She’s a female artist who is sexual, in and out of love, and determined to stage a comeback though she has no clear idea how to make that happen. Still, D’Erasmo’s protagonist, Anna Brundage is a revelation. These books gave me a unique glimpse into what it was like to be a woman in a male-dominated field, and the complex interplay of power, artistry, and sexuality that is the heart of playing in a band and performing for large audiences of adoring fans. Many of the books were male affairs, with the exception of two of my favorites-Pamela DeBarres’s groundbreaking and sexually frank groupie memoir I’m With the Band and Sheila Weller’s well-researched and historically-minded Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carley Simon and the Journey of a Generation. I’ve been working on a novel for the last year about a young woman who tries to change her life by running away with a female-led indie music band in 1990, and so I’ve steeped myself in rock n’ roll memoirs and journalistic accounts of bands on tour. I didn’t know it, but I’d been waiting for Stacey D’Erasmo’s fourth novel, Wonderland.
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