony? Does not having children make you one? Is there even such a thing as selling out anymore? By turns wry and ribald, kitschy and gritty, poignant and thoughtful, THE NARCISSISM OF SMALL DIFFERENCES is the story of Joe and Ana's life together, their relationship, their tribes, their work and passions, and their comic quest for a life that is their own and no one else's.His third novel BEAUTIFUL MUSIC is about one young man's transformation through music. Set in 1970's era Detroit, Danny Yzemski is a husky, pop radio-loving loner balancing a dysfunctional home life with the sudden harsh realities of freshman year at a high school marked by racial turbulence. When tragedy strikes the family, Danny's mother becomes increasingly erratic and angry about the seismic cultural shifts unfolding in her city and the world. As she tries to keep it together with the help of Librium, highballs, and breakfast cereal, Danny finds his own reason to carry on: rock 'n' roll. BEAUTIFUL MUSIC is a funny and poignant story about the power of music and its ability to save one's soul.Zadoorian's second novel THE LEISURE SEEKER was an international bestseller and translated into over 20 languages worldwide. John and Ella, two eighty-somethings decide to kidnap themselves from the doctors and grown children who run their lives for a final adventure in their ancient Winnebago. The book garnered rave reviews from all over the world. In a starred review, Booklist wrote "THE LEISURE SEEKER is pretty much like life itself: joyous, painful, moving, tragic, mysterious, and not to be missed." The L.A. Times said: Zadoorian is true to these geezers. He draws them in their most honest light. I hoped for a book that would make me laugh during these tight times, and I was rewarded." And the Sydney Morning Herald stated: "This is a sad, sweet love letter to a fading America... sharp humour about aging and a quietly shocking ending." Michael Zadoorian's first novel SECOND HAND is about love and loss for a Detroit-area junk store owner. The New York Times Book Review said "SECOND HAND may be a gift from t
