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Off Magazine Street
Fallen from grace and shunned by respectable society, Bobby Long is joyously content drowning his past in cheap hooch and bedding any woman with low standards and high tolerance. His partner, an unproductive writer named Byron Burns, is happy to join him for the long ride down. Their distant salvation is an unwritten manuscript sure to redeem their standing and pride - though both know it's just a thin reason to get up and go to the bar.
When their latest female companion dies in their fleabag hotel room, the duo find themselves putting up her young but futureless daughter, Hanna. Despite their own dishonorable intentions and aging desires, the pair cannot abide her lack of ambition and low expectations for herself. Together, they dust off their teachers' instincts and conspire to use every means necessary - legal, illegal, fair, and unfair - to get Hanna into college.
When their latest female companion dies in their fleabag hotel room, the duo find themselves putting up her young but futureless daughter, Hanna. Despite their own dishonorable intentions and aging desires, the pair cannot abide her lack of ambition and low expectations for herself. Together, they dust off their teachers' instincts and conspire to use every means necessary - legal, illegal, fair, and unfair - to get Hanna into college.
401 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
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March 25, 2017
Read a book set in a place you've never been but want to visit.
So I'm really sorry about all the review bumping I'm giving this review. I'm seriously not like this. It took me hours to write today and I keep coming back to it because I just can't get out what I need to say. And after reading a few more reviews, I think I know why.
This is a very uncomfortable book. That is the perfect way to describe it. This book is like culture shock. Its the equivalent of getting invited to a party with a bunch of people on the other side of the tracks and once you're there, you would rather be anywhere else. This book will make you feel like Molly Ringwald did when Andrew McCarthy took her to the rich kid's party. Or like Andrew McCarthy with pretzels in his mouth.
Because when you're reading this book, you're kinda hanging out with people who are different, and weird, and who don't have a lot of friends. And you sorta understand why that is. And they do things that you will not be ok with. And they say things that are offensive. And the whole time you're wondering why the hell you're reading this. Yet you keep coming back because these people are strangely attractive, but still very uncomfortable to be around. And since I love this movie so much and this author's son is like an American idol to me, I felt very intimately connected to this piece of fiction and kept searching for redemption for it. For the characters. For the story. And I wasn't really prepared for the redemption never coming. Because the movie is ALLLL about redemption. And that is my big fat uncomfortable conundrum. Sometimes people and places and things and situations have no redemption. That's not the way the world works. Sometimes the world sucks. And people just don't transcend their own circumstances or figure themselves out or have their big "AHA! THIS IS IT!" moment. The lightbulbs stay dim, perverts stay perverts, assholes stay assholes, and everyone lives the life that has been paved out for them. And if this wasn't fiction, we'd all just accept that this is life. And this is our world. And there are people who drift apart from conventional society. Those people may be misunderstood or troubled or searching for something greater, but fiction always tries to make them into something that they just may never be. And we, as readers of fiction, don't like to accept them for what they are and need and CRAVE that redemption, that moment where it all makes sense, where the misunderstood troubled people really ARE like the rest of us underneath. And sometimes that moment never comes.
And this cold hard truth is very, very uncomfortable.
So here are my ramblings. I don't think I'm ever going to be satisfied with this review space because I don't think it will ever say everything I need it to say. And even though this book was not necessarily a win for me, it is one that will go down as one of the most memorable books I've ever read. And I will probably pick it up again if only to TRY and make more sense out of what it is saying. But for now, all I can do is try to make sense out of what I'm saying. Which may be an even harder task.
------------------------------------------------
Ok. So this book. I've been putting off writing a review for it. For a few reasons.
Reason #1
Reason #2
Lemme explain.
First off, this book is the basis for one of my top 5 movies of all time. A movie I first watched in high school and watch several times a year since. And I really can't put into words why I love it so much. An alcoholic ex-English professor hiding out in New Orleans after losing everything. Keeping company with those who have lost their way: alcoholics, musicians, derelicts, the invisible background characters camping out in the shadowy and forgotten bars, streets, and sidecars of a colorful city. The cast of characters are strong and vivid and flawed but relatable. The actors on the screen perfectly bring these characters to life. It is a movie about finding out who you are, embracing the light and the dark, finding some positivity when life makes your circumstances the most bleak. And it is a terribly bleak movie, but the magic and beauty inside that bleakness touches something inside me. I felt at home with all those people who don't belong anywhere but where they are. And they are happy. And I long to be a part of their world. Drinking cheap beer and playing music outside with friends. Hanging out in the local pubs and dancing to local jazz. Being loved for who and what you are even if its not the most glamorous or exciting life. Plus you know, Gabriel. I could always be there to keep Gabriel company.
So I really wanted to read this book. Because I love the movie so much. And books are always better, y'know?
Not always.
So I didn't know how to write a review for a book I didn't love that inspired a movie I did love. I like reviewing a book for its own merits and not for its movie and I needed time to think about how to do that. And I can't. I just can't. Because if I hadn't seen the movie, I may have liked this book better. And that's the cold hard truth. The book just can't compare. The characters in the movie are better. Just plain better. The plot of the movie is better. Just plain better. The book lacks the dimension and the conflict that the movie is focused on. And its a shame. Because the writing is raw and gorgeous. But the characters are not. The story is not. And it took forever for me to get through.
Brewton, Alabama at the Colonial Inn
Hot day, old orange juice and vodka on the night stand
There's a Chevy Nova with the seat burned out the back
From a Winston cigarette that was thumped into the window.
Bobby Long was like Zorba the Greek
Side-tracked by the scent of a woman
Could've been an actor on the movie screen
Stayed in Alabama, just the dreamer of dreams.
And so we have Bobby Long and his buddy Byron Burns. Defeated, broke, and without a lot of options, but loaded up with cheap vodka, cigarettes, and lots of hopes and dreams. They meet up with Lorraine, a morbidly obese homeless woman, recently discharged from a mental hospital, and the three of them rent a cheap motel room in New Orleans. And they drink. And they smoke. And they talk about how great they used to be. And they sleep with Lorraine and abuse Lorraine, and poor Lorraine thinks that they are her friends. Because she's never had friends. So she lets them. And its really sad. Until one day Lorraine literally bites the big one. And a teenaged estranged daughter shows up at Bobby and Byron's door. And she stays with them. And they are kinda like one big dysfunctional and very weird family. And I kinda dug it. Kinda. But Bobby, Byron, and Hanna and just not as great as Bobby, Lawson, and Pursy.
