The book: its a decent enough book as the 38 year old Ramona, stumbles on in life, with a boss who breathes down her neck, the danger of a hurricane that was probably the biggest since she came to live in Savannah, Georgia with her husband, ehh, her husband - her latest challenge, undecided on how to proceed with her marriage, although clearly the two love each other much, an obstinate mother, and two kids aged seven and three - not enough on her hands ? Throw in Bailey, the helpful neighborhood kid who's neglected by his own. I found it a page turner most of the way, and in its own right was entertaining enough as a read. Only I wouldn't have read this mix, if not for the title.
But Prince helped. Here's how. There are 62 references to him by name ( plus, a few merely by his songs - I would die 4U ), almost once in every six pages! And it's not always a passing reference to the late great.
"I idled at the counter. I didn't know then you can feel heartbreak over losing someone you don't really know. Someone you've never seen. Not even from the nosebleed seats.
I guess you can. I wasn't the only one. Though we'd been passing ships just two minutes ago, now the woman across from me and I locked eyes across the counter.
It seems too early for Jesus to be calling him home, but he must have.
Way too early, I heard my voice say, and break, just a little."
[ Digression on Prince On that fateful day, 21st April, 2016, I, who is yet to set foot in the US of A, sat glued to my sofa for over two hours, unable to come to terms with the news of his death - being broken to me by a book worm friend - who I was just getting know at the time - ( and since then come to identify as a friend with most of the common hobby oriented ailments - compulsive book buying, never diminishing TBR lists etc., claiming to put a complete stop to book buying, every 3 months or so). I have stated elsewhere, Prince has locked my attention from the first day I saw him - in an American Music Awards ceremony, when he swept most of the awards, came on stage with 'Big Chick' Hunstbury, eye patch and all , with Wendy and Lisa speaking more than Prince himself - his words being limited to a single word of "thanks" at times. Prince wasn't popular on mainstream state owned radio channels back then in Sri Lanka, and I had to wait till a like minded friend gave a cassette of "Purple Rain", and a best of, of his. From that day on wards, my tendency to listen to the top 20 stuff declined rapidly. It was clear that here was someone who was bursting with confidence, sure about what he does, sure about his uncontested position on the scheme of things, coupled with a subtle privacy with a tinge of arrogance at times ( a trait which went away somewhere in the mid 90s or so, I guess.) I found no one else made music sound so involved, vibrant, and bold. From party anthems like "Baby, I'm a star", to dark sensual jammers like "computer blue", to sex crazy (yet) perfect pop songs "head" and "dirty mind" - See, I've not even mentioned the early obvious hits like the series of hits from Purple Rain, 1999, Around the world in a day, or Parade. Parts of an interview given by George Michael I found once on YouTube lingers on in my head - a quote found from it, in the internet goes, that he wants to be remembered “as a great singer songwriter… from a period of time we won’t be seeing
again, like Prince or Madonna… As one of the last big stars in the sense
that there was a certain glamour to it. And someone who had some kind
of integrity." ( Michael Jackson's name too was mentioned, coupled with the above two, as one of music's last superstars). But for me, unlike with the case of Madonna, or Jackson, Prince's music opened the doors to go beyond a safety to more adventurous stuff. Am sure that I mayn't have been able to play some of his albums in full when I was in my early teens, as they would've included such songs as the nothing left to imagine "do me, baby", or the kinky "If I was your girlfriend" - and he had so much clout even in the 90s, as to bring in a song titled "Sexy MF" inside the UK top 5. For me, it was just a matter of time till the whole discography was checked out, as music became more readily available with time. I guess it was that daring, to sing about what he wanted to, and sing it with an arrangement of music like no other, that made him so special. Later I realised that he "wrote, produced, arranged, and performed" all parts of his records by himself - but by that time he was already a giant ( beyond MJ, and Madonna, for me).]
To the book and Prince -
"On my mug Prince smolders at me, the volume of his hair competing with the frills of his lace shirt. In the midst of my heartbreak and cheap wine buzz, I still feel the pain of Prince's death.
'How could you leave us?' I ask him. 'I need you.'
Prince doesn't answer. He doesn't know what it feels like to be left to be left in a world that used to have a tiny guitar-wielding deity shrouded in lush fabrics emanating freedom, sexuality, vulnerability, and funkiness and now it doesn't.
But we do. And things have gotten pretty shitty since Prince died. I mean, they really suck now. Not just in my own disastrous existence but also out there in the world. I'm starting to feel confident there is a connection between these two things."
Prince made life sparkly; this is Ramona's point, and all of a sudden
she realises that she has been going through the mere motions in life,
without her happiness being the main objective. Maybe it is the absence
of Prince, coupled with the other challenges that makes her realise that
she's missing the most important thing about life. It works on her, to tell her boss about how she feels about her job, and the way he treats her, and the lack of faith in her. It is that which makes her realise how
she should go ahead with her marriage. And it is Prince who tells how to ride the storm - literally. What would Prince's reaction have been? Did he cancel the super bowl show because of the storm, or did he ride the storm ?
Rating: ***
Genre : Humorous Fiction (2023)
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