Subject: Review: Denton's BUDDY HOLLY IS ALIVE...

From: [email-masked] (Robert Schmunk)
Date: 2 Jan 92 20:55:20 GMT

BUDDY HOLLY IS ALIVE AND WELL ON GANYMEDE
                               By Bradley Denton

                         A book review by R.B. Schmunk
                                (Copyright 1992)

On February 3, 1989, Oliver Vale sits down in the wee morning hours to watch 
THE SEARCHERS, a John Wayne movie about to be broadcast via satellite. Finding 
only snow on his television screen, he ventures into his backyard to give his
satellite dish control box a few well-chosen swipes from an oft-used wrench.
Returning inside, he finds that his television is working, but John Wayne is
not fighting Comanches on its screen. No, a young, gawky man wearing black
plastic-rimmed glasses is standing in the middle of a gray plain in front of
something big and orange and playing a Stratocaster electric guiter while he
sings "Well All Right". Something is obviously very wrong and Vale heads back
out to give the satellite dish what-for. Inside again, he finds Buddy Holly
still on the tube, and the thirty-years-dead (exactly) rock star is announcing
that he is on Ganymede (that big orange thing behind him does bear a certain
resemblance to Jupiter). He doesn't know how he got there, but the television
camera in front of him has a sign that says "For Assistance, contact Oliver
Vale...Topeka, Kansas, USA."

With this, Vale knows that he has gone over the edge. Conceived in the back
seat of a Chevy at the moment of Holly's death back in 1959, Vale's life has
revolved around his mother's fixation on Holly's place in the rock and roll
firmament. What he's seeing now must be a sign that he has inherited her
delusions. Next thing you know, he might even start believing in Atlantis
and space aliens, just like she did.

Unhappily for Vale, he is about to find out that his troubles are bigger than
that. Almost immediately he receives a call from Sharon, his psychologist. It
seems she and her boyfriend were trying to watch a little late night TV
themselves (and not THE SEARCHER) and saw exactly the same image. What's
worse, the radio reports that everybody in the state is getting Buddy Holly on
their tubes, on *every* channel. Sharon figures the whole thing is some mega-
hacker stunt by Vale, given his mild resemblance to Holly and his family and
psychological history. Saying that he obviously needs immediate therapy, she
convinces him to come over to her house immediately.

With the best of intentions, Vale prepares to head out, but in the process
realizes that given what is going on, his name has just gone to the top of the
FCC's enemies list. Figuring that they would eventually track him down at
Sharon's, he decides that the best place to go is Lubbock, Texas, birthplace
and burial site of Buddy Holly. That destination is obvious to everybody
looking for Vale, and there's more than just the FCC to worry about. What
ensues could be called a pilgrimage, but it involves a trip through American
rock & roll history (valuable for those of us not born until 1963) as much it
does a chilly ride down the back roads between Topeka and Lubbock. Both tours
are excellent, and somehow the whole thing makes sense.

Rather than go into more detail, and ruin the plot for you, let me just say
that BUDDY HOLLY IS ALIVE AND WELL ON GANYMEDE is one of the *best* books I
read in 1991. I snatched it up off of the library shelf because Denton was the
author of WRACK & ROLL, a somewhat loony alternate history that came out a few
years back, and not because of the comment on the dust jacket commenting on how
well the book compares to Douglas Adams' Hitchiker books. I think that the blurb
is wrong. There is perhaps the same sort of appeal, but readers will probably
find that BUDDY... is more similar to the mirthful twists of a Howard Waldrop
tale than the madcap lunacy of Adams. And by the way, in his collection NIGHT OF
THE COOTERS, Waldrop recommends that the reader obtain a copy of BUDDY... I may
not be a name sf writer, but I'd like to make the same recommendation. If $22 is
a bit much for your blood, be sure to grab the paperback when it comes out.

%T	BUDDY HOLLY IS ALIVE AND WELL ON GANYMEDE
%A	Bradley Denton
%I	William Morrow
%C	New York City
%O	hardback, US$22.00
%P	359 pp.
%D	1991
%G	ISBN 0-688-10822-9

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Robert B. Schmunk <[email-masked], [email-masked]>
SPAC, Rice Univ, Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251 -- (713) 527-4939
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...give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an
interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and
you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.            --Anne Rice, THE WITCHING HOUR