I can tell the book and the movie are from the same universe, just different dimensions. There are hints, shadows, and connection between the two, but in my incredibly humble and honest opinion, the writers of the film made better decisions. And that's what it ultimately came down to. Two versions of a story, told a little differently. The book version is a little rougher, a little more gritty, a little more crass and dirty than the movie. The movie is all of those things but with a little more nuance and style and creativity involved. And I didn't hate the book. Because the bones of an incredible story are all there. And the bones are what I fell in love with in the first place. It's everything else that kept me coming back.
He played football against W.S. Neil
You should've seen him running down the field.
I grow old. I grow old. I wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
He was a handsome man, he had Cherokee cheekbones.
A fair-haired boy, where did he go wrong?
He chose the road less travelled, made all the difference
Now he's chastized, criticized, he don't make no sense.
Brewton called him crazy, said Bobby Long was nothing but a drunk.
But all the thoughts in his head was way passed anything they done thunk.
The song I've typed out in this review was written by Grayson Capps. My favorite singer/songwriter. And the son of this book's author. He wrote the song about a friend of his father's and then daddy wrote this book about the song. And Grayson basically wrote the entire soundtrack of the movie. Which, of course, I loved and listen to incessantly. Grayson makes several cameos in the movie and performs several of these songs. Which brings me to my next little reason this is a hard review to write. Part of the reason the movie works so well is because of the music. If you have ever heard anything Grayson has written or performed, you understand the music of which I speak. The music adds such depth and layers to the story and the book just can't touch it. If any story needed a soundtrack, this is the story and Grayson provides the soundtrack. The music is a testament to the background and the setting of New Orleans. The bars, the dancing, the blues, the jazz, the culture. The backyard music jams, the laughing and the living. Without that musical influence, some of the magic just dies, and that was what I was thinking while reading. It just isn't magic. Which is fine. I just want more.
But don't get me wrong Bobby Long was no good.
He'd drag you down, if he thought he could, well he would drag you down.
The road I ride will be the death of me.
Won't you come along?
The road I ride is gonna set me free
It's gonna take me home.
He was a friend of my papa's.
They used to drink and tell lies.
Praised Flannery O'Connor, smoked cigarettes, and philosophied.
Now here I am at the Colonial Inn.
Me and Cap'n Long and my pretty girlfriend.
He charms her with a poem and then he breaks down and cries.
Smiles a crooked smile with his broken cheekbone side.
Tells about his life. Now he's 63.
Looks me in the eye and says 'come and go with me.'
He could walk on water, walk on water
But you know he drowned himself in wine.
God and the devil, god and the devil, all live inside his mind.
It's a love song for Bobby Long.
A love song. For Bobby Long.
So I hope this was a harder review to write than to read. My sincere apologies if I was, in fact, all over the map. And like I said, I love reviewing books on their own merits, but in this case I just couldn't. And I really can't know how I would have read this if I hadn't already watched (and loved) the movie. I may have enjoyed it more. Or maybe not. Perhaps loving the movie made me not love the book, but perhaps loving the movie so much is the reason I didn't hate the book. There is some beautiful writing in here, and the characters may not have been as great as their movie counterparts (and Byron Burns is absolutely NO Lawson Pines) but they were memorable and interesting in their own ways. The landscape of New Orleans does come through and provides a really awesome backdrop. In a way, this book celebrates the invisible extras of life. All those people in the background. The misfits. The winos. The failed writers. The high school dropouts. This book gives you their stories. And their ringleader is an alcoholic has-been with a broken cheekbone and a family he lost in his course for greatness. The only things he has left are his stories and his memories. And good ole Byron Burns. I think the book is a testament to this author's unusual friendship with a really strange man. A man not a lot of people understood, but who really really had a story to tell. And for those reasons, I'm really glad I got a chance to read it. That was probably the best thing about this book. Because Bobby Long is not all that likable or relatable a character, but I knew he was unique. And I knew someone loved him. And there is an intimacy about the writing that cannot be faked. And in a strange kinda way this book is a love song. For Bobby Long.
2.5 stars
June 13, 2021
“Era soltanto un essere imperfetto che di nome faceva Bobby Long.�
Bobby e Byron sono una singolare ed eccentrica coppia di amici di mezza età.
Alle spalle una gioventù di successi:
una brillante carriera scolastica, prima, l’insegnamento, poi;
i traguardi sportivi, la bellezza fisica, le donne e l’agiatezza economica...
Insomma, un passato di successi e soddisfazioni.
Qualcosa, però, ad un certo punto, si è incrinato.
Ora, Bobby e Byron sono quasi due essere irriconoscibili, così malmessi:
i vestiti lisi, i corpi fatiscenti e nessuna casa.
La loro vita di "uomini maturi" ora si è scandita da massicce dosi di vodka e, come se non bastasse già questa forte dipendenza, vivono con il chiodo fisso del sesso.
Un giorno si presenta alla loro porta la diciasettenne Hanna, la giovane figlia di un’amica che da quel momento travolgerà le loro vite.
Bobby e Byron fanno convivere grossi contrasti.
Da un lato Melville, Mc Cullers, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Tennessee William�.il grande amore per la Letteratura!
Dall’altro pensieri volgari e misogini.
Un romanzo che inneggia alla dualità, al sacro diritto dell’essere dicotomico:
� Tennessee Williams aveva a cuore la sciattezza di tutti noi, le nostre vergogne, le nostre incertezze e le nostre disperazioni segrete. Peccato e santità mescolate insieme in ciascuno di noi. Credo che volesse mettere a nudo, iniziando da se stesso, quelle inclinazioni che cerchiamo di negare. A volte mi sembra che la gente non capisca come lo stesso pensiero abbia bisogno di due opposti. La vita stessa è fatta di opposti.
Il paradosso. Lo stesso paradosso del cazzo.
Con il bene salta fuori anche il male, non c’� scampo, come diceva il Vecchio Ragazzo.
Non possiamo dirci davvero inguaiati senza aver prima ammesso l’esistenza dei guai. Il mondo parla come se potessimo davvero incasellare tutto. Ma come cazzo si fa?�
Tematiche affascinanti fanno il paio con una scrittura che -ahimè- non lascia grandi tracce.
___________
Non parlo del film come verrebbe automatico fare per la mia solita fissazione a non voler paragonare linguaggi così diversi.
Il film (2004), comunque, l’ho visto anni fa e ne ho un ricordo positivo con una bella interpretazione di John Travolta nei panni di Bobby Long.
La sceneggiatura, comunque, dà un taglio molto diverso, estrapolando la parte buona e bella dei protagonisti e quindi, in definitiva, dando un messaggio differente.
Bobby e Byron sono una singolare ed eccentrica coppia di amici di mezza età.
Alle spalle una gioventù di successi:
una brillante carriera scolastica, prima, l’insegnamento, poi;
i traguardi sportivi, la bellezza fisica, le donne e l’agiatezza economica...
