Never Mind the Pollacks

Elvis. Dylan. Iggy. Springsteen. Pollack. The fictional Neal Pollack, born Norbert Pollackovitz before being renamed -- by Elvis -- at his bar mitzvah, first hears the blues as a child. The notes come from the guitar of Clambone Jefferson, an ancient, mythical character whom Pollack spends the rest of his life chasing as the source of music's primal allure. In that pursuit, Pollack becomes a renegade rock journalist who seduces Patti Smith and Joan Baez, discovers Kurt Cobain, and goes on pharmacopeial binges that put the most reckless, bloated rock star to shame. Through it all, the real Neal Pollack, the greatest American novelist of his generation, manages to echo the style of overeducated blowhards while tackling the history of blues, rock, punk, post-punk, and post-post-punk with equal enthusiasm and disdain. Like a classic album, Never Mind the Pollacks opens with a kick in the guts, proceeds to a bite in the shins, and ends with an uppercut to the jaw.