A Different Slant of Light

by Joel Levin

Overview

Former almost-rock-star Brian "Brick" Smith thought his punk-rock days were behind him. He was wrong.

Before he became a mild-mannered English teacher, Brian was the songwriter and bass player for a one-hit-wonder punk band: Call Field. Two decades ago, Brian and his bandmates were on a stratospheric ascent through the music industry... until Call Field unexpectedly crash-landed and broke up.

Since then, Brian has been living a quiet white-collar life, teaching at a suburban California high school, and desperately trying to put his past behind him. Despite Brian's best attempts at anonymity, one of his star students, the precocious Veronica Jones, has stumbled upon his not-so-secret identity. After convincing Brian to relay the story of how he wrote his band's only hit song, Veronica is left with many, many unanswered questions. Why did the band break up? What happened to Call Field's other members? Why is Brian so reluctant to revisit his past? Veronica wants answers. All the answers.

Brian doesn't know it yet, but his incomplete music career isn't over. The tenacious Veronica Jones has a plan - and it's one that will bring together all the shattered pieces of Brian's jigsaw-puzzle life. Of course, with Veronica taking charge, almost anything can happen... including retired almost-rock-stars rising from the ashes and facing the music of their painful punk-rock past.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781737756910
Publisher:	Joel Levin
Publication date:	10/22/2021
Series:	Incomplete , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	494
File size:	111 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

J.D. Levin is a mild-mannered librarian by day... and a mild-mannered rock & roller by night. He has worked as a public school educator for almost two decades - first as an English teacher, then as a Teacher Librarian. Outside of the classroom, he's written songs for Far From Kansas, The Briar Rose Ramblers, Kailua Moon, and Grammy-nominated slack-key guitarist Danny Carvalho. Levin is a graduate of UC Berkeley (BA '01), Stanford University (MA '02), CSUN (MA '09), and CSULB (TLSC '15). He lives on the central coast of California with his wife, two daughters, and cluttered collection of musical instruments. A Different Slant of Light, the sequel to Incomplete, is his second novel.

Editorial Reviews

2021-12-01
A California high school teacher reflects on his rock-star days and broods about reuniting his band.

In Levin’s follow-up to his novel Incomplete (2020), Brian Smith lives what some would consider an ordinary life. When he’s not teaching Advanced Placement English, he spends time with his wife and their Star Wars–loving 8-year-old daughter. But when his star pupil Veronica Jones interviews him, she dredges up memories of a past Brian abandoned two decades ago. He was once a member of the punk-rock group Call Field, a one-hit wonder from the early aughts. Back then, he and his band mates ecstatically signed a major-label deal. But it was Brian, bassist and chief songwriter, who practically lived at the studio to complete Call Field’s debut album. As with most fledgling music groups, both the label and fans tended to focus their attention on the frontman. In Call Field’s case, that was Steve Öken, a self-absorbed lead vocalist who tried exerting his dominance whenever he could, such as monopolizing the album cover. Not surprisingly, he butted heads with Brian—dissension that threatened the band even before its debut release. After Call Field’s ugly, animosity-laden split, Brian suffered physically and mentally. Yet when he dusts off his guitar 20 years later for his school’s talent show, he misses that exhilaration of playing music onstage. He has the chance to perform again for a benefit concert that Veronica is organizing. But she wants all five members of Call Field there. Brian and his band mates, who haven’t spoken in decades, will have to quell some bad feelings if they want to recapture that punk-rock magic they once had. While Levin’s sequel centers on Call Field’s short-lived fame, the book is a starkly illuminating peek at the music industry. Brian, for example, toils for months on the album and plays multiple instruments on the tracks. But the record company, despite signing a punk-rock band, mixes the songs for a softer, more commercial sound, highlighting Steve’s vocals. It seems both the label and the lead singer are intent on seizing control of the tunes that Brian rightly considers his. Still, the story is not all scathing. Brian indisputably treasures music, as does the author, who drops in references to countless rock groups along with cameos by such six-stringed beauties as a Gibson SG and a Fender Stratocaster. In the tale’s family-oriented, present-day setting, Levin develops winsome, convincing relationships. Brian’s loving home life with his wife, Mel, and their daughter, Sam, has its ups and downs while good-naturedly brazen Veronica is his biggest fan and “something of a surrogate daughter.” The author, on occasion, shines too bright a spotlight on his metaphors. For example, Mel and a classroom of students separately analyze the oft-quoted lyrics to Call Field’s solitary hit, “Incomplete,” which unquestionably represents Brian’s past. But Levin more often hits the mark, as when Brian calms himself with a treadmill-inspired mantra that becomes the tale’s refrain: “Right foot. Left foot. Repeat.” Numerous uncredited artworks and photographs further elevate this enthralling story, with the standouts including Call Field’s startling album cover and flyers for the group’s appearances.

This dramatic tale of life in and outside the music industry hits all the right notes.

Kirkus Reviews