Insomma, un passato di successi e soddisfazioni.
Qualcosa, però, ad un certo punto, si è incrinato.
Ora, Bobby e Byron sono quasi due essere irriconoscibili, così malmessi:
i vestiti lisi, i corpi fatiscenti e nessuna casa.
La loro vita di "uomini maturi" ora si è scandita da massicce dosi di vodka e, come se non bastasse già questa forte dipendenza, vivono con il chiodo fisso del sesso.
Un giorno si presenta alla loro porta la diciasettenne Hanna, la giovane figlia di un’amica che da quel momento travolgerà le loro vite.
Bobby e Byron fanno convivere grossi contrasti.
Da un lato Melville, Mc Cullers, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Tennessee William�.il grande amore per la Letteratura!
Dall’altro pensieri volgari e misogini.
Un romanzo che inneggia alla dualità, al sacro diritto dell’essere dicotomico:
� Tennessee Williams aveva a cuore la sciattezza di tutti noi, le nostre vergogne, le nostre incertezze e le nostre disperazioni segrete. Peccato e santità mescolate insieme in ciascuno di noi. Credo che volesse mettere a nudo, iniziando da se stesso, quelle inclinazioni che cerchiamo di negare. A volte mi sembra che la gente non capisca come lo stesso pensiero abbia bisogno di due opposti. La vita stessa è fatta di opposti.
Il paradosso. Lo stesso paradosso del cazzo.
Con il bene salta fuori anche il male, non c’� scampo, come diceva il Vecchio Ragazzo.
Non possiamo dirci davvero inguaiati senza aver prima ammesso l’esistenza dei guai. Il mondo parla come se potessimo davvero incasellare tutto. Ma come cazzo si fa?�
Tematiche affascinanti fanno il paio con una scrittura che -ahimè- non lascia grandi tracce.
___________
Non parlo del film come verrebbe automatico fare per la mia solita fissazione a non voler paragonare linguaggi così diversi.
Il film (2004), comunque, l’ho visto anni fa e ne ho un ricordo positivo con una bella interpretazione di John Travolta nei panni di Bobby Long.
La sceneggiatura, comunque, dà un taglio molto diverso, estrapolando la parte buona e bella dei protagonisti e quindi, in definitiva, dando un messaggio differente.
January 11, 2008
The movie "A Love Song for Bobby Long," which used this book as its premise, is one of my favorite movies. No matter how many times I watch it, I will always cry at the end--cry for the redemption that Bobby Long found in his life before he died, depicted perfectly in the verse he quotes from TS Eliot: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time"; for the journey he went through in life, only to make a full circle and return to his garden a new man. This was one of my favorite themes studied throughout my literature career, so perhaps that is why the movie resonated with and touched me so deeply. Discovering that the movie was based on a book--and completely aware of how movies are NEVER as good as the books they are based off of--I determined that I must read the book. I did--luckily (saying this in hindsight)--research the book before reading it and found that the movie was "loosely" based after the book; in truth I did NOT expect many similarities between the book and the movie.
With that said...I would rate the movie a 6 (even before reading the book), and the book--well, you can see for yourself I rate it a 2. I would not read it again; I would not recommend this book to anyone; and I don't feel any more enriched than before I read the book. To me, the saddest disappointment of this book was to see these two great scholars of literature act like the lowest of the low scum of the earth (my opinion according to my standards, of course). Vulgarity, I can handle; but in a society where child pornography and adults having sex with underaged kids (or young adults--whatever) is a huge problem and a huge crime, I found this desire in Bobby & Byron unstomachable about the book--and, in fact, overshadows the redemption that Bobby & Byron do find in the end.
My end conclusion in reading this book: I have the UTMOST respect for the filmwriters who read this book and turned it into the beautiful masterpiece that the movie is. It made me love the movie just that much more.
With that said...I would rate the movie a 6 (even before reading the book), and the book--well, you can see for yourself I rate it a 2. I would not read it again; I would not recommend this book to anyone; and I don't feel any more enriched than before I read the book. To me, the saddest disappointment of this book was to see these two great scholars of literature act like the lowest of the low scum of the earth (my opinion according to my standards, of course). Vulgarity, I can handle; but in a society where child pornography and adults having sex with underaged kids (or young adults--whatever) is a huge problem and a huge crime, I found this desire in Bobby & Byron unstomachable about the book--and, in fact, overshadows the redemption that Bobby & Byron do find in the end.
My end conclusion in reading this book: I have the UTMOST respect for the filmwriters who read this book and turned it into the beautiful masterpiece that the movie is. It made me love the movie just that much more.
September 2, 2012
It's not the movie, A Love Song for Bobby Long. The movie is one of my favorites, but if you expect the movie in the book the sceenplay was adpated from, you won't find it easily. This is no clear-cut, cause and effect storyline; rather, it is a place and an assortment of "outsider" characters who have many issues and failings. Aging reprobates traveling blithely on their chosen road. Only their exuberance for life and learning redeems them and confers salvation on a young girl thrown by fate, into the process.
Down in those neighborhoods, near the levees, when the wind is Easterly, you can smell the river, right down through the drink in your Go-Cup. It infuses Capps' writing. In the narrow backyards and through the trees, you can find the folks in author Capps' book. They don't really look much like the folks in the movie, but they are honest, and easily accessible if you don't try to pry too much out of them. Most of their mistakes are constantly repeated, but that, too is honest.
Now, the movie is a lot of fun, and a good story, but this is really another story. This one's about the folks most of us have pretended not to know, pretended not to "get", or pretended we couldn't see. As unbelievable as the story and characters may appear to be at first glance, they settle right in and the reader is left with a portrait of the human spirit that's very moving and very intimate.
If you haven't been around the block a few times, or down on your luck, or haven't walked along with a bottle in a bag, don't bother. If you have, you'll find some old friends here and you might even learn a thing or three.
(I just heard from one of his associates that he is negotiating for a French language version and a release in France. I really think it will be a huge hit there.)
Down in those neighborhoods, near the levees, when the wind is Easterly, you can smell the river, right down through the drink in your Go-Cup. It infuses Capps' writing. In the narrow backyards and through the trees, you can find the folks in author Capps' book. They don't really look much like the folks in the movie, but they are honest, and easily accessible if you don't try to pry too much out of them. Most of their mistakes are constantly repeated, but that, too is honest.
Now, the movie is a lot of fun, and a good story, but this is really another story. This one's about the folks most of us have pretended not to know, pretended not to "get", or pretended we couldn't see. As unbelievable as the story and characters may appear to be at first glance, they settle right in and the reader is left with a portrait of the human spirit that's very moving and very intimate.
