Genre: Book
Grade: A-/B+
Notable People: Dawnie Walton
Title: The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Review: Dawnie Walton’s very ambitious debut novel, is a sweeping and thought-provoking look at the meteoric rise and fall of a 1970s-era music duo told from the first person perspective of the first African -American woman editor of a major rock magazine. She also happens to be the daughter of a black drummer murdered at the 1972 Opal and Nev inaugural show by a racist-redneck mob. Confused? This challenging book is tricky to keep up with- the story is told through 30 plus years of interviews (fictitious) with all the key players, but mostly focused on Nev Charles, a prototype British soft rock star, and Opal Jewel, a performance artist/singer/fashion queen form Detroit. The book tackles both gender and race inequality head on- and hits you over the head with it at times. Pretty powerful stuff, though I thought the story drifted at times in the telling through the years of interviews. Another in a long line of books my daughter has gotten me to expand my cultural horizons, which I think is working.