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Perfect tunes : a novel / Emily Gould.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Avid Reader Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©2020Edition: First Avid Reader Press hardcover editionDescription: 272 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781501197499
  • 1501197495
Subject(s): Genre/Form: Summary: "Have you ever wondered what your mother was like before she became your mother, and what she gave up in order to have you? As Perfect Tunes opens we meet Laura, a songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent. Newly arrived in New York City in the early days of the new millennium, she's left behind her safe life in Ohio for the East Village, where she hopes to record her first album. But just as she begins to book gigs, she falls hard for a rock star on the rise who's as wasted as he is compelling. His accidental death leaves Laura reeling--and, she soon learns, pregnant. Obligation, confusion, and romantic delusion conspire to convince her to keep the baby, and with the intermittent help of her friend and former bandmate Callie, she begins to raise her daughter Marie alone. She struggles to keep making music, but despite her best efforts it becomes too difficult. Soon, the only songs she writes are for the infant music classes she teaches, leading drooling infants and their parents in nonsensical sing-alongs. Fourteen years later, Marie finds herself grappling with her father's legacy as she battles depression and her mother. Laura has tried to keep Marie from asking too many questions about her biological father's history, but her efforts to protect Marie may only be putting her in greater danger. When Marie runs away to track down Dylan's family, it forces both mother and daughter to confront the heartbreak at the root of their relationship. Laura must face what she's lost to motherhood and find out what parts of her former self might still be hers to reclaim."--Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library Fiction Gould, Emily Available 33111009637337
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

" Perfect Tunes is an intoxicating blend of music, love, and family from one of the essential writers of the internet generation." --STEPHANIE DANLER

" Perfect Tunes is a zippy and profound story of love, loss, heredity, and par­enthood. I gulped it down, as will all mothers, New Yorkers, music fans, and lovers of quick-moving novels that are both funny and deep. I loved every page." --EMMA STRAUB

" Perfect Tunes is mind-blowing....Full of unspeakable insights, or at least I thought they were unspeakable, but there they are. Now I want everyone I know to read this book and talk about it with me." --ELIF BATUMAN

Have you ever wondered what your mother was like before she became your mother, and what she gave up in order to have you?

It's the early days of the new millennium, and Laura has arrived in New York City's East Village in the hopes of recording her first album. A songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent, she's just beginning to book gigs with her beautiful best friend when she falls hard for a troubled but magnetic musician whose star is on the rise. Their time together is stormy and short-lived--but will reverberate for the rest of Laura's life.

Fifteen years later, Laura's teenage daughter, Marie, is asking questions about her father, questions that Laura does not want to answer. Laura has built a stable life in Brooklyn that bears little resemblance to the one she envisioned when she left Ohio all those years ago, and she's taken pains to close the door on what was and what might have been. But neither her best friend, now a famous musician who relies on Laura's songwriting skills, nor her depressed and searching daughter will let her give up on her dreams.

Funny, wise, and tenderhearted, Perfect Tunes explores the fault lines in our most important relationships, and asks whether dreams deferred can ever be reclaimed. It is a delightful and poignant tale of music and motherhood, ambition and com­promise--of life, in all its dissonance and harmony.

"Have you ever wondered what your mother was like before she became your mother, and what she gave up in order to have you? As Perfect Tunes opens we meet Laura, a songwriter with a one-of-a-kind talent. Newly arrived in New York City in the early days of the new millennium, she's left behind her safe life in Ohio for the East Village, where she hopes to record her first album. But just as she begins to book gigs, she falls hard for a rock star on the rise who's as wasted as he is compelling. His accidental death leaves Laura reeling--and, she soon learns, pregnant. Obligation, confusion, and romantic delusion conspire to convince her to keep the baby, and with the intermittent help of her friend and former bandmate Callie, she begins to raise her daughter Marie alone. She struggles to keep making music, but despite her best efforts it becomes too difficult. Soon, the only songs she writes are for the infant music classes she teaches, leading drooling infants and their parents in nonsensical sing-alongs. Fourteen years later, Marie finds herself grappling with her father's legacy as she battles depression and her mother. Laura has tried to keep Marie from asking too many questions about her biological father's history, but her efforts to protect Marie may only be putting her in greater danger. When Marie runs away to track down Dylan's family, it forces both mother and daughter to confront the heartbreak at the root of their relationship. Laura must face what she's lost to motherhood and find out what parts of her former self might still be hers to reclaim."--Provided by publisher.

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