Making a Comeback by Julie Blair

Making a Comeback
by Julie Blair
Pages: 264
Date: July 20 2015
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Series: None

Review
Rating: 2.75
Read: September 26 to 29 2016

This is not a review but a few words, about 'what happened.'

A day or two ago I was at the 88% completed position and . . . just stopped reading. The specific reason eludes me now. But I was 'inches' away from finishing, so I took the five or so minutes to read the end. I either had disconnected myself too much from the book, or I'd have felt the same way if I had or hadn't taken a break there.

First thing I noticed is that I literally did just walk away from the book - as in I had apparently been in the middle of a sentence when I just stopped. Second thing I noticed was that I was detached, numb to what unfolded. Didn't particularly care. Which is, in its way, strange how I had a moment there wherein I flashed to a kind of 3D like experience during one moment; detached and yet there, eh? Heh. I do not normally, I am not normally 'there' and/or 'know'/feel/whatever . . . but there was a moment when a knee was pulled up and back and the scene was vivid in my mind, good or bad. So, except for a moment or two there of vivid connection, I was numb during the last 12% of the book.

--
About 14 years before the start of this book Liz Randall, jazz pianist, meet and fell in love with a woman named Teri. Over the next 14 years (from that moment), they formed two jazz bands - Liz on the piano, Teri on the drums (I do not normally think of jazz bands having drums, but I never paid much attention to jazz). They kept getting to the edge of success, but keep stumbling. First because Teri got diagnosed with cancer and they had to deal with that; then the second time, the illness came back and ultimately killed Teri.

It's been six months since Teri's death when the book opens. Liz is kind of wandering in a daze, attempting to put together an album made up of live recordings of their shows (of their band Up Beat). While in this daze, Liz wanders into a gallery to pick up painting for her asshole father's birthday (oops, sorry, yeah, her father is a selfish asshole leach). Carrying the painting awkwardly, Liz stumbles, almost loses the painting, and then whacks a woman. Who proceeds to rudely bleed from a cut on her face.

That woman being Jac, the blind woman (what, for a good portion of the book, that is how Liz knew her - someone who she wants to be friends with, is blind, and is sister to the person who painted the painting Liz had gotten for her father). With Jac is Max, her guide dog.

Jac and Liz keep bumping into each other that day, and while Jac has no desire to have anything to do with things like 'friends' and the like, Liz does want something like that. And is persistent. Liz and Jac then proceed on something like a courtship – to become friends.

Others of importance in this novel: Hannah – Liz’s out-of-work chef sister; Kevin – Liz’s brother (& and his wife, Karen I think I recall); Peggy and her husband (Roger?) – Peggy being Jac’s sister; and . . . whatever asshole father’s name is. Oh, and Max – Jac’s guide dog. Jac’s parents make something of a cameo appearance but I got no real impression of them at all (despite several scenes that included them being all . . . there and stuff). Slightly larger than a cameo, but barely, are Kevin and his wife’s kids (slightly more than a cameo because they get the chance to show how much of a dick Liz’s father is – when he causes one of the children to bleed, and he just jokes about it). Oh, and there are three other members of the band – Regan, Sammy (the two are twins, or something like that), and Cassie. Other than Regan being kind of moody, Sammy making a joke that got repeated (hi, I’m Sam), and Cassie . . .um . . being there, I do not really know anything about these three (well, other than that Cassie is, apparently, huge in the industry and knows everyone).

Plot points of interest: broken wrist (Liz); album to release; concert to prepare for; vacation (Hawaii); walking in Carmel-by-the-sea (often referred to as Carmel (though, apparently, Liz’s grandmother insisted on it being called by its full name) was founded in 1902, located in Monterey County, California – heh – from the wiki on Carmel - “a prohibition on wearing high-heel shoes without a permit, enacted to prevent lawsuits arising from tripping accidents caused by irregular pavement”- the heh is because Liz broke her wrist from walking on the irregular pavement); stuff.

September 29 2016