If you haven't been around the block a few times, or down on your luck, or haven't walked along with a bottle in a bag, don't bother. If you have, you'll find some old friends here and you might even learn a thing or three.
(I just heard from one of his associates that he is negotiating for a French language version and a release in France. I really think it will be a huge hit there.)
May 26, 2014
If you picked up this book with hope of reading a richer and more detailed version of A Love Song for Bobby Long, you will be very disappointed. Names are the same, the location is the same, and there are glimmers of the book in the way of dialogue and parts of the plot, but A Love Song for Bobby Long tells a very different story than Off Magazine Street. It is the sanitized Y2K Times Square version of a book that is gritty, real, and extremely uncomfortable.
Off Magazine Street is the story of two derelicts (they are referred to as this in narration) who drift through the life drunk and shameless while constantly waffling between fulfilling the role of dirty old men who are completely oblivious to their lack of appeal, and educated scholars who cannot fully forget where they came from despite making no effort to crawl out of their Popov drenched rut.
The movie tells a cleaner and prettier story, and does the thing that book!Byron refuses to do when it comes to Bobby Long.
"Byron wished he could have blamed it all on a war, a broken home during childhood, some terrible handicap, and make the reader of the book he would probably never finish believe that there was some good in Bobby. But the truth was more likely that, his friend, with all of his sins and faults, with his unusual mind--enhanced or diluted with years of alcohol and too many thoughts--was neither good or bad, just a conglomeration called Bobby Long."
In other wordss, Bobby Long is a fucking mess. They both are and it isn't pretty. In the movie, our drunken scholars are romantic and drift through a drippy, humid, New Orleans background, but in the book they are too real. When I say too real, I mean I can almost smell the booze and reek of two guys who rarely remember to bathe and sit on the corner trying to sound philosophical while hassling women who walk by. And you can almost smell their inevitable death, and see how one will follow the other because they're so codependent and simultaneously alone.
So, if the guy on the subway who smells kind of like piss and beer and is likely a pervert makes you uncomfortable, this book certainly will. It made me uncomfortable and that doesn't happen a lot. I had to put it down and evaluate if I gave a damn about Bobby and Byron because they were rotten people. The plot point of Bobby and Byron attempting to get Hannah through school is in the book, but Bobby is not fatherly and Byron is not as young and romantic as in the movie. The book paints a much more disturbing, and realistic, image of what's going on. Eventually you can see that the guys are clinging to their perverseness more out of habit than intent, but it doesn't change the facts of them being middle aged and Hannah being a teenager.
Like I said, some parts are very disturbing.
Even so, I can't hate it. And I can't hate it because it is very real. These are the people you see on the street, or the subway, or who are dragged in on the bed in the ER next to you and reek of beer and sweat and you just wish they'd go somewhere else so you can get some peace. The invisible lowlives that everyone passes by and judges. Someone took the time to tell that story without dressing it up, and you have to appreciate that just a little.
Off Magazine Street is the story of two derelicts (they are referred to as this in narration) who drift through the life drunk and shameless while constantly waffling between fulfilling the role of dirty old men who are completely oblivious to their lack of appeal, and educated scholars who cannot fully forget where they came from despite making no effort to crawl out of their Popov drenched rut.
The movie tells a cleaner and prettier story, and does the thing that book!Byron refuses to do when it comes to Bobby Long.
"Byron wished he could have blamed it all on a war, a broken home during childhood, some terrible handicap, and make the reader of the book he would probably never finish believe that there was some good in Bobby. But the truth was more likely that, his friend, with all of his sins and faults, with his unusual mind--enhanced or diluted with years of alcohol and too many thoughts--was neither good or bad, just a conglomeration called Bobby Long."
In other wordss, Bobby Long is a fucking mess. They both are and it isn't pretty. In the movie, our drunken scholars are romantic and drift through a drippy, humid, New Orleans background, but in the book they are too real. When I say too real, I mean I can almost smell the booze and reek of two guys who rarely remember to bathe and sit on the corner trying to sound philosophical while hassling women who walk by. And you can almost smell their inevitable death, and see how one will follow the other because they're so codependent and simultaneously alone.
So, if the guy on the subway who smells kind of like piss and beer and is likely a pervert makes you uncomfortable, this book certainly will. It made me uncomfortable and that doesn't happen a lot. I had to put it down and evaluate if I gave a damn about Bobby and Byron because they were rotten people. The plot point of Bobby and Byron attempting to get Hannah through school is in the book, but Bobby is not fatherly and Byron is not as young and romantic as in the movie. The book paints a much more disturbing, and realistic, image of what's going on. Eventually you can see that the guys are clinging to their perverseness more out of habit than intent, but it doesn't change the facts of them being middle aged and Hannah being a teenager.
Like I said, some parts are very disturbing.
Even so, I can't hate it. And I can't hate it because it is very real. These are the people you see on the street, or the subway, or who are dragged in on the bed in the ER next to you and reek of beer and sweat and you just wish they'd go somewhere else so you can get some peace. The invisible lowlives that everyone passes by and judges. Someone took the time to tell that story without dressing it up, and you have to appreciate that just a little.
January 19, 2009
One of the most accurate descriptions of New Orleans characters I have read. It is right up there with Confederacy of Dunces in my book. If you live in New Orleans when you read this book you know the characters as much as sometimes you wish you didn't. It is dark and twisted but so are the stories of many transplanted New Orleanians who chose to stay here because there is a certain tolerance for a style of living that isn't acceptable anywhere else.
August 29, 2020
Boby Long e Byron Burns un ex professore ed uno scrittore p, entra,bi di mezza età, caduti in disgrazia. La loro vita trascorre a New Orleans tra vodka e la ricerca di una scopata. Quando la figlia di una loro amica obesa e malata incrocia il loro cammino, essi si prodigheranno in ogni modo per aiutarla. Oltre alla misoginia, l’alcolismo e la depravazione, Boby e Byron, hanno una immensa passione per la cultura. Trasmetteranno questa passione alla giovane Hanna attraverso la letteratura, unica via per la libertà, e la musica. Si riveleranno una coppia di folli alcolizzati pienindi vitalità.
Dopo le prime pagine mi era pareo che l’autore volesse scimmiottare Bukowsky o Fante ma, andando avanti con la lettura, mi sono ricreduto. I protagonisti sono dei dannati ma conservano, attraverso un rapporto viscerale con la cultura, una enorme dignità. Avevano belle carriere, case e mogli ma, la sete di liberta ha prevalso sulla noia di una vita ordinaria e anche ora, caduti in disgrazia, non rimpiangono la loro vecchia vita.
Per me questo libro è nstato un po� più di un romanzo perché mi ha lasciato molti spunti di rifoessione. A volte la pettura è urticante e dura, a volte i protagonisti risultano fastidiosi e odiosi ma, senza di essi, il romanzo non avrebbe senso. Unica piccola pecca è che mi è parso un po� lento e a volte ripetitivo nelle dinamiche. Quttro stelle più che meritate... ora posso vedere il film!
Dopo le prime pagine mi era pareo che l’autore volesse scimmiottare Bukowsky o Fante ma, andando avanti con la lettura, mi sono ricreduto. I protagonisti sono dei dannati ma conservano, attraverso un rapporto viscerale con la cultura, una enorme dignità. Avevano belle carriere, case e mogli ma, la sete di liberta ha prevalso sulla noia di una vita ordinaria e anche ora, caduti in disgrazia, non rimpiangono la loro vecchia vita.
Per me questo libro è nstato un po� più di un romanzo perché mi ha lasciato molti spunti di rifoessione. A volte la pettura è urticante e dura, a volte i protagonisti risultano fastidiosi e odiosi ma, senza di essi, il romanzo non avrebbe senso. Unica piccola pecca è che mi è parso un po� lento e a volte ripetitivo nelle dinamiche. Quttro stelle più che meritate... ora posso vedere il film!
November 9, 2011
When I used to go to New Orleans a couple of times a year, the urge to fall out of society and write creatively overcame me as I walked Magazine St. The people were so open for conversation so the dialogue would have been easy. You just felt like you were in a place that was right and there was no need to leave it.
Then after a few days of hard drinking, I had to get out of there to stay alive.
The two main characters in this story, Bobby and Byron, don't leave. This is their conversations, appreciation of poetry, hijinks with the bums of the outdoor living room, and the care they have for those around them.
Not a perfect book, but perfect imperfection.
Thanks for (3w)thewareaglereader(com) for bringing this book to my attention.
Then after a few days of hard drinking, I had to get out of there to stay alive.
The two main characters in this story, Bobby and Byron, don't leave. This is their conversations, appreciation of poetry, hijinks with the bums of the outdoor living room, and the care they have for those around them.
Not a perfect book, but perfect imperfection.
Thanks for (3w)thewareaglereader(com) for bringing this book to my attention.
August 11, 2018
A Love Song for Bobby Long has been my favorite movie since I first watched it, which made reading this book scary, for fear that it would ruin the movie for me. At first the fact that there is a good bit of difference between the storylines bothered me, but there are enough similarities to make it feel comfortable.
My love for these characters comes from their deeply flawed and broken, yet not quite devoid souls. Their own drinking and perversion never ceased, their careers and social standing are never redeemed yet they are able to inspire and play a major role in a beautiful new beginning for a lost young soul. I was left thinking that nothing really changed externally with Bobby and Byron or even with how they communicated, but that a major shift occurred internally. In the beginning of their relationship with Hannah, everything they did revolved around their own selfish, sneaky, and manipulative endeavors but by the end, though they still jest, they have learned to give and respect, with no real thought of return on their investment.
I have always resonated with Hannah’s story, and this holds true for both the book and the movie. She transitions from feeling completely alone in the world with little passion to finding a family of her own and hope for her future. She learns to see and open her heart to the beauty hiding within society’s outcasts. Through them she learns to embrace her own past and live openly and shamelessly.
The beauty in this books is in the messy, the uncomfortable, and the rawness of it all.
My love for these characters comes from their deeply flawed and broken, yet not quite devoid souls. Their own drinking and perversion never ceased, their careers and social standing are never redeemed yet they are able to inspire and play a major role in a beautiful new beginning for a lost young soul. I was left thinking that nothing really changed externally with Bobby and Byron or even with how they communicated, but that a major shift occurred internally. In the beginning of their relationship with Hannah, everything they did revolved around their own selfish, sneaky, and manipulative endeavors but by the end, though they still jest, they have learned to give and respect, with no real thought of return on their investment.
I have always resonated with Hannah’s story, and this holds true for both the book and the movie. She transitions from feeling completely alone in the world with little passion to finding a family of her own and hope for her future. She learns to see and open her heart to the beauty hiding within society’s outcasts. Through them she learns to embrace her own past and live openly and shamelessly.
The beauty in this books is in the messy, the uncomfortable, and the rawness of it all.
December 29, 2010
This turned into the amazing movie A Love Song for Bobby Long. I was so enamored with the movie, I picked up the book. Couldn't get off the ground with the book, and don't know how the movie turned out so brilliant (except that it stars J. Travolta and the S. Johanson). I'll give it another shot someday.
January 14, 2011
Può un libro dai presupposti bukowskiani nascondere tra le sue pagine un romanzo di formazione?
Di storie di sbandati, debosciati e derelitti, circonfuse di alone poetico, ce ne sono molte in circolazione sugli scaffali delle librerie e tra gli ingranaggi dei proiettori; ce ne sono talmente tante, e sono tutte talmente simili, che di poetico non è rimasto nulla.
Le prime pagine di Una canzone per Bobby Long di Ronald Everett Capps (Mattioli 1885, pp. 308, � 18) potrebbero trarre in inganno. Il tono è quello della disperazione, della caduta in disgrazia con tutti gli annessi e - gli abusi - connessi. Bobby Long e Byron Burns, sembrano due personaggi usciti direttamente da un’imitazione di Storie di ordinaria follia. Potrebbe essere il solito scritto: specchio dell’America del sogno infranto e delle vite sprecate.
Non è così. Bobby e Byron sono, sì, due ubriaconi depravati dal passato glorioso, ma non sono per nulla maledetti. Figure tragicomiche, entrambi in qualche modo hanno scelto di vivere come due barboni, hanno scelto di bere fino alle estreme conseguenze e hanno scelto di lasciarsi andare. Non c’� autodistruzione però nella loro condotta dissoluta, semplicemente, un giorno la vita si è avvitata su sé stessa e loro hanno concluso che fosse giunto il momento di scendere dal carrozzone.
Quando Hanna, la figlia adolescente e sbandata di una loro improbabile convivente, obesa e malata di mente, capita all’improvviso a New Orleans per la morte della madre, i nostri decidono che per un certo periodo dovranno dedicarsi a uno scopo che non sia semplicemente bere vodka Popov e fare sesso con qualsiasi cosa respiri.
Bobby e Byron si prenderanno cura a modo loro di Hanna; tra lezioni di letteratura, ballate country per ukulele, letture di Tennessee Williams e squallide, ironiche, avance; facendole scoprire che nella vita tutti hanno la possibilità di scegliere.
A questo punto Byron forse citerebbe Sartre, dicendo che “� la stessa cosa ubriacarsi in solitudine e guidare popoli. Anzi è probabile che il quietismo dell’ubriaco solitario vincerà l’inutile agitazione del condottiero di popoli�. In ogni caso siamo liberi e responsabili di ciò che facciamo della nostra esistenza e di cosa decidiamo di essere, ubriaconi o condottieri. Bobby gli darebbe una pacca sulla spalla, e bevendo birra allungata con succo di pomodoro (!), comincerebbe a intonare una qualche canzonaccia, senza accorgersi di avere la patta sbottonata.
Una storia felicemente amara, a tratti grottesca, buffa e tenera, tradotta in pellicola qualche anno fa, che merita attenzione. Un piccolo grande libro, un po� nascosto e soffocato dalle pubblicazioni estive, ma che vale la pena di fare proprio. Esistenzialista ma leggero, divertente e mai banale, Una canzone per Bobby Long, è forse quello che ci vuole davvero sotto l’ombrellone, al posto dei vari polpettoni consigliati da più parti. Una questione di scelta.
Di storie di sbandati, debosciati e derelitti, circonfuse di alone poetico, ce ne sono molte in circolazione sugli scaffali delle librerie e tra gli ingranaggi dei proiettori; ce ne sono talmente tante, e sono tutte talmente simili, che di poetico non è rimasto nulla.
Le prime pagine di Una canzone per Bobby Long di Ronald Everett Capps (Mattioli 1885, pp. 308, � 18) potrebbero trarre in inganno. Il tono è quello della disperazione, della caduta in disgrazia con tutti gli annessi e - gli abusi - connessi. Bobby Long e Byron Burns, sembrano due personaggi usciti direttamente da un’imitazione di Storie di ordinaria follia. Potrebbe essere il solito scritto: specchio dell’America del sogno infranto e delle vite sprecate.
Non è così. Bobby e Byron sono, sì, due ubriaconi depravati dal passato glorioso, ma non sono per nulla maledetti. Figure tragicomiche, entrambi in qualche modo hanno scelto di vivere come due barboni, hanno scelto di bere fino alle estreme conseguenze e hanno scelto di lasciarsi andare. Non c’� autodistruzione però nella loro condotta dissoluta, semplicemente, un giorno la vita si è avvitata su sé stessa e loro hanno concluso che fosse giunto il momento di scendere dal carrozzone.
Quando Hanna, la figlia adolescente e sbandata di una loro improbabile convivente, obesa e malata di mente, capita all’improvviso a New Orleans per la morte della madre, i nostri decidono che per un certo periodo dovranno dedicarsi a uno scopo che non sia semplicemente bere vodka Popov e fare sesso con qualsiasi cosa respiri.
Bobby e Byron si prenderanno cura a modo loro di Hanna; tra lezioni di letteratura, ballate country per ukulele, letture di Tennessee Williams e squallide, ironiche, avance; facendole scoprire che nella vita tutti hanno la possibilità di scegliere.
A questo punto Byron forse citerebbe Sartre, dicendo che “� la stessa cosa ubriacarsi in solitudine e guidare popoli. Anzi è probabile che il quietismo dell’ubriaco solitario vincerà l’inutile agitazione del condottiero di popoli�. In ogni caso siamo liberi e responsabili di ciò che facciamo della nostra esistenza e di cosa decidiamo di essere, ubriaconi o condottieri. Bobby gli darebbe una pacca sulla spalla, e bevendo birra allungata con succo di pomodoro (!), comincerebbe a intonare una qualche canzonaccia, senza accorgersi di avere la patta sbottonata.
Una storia felicemente amara, a tratti grottesca, buffa e tenera, tradotta in pellicola qualche anno fa, che merita attenzione. Un piccolo grande libro, un po� nascosto e soffocato dalle pubblicazioni estive, ma che vale la pena di fare proprio. Esistenzialista ma leggero, divertente e mai banale, Una canzone per Bobby Long, è forse quello che ci vuole davvero sotto l’ombrellone, al posto dei vari polpettoni consigliati da più parti. Una questione di scelta.
April 26, 2015
New Orleans. Sudiciume, dissolutezza e, in ogni caso, poesia. «Con tutte le sue colpe e i suoi difetti, con la sua intelligenza inusuale - acuita o diluita dall'abuso di alcol e dai troppi pensieri - non era né buono né cattivo. Era soltanto un essere imperfetto che di nome faceva Bobby Long». Sbronzarsi è la regola, senza più fede o slanci di ordinarietà, non diversamente l'appetito per la cicciona Lorraine dalla personalità borderline. Quarantanove anni, Byron, lo scrittore, sempre a bere e a leggere e cinquantaquattro anni, Bobby, l'ex professore, tutti di occasioni amare e seduzioni. I tre sono più appagati che disperati, più risoluti che incerti; mentre, nel sud della Florida, la sedicenne Hanna stenta a immaginare di poter decidere quale direzione dare alla sua vita...
Balordo, forte, Bobby Long, illuminante personaggio a cui Shainee Gabel ha reso omaggio con l'acutezza della sua sceneggiatura e il fascino dell'interprete, John Travolta, distintosi per «una performance d'alta classe» (“la Repubblica�, 2004); soggetto di un attento studio caratteriale e di una storia di opportunità a cui Ronald Everett Capps ha trasmesso più di ogni altra cosa l'idea vitale della svolta, che si crea da sé, che nasce dal realizzabile e nei confini di prospettive sempre più credibili. E ancora per il bene di Hanna, giovane figlia di Lorraine, espresso con parole di speranza e di libertà. Che è il fine, appunto, della narrazione, perseguito senza pudore o pacatezza, con la generosità tuttavia grande di Bobby Long e Byron Burns; portando all'attenzione i sogni, orizzonti insieme e limiti, sprofondando in lunghi dialoghi, rinvigorendosi dell'american way of life, invocando senza ombra di stucchevole affettazione la fortuna dell'amicizia.
Balordo, forte, Bobby Long, illuminante personaggio a cui Shainee Gabel ha reso omaggio con l'acutezza della sua sceneggiatura e il fascino dell'interprete, John Travolta, distintosi per «una performance d'alta classe» (“la Repubblica�, 2004); soggetto di un attento studio caratteriale e di una storia di opportunità a cui Ronald Everett Capps ha trasmesso più di ogni altra cosa l'idea vitale della svolta, che si crea da sé, che nasce dal realizzabile e nei confini di prospettive sempre più credibili. E ancora per il bene di Hanna, giovane figlia di Lorraine, espresso con parole di speranza e di libertà. Che è il fine, appunto, della narrazione, perseguito senza pudore o pacatezza, con la generosità tuttavia grande di Bobby Long e Byron Burns; portando all'attenzione i sogni, orizzonti insieme e limiti, sprofondando in lunghi dialoghi, rinvigorendosi dell'american way of life, invocando senza ombra di stucchevole affettazione la fortuna dell'amicizia.
April 17, 2016
Byron and Bobby are your typical unreliable narrators. They are two good old boys who spend their time drinking and womanizing with little money and little worry. When their steady gal pal dies during their stay in New Orleans, her daughter, Hanna, shows up to collect her inheritance only to discover there is none. Hanna ends up staying with Byron and Bobby and so begins an unlikely friendship between the three as Byron and Bobby proceed to help Hanna get a formal education.
As I said, Byron and Bobby are very unreliable. They are full of tall tales. They were teachers. They are well read. Byron is writing a novel about Bobby. A lot of times they almost seem like homosexual lovers, but they are far from it. They are constantly talking about "pussy" and obsessing over sleeping with Hanna. But their hearts appear to be in the right place as they go out of their way to help Hanna continue her high school education.
Overall this is a decent slice of life book. There's not a lot going on but there doesn't have to be. Two free souls take in a young girl and basically teach her about life. That's it. At times, Byron and Bobby got on my nerves, but they also got on Hanna's nerves so that was fully intended. I got tired of all the mention of the "p" word though. By the end, it even became somewhat of a joke each time they mentioned it.
Now a motion picture with John Travolta as Bobby, I actually have no desire to see it. I enjoyed the book enough to walk away from it satisfied without having to see Hollywood's interpretation.
As I said, Byron and Bobby are very unreliable. They are full of tall tales. They were teachers. They are well read. Byron is writing a novel about Bobby. A lot of times they almost seem like homosexual lovers, but they are far from it. They are constantly talking about "pussy" and obsessing over sleeping with Hanna. But their hearts appear to be in the right place as they go out of their way to help Hanna continue her high school education.
Overall this is a decent slice of life book. There's not a lot going on but there doesn't have to be. Two free souls take in a young girl and basically teach her about life. That's it. At times, Byron and Bobby got on my nerves, but they also got on Hanna's nerves so that was fully intended. I got tired of all the mention of the "p" word though. By the end, it even became somewhat of a joke each time they mentioned it.
Now a motion picture with John Travolta as Bobby, I actually have no desire to see it. I enjoyed the book enough to walk away from it satisfied without having to see Hollywood's interpretation.
August 29, 2019
Completely different from the movie. This is a gritty depiction of an alcoholic life. It is a sort of love story, but not a romance except with booze and surface pleasures. The writing is descriptive and characters are rich and well though out. This is not a make you feel good book, rather a make you wince and think book. It is exceptional at shedding a light on "the invisible" people.
February 4, 2019
Ho letto il libro dopo aver visto il film, che stemperava un po' la storia e aggiungeva sentimentalismo.
La caratteristica principale del libro è una sorta di fatalismo, per cui i protagonisti sono in un vortice di autodistruzione da cui non intendono uscire e neananche il finale non tenta di accontentare il lettore.
Il libro non è male, però non convince completamente. Forse per l’aura di fatalismo o per i personaggi digradateti me eccellenti.
La caratteristica principale del libro è una sorta di fatalismo, per cui i protagonisti sono in un vortice di autodistruzione da cui non intendono uscire e neananche il finale non tenta di accontentare il lettore.
Il libro non è male, però non convince completamente. Forse per l’aura di fatalismo o per i personaggi digradateti me eccellenti.
August 1, 2024
Location had me hooked from the start. I’ve done business on the VA campus in Biloxi. I’ve ate and drank at the Hummingbird (and got stabbed as a robbery victim on the street in front of it).
The story telling is first class. Moral redemption and human compassion are compelling themes. As repulsive as Byron and Bobby are, their intentions and devotion to each other and Hannah is attractive.
I couldn’t take a break, Off Magazine Street was that good!
The story telling is first class. Moral redemption and human compassion are compelling themes. As repulsive as Byron and Bobby are, their intentions and devotion to each other and Hannah is attractive.
I couldn’t take a break, Off Magazine Street was that good!
February 20, 2019
(Please don't shoot me, but...) I haven't read the book, but I really liked the film adaptation, "A Love Story for Bobby Long". Thought it was a good character study about growing, overcoming, putting the past behind and looking to the future. Unique - not like any other story I've seen or read.
May 4, 2021
A love song
I love both the book and the movie based on the book which brought me to read the book. The city of New Orleans gets in your blood if you ever go there. That was initially what drew me to the movie, the story itself took me to the book. Bobby and Byron are so complex, you want to dislike them for their ways but you just can't.
I love both the book and the movie based on the book which brought me to read the book. The city of New Orleans gets in your blood if you ever go there. That was initially what drew me to the movie, the story itself took me to the book. Bobby and Byron are so complex, you want to dislike them for their ways but you just can't.
March 1, 2022
Upon reading this book for the second time, I was taken with the realness of it. The characters are wonderfully flawed in the worst way possible. Do not read this expecting it to be like the movie...they are very distant relatives. If you squint and turn your head to the correct angle you can sort-of see how the book inspired the movie, but as soon as you blink its gone.
August 29, 2022
This is one of those books that you keep going back to - I had this book as a young adult in paperback form (early 2000's), and it's one of the books I purchased for my digital collection now (what will be next!? I'll purchase a copy that streams right to my brain!) Solid story although I'm faint on details, but I did lend my hardcopy to my mom and she also enjoyed it.
June 15, 2020
I really loved how fallible and flawed the characters are. This is based on one of my favorite movies, A Love Song for Bobby Long, and my favorite character in both versions is New Orleans. It’s a siren of a city, and it’s essence and presence are magnetic for me in whatever form.
December 31, 2020
Come molti, ho scoperto il libro attraverso il successivo film. Purtroppo è stato una gran delusione sotto molti aspetti. Lo stile inutilmente volgare appesantisce una trama senza senso, i cui personaggi si muovono come macchiette. Il finale assurdamente ridicolo neanche lo commento
February 25, 2021
I sought out this book after seeing the movie that it inspired. The book and the movie differ quite substantially and I’d rate them both 4 stars, although I’d give the edge to the book. Point is if you’ve enjoyed one, you’ll enjoy the other as a fairly unique experience.
August 10, 2018
Interesting, because I loved the movie, Love Song for Bobby Long, which was based on the book.
November 17, 2019
A story about educated drunks, with big brains, hearts, and good intentions. Bukowski-grimy, with lots of literary references, and a sweet story of a young woman trying to believe in herself.
March 3, 2021
This book is about the invisible people.
It is raunchy, insightful and honest.
Wow.
You must see Love Song for Bobby Long.
It is raunchy, insightful and honest.
Wow.
You must see Love Song for Bobby Long.
June 14, 2021
Crudo, emozionante e a tratti commovente: un invito a non giudicare le persone per quello che sembrano e per come decidono di apparire ma per le azioni, talvolta piccole, che mettono in pratica
November 8, 2021
The characters were much harsher than in the movie. There is a brutality to the book . I preferred the poignancy of the movie.
Read
January 1, 2023Shouldn't have seen the movie first. Reads like a "what I did with my summer and why it should be important to you" novel. Still, New Orleans gets painted in the hard light of truth.
January 9, 2011
Può un libro dai presupposti bukowskiani nascondere tra le sue pagine un romanzo di formazione?
Di storie di sbandati, debosciati e derelitti, circonfuse di alone poetico, ce ne sono molte in circolazione sugli scaffali delle librerie e tra gli ingranaggi dei proiettori; ce ne sono talmente tante, e sono tutte talmente simili, che di poetico non è rimasto nulla.
Le prime pagine di Una canzone per Bobby Long di Ronald Everett Capps (Mattioli 1885, pp. 308, � 18) potrebbero trarre in inganno. Il tono è quello della disperazione, della caduta in disgrazia con tutti gli annessi e - gli abusi - connessi. Bobby Long e Byron Burns, sembrano due personaggi usciti direttamente da un’imitazione di Storie di ordinaria follia. Potrebbe essere il solito scritto: specchio dell’America del sogno infranto e delle vite sprecate.
Non è così. Bobby e Byron sono, sì, due ubriaconi depravati dal passato glorioso, ma non sono per nulla maledetti. Figure tragicomiche, entrambi in qualche modo hanno scelto di vivere come due barboni, hanno scelto di bere fino alle estreme conseguenze e hanno scelto di lasciarsi andare. Non c’� autodistruzione però nella loro condotta dissoluta, semplicemente, un giorno la vita si è avvitata su sé stessa e loro hanno concluso che fosse giunto il momento di scendere dal carrozzone.
Quando Hanna, la figlia adolescente e sbandata di una loro improbabile convivente, obesa e malata di mente, capita all’improvviso a New Orleans per la morte della madre, i nostri decidono che per un certo periodo dovranno dedicarsi a uno scopo che non sia semplicemente bere vodka Popov e fare sesso con qualsiasi cosa respiri.
Bobby e Byron si prenderanno cura a modo loro di Hanna; tra lezioni di letteratura, ballate country per ukulele, letture di Tennessee Williams e squallide, ironiche, avance; facendole scoprire che nella vita tutti hanno la possibilità di scegliere.
A questo punto Byron forse citerebbe Sartre, dicendo che “� la stessa cosa ubriacarsi in solitudine e guidare popoli. Anzi è probabile che il quietismo dell’ubriaco solitario vincerà l’inutile agitazione del condottiero di popoli�. In ogni caso siamo liberi e responsabili di ciò che facciamo della nostra esistenza e di cosa decidiamo di essere, ubriaconi o condottieri. Bobby gli darebbe una pacca sulla spalla, e bevendo birra allungata con succo di pomodoro (!), comincerebbe a intonare una qualche canzonaccia, senza accorgersi di avere la patta sbottonata.
Una storia felicemente amara, a tratti grottesca, buffa e tenera, tradotta in pellicola qualche anno fa, che merita attenzione. Un piccolo grande libro, un po� nascosto e soffocato dalle pubblicazioni estive, ma che vale la pena di fare proprio. Esistenzialista ma leggero, divertente e mai banale, Una canzone per Bobby Long, è forse quello che ci vuole davvero sotto l’ombrellone, al posto dei vari polpettoni consigliati da più parti. Una questione di scelta.
Di storie di sbandati, debosciati e derelitti, circonfuse di alone poetico, ce ne sono molte in circolazione sugli scaffali delle librerie e tra gli ingranaggi dei proiettori; ce ne sono talmente tante, e sono tutte talmente simili, che di poetico non è rimasto nulla.
Le prime pagine di Una canzone per Bobby Long di Ronald Everett Capps (Mattioli 1885, pp. 308, � 18) potrebbero trarre in inganno. Il tono è quello della disperazione, della caduta in disgrazia con tutti gli annessi e - gli abusi - connessi. Bobby Long e Byron Burns, sembrano due personaggi usciti direttamente da un’imitazione di Storie di ordinaria follia. Potrebbe essere il solito scritto: specchio dell’America del sogno infranto e delle vite sprecate.
Non è così. Bobby e Byron sono, sì, due ubriaconi depravati dal passato glorioso, ma non sono per nulla maledetti. Figure tragicomiche, entrambi in qualche modo hanno scelto di vivere come due barboni, hanno scelto di bere fino alle estreme conseguenze e hanno scelto di lasciarsi andare. Non c’� autodistruzione però nella loro condotta dissoluta, semplicemente, un giorno la vita si è avvitata su sé stessa e loro hanno concluso che fosse giunto il momento di scendere dal carrozzone.
Quando Hanna, la figlia adolescente e sbandata di una loro improbabile convivente, obesa e malata di mente, capita all’improvviso a New Orleans per la morte della madre, i nostri decidono che per un certo periodo dovranno dedicarsi a uno scopo che non sia semplicemente bere vodka Popov e fare sesso con qualsiasi cosa respiri.
Bobby e Byron si prenderanno cura a modo loro di Hanna; tra lezioni di letteratura, ballate country per ukulele, letture di Tennessee Williams e squallide, ironiche, avance; facendole scoprire che nella vita tutti hanno la possibilità di scegliere.
A questo punto Byron forse citerebbe Sartre, dicendo che “� la stessa cosa ubriacarsi in solitudine e guidare popoli. Anzi è probabile che il quietismo dell’ubriaco solitario vincerà l’inutile agitazione del condottiero di popoli�. In ogni caso siamo liberi e responsabili di ciò che facciamo della nostra esistenza e di cosa decidiamo di essere, ubriaconi o condottieri. Bobby gli darebbe una pacca sulla spalla, e bevendo birra allungata con succo di pomodoro (!), comincerebbe a intonare una qualche canzonaccia, senza accorgersi di avere la patta sbottonata.
Una storia felicemente amara, a tratti grottesca, buffa e tenera, tradotta in pellicola qualche anno fa, che merita attenzione. Un piccolo grande libro, un po� nascosto e soffocato dalle pubblicazioni estive, ma che vale la pena di fare proprio. Esistenzialista ma leggero, divertente e mai banale, Una canzone per Bobby Long, è forse quello che ci vuole davvero sotto l’ombrellone, al posto dei vari polpettoni consigliati da più parti. Una questione di scelta.
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