|
|
 Meet the Annas by Robert Dunn (Coral Press, July 2007) is the newest girl-group novel on the scene, and holds a great story sure to satisfy any 1960s girl-groups fan. There is still such a fan following for 1960s girl groups that it's nice to see a solid novel using that era as a backdrop. This story is mostly set in present day, with numerous flashbacks to the 1960s to reveal glimpses of the storyline. Mostly it's the story of Dink Stephenson, who as a young songwriter in the early 1960s, penned girl-group songs with his school chum, Princess. The scenes of how they started writing together and eventually hooked up with an unknown girl group (and helped them become successful) were my favorite parts because they seemed so authentic and serve as a rare glimpse of what that life could have been like. But most readers will be entranced with Anna herself, who by the photo on the cover seems designed to look like Ronnie Bennett, lead singer of the Ronettes. Like Ronnie, Anna was a good girl who just acted bad, dressing in tight dresses and using scandalous amounts of eye makeup. Back to top |
In fact, the Annas seem patterned heavily on the Ronettes, as the two other members are Anna's sister and cousin. It's no surprise that a leading character is "Punky" Solomon, whose initials happen to be the same as legendary girl-group producer Phil Spector. In fact, much of the novel centers on a trial for songwriting credits with Dink, our leading man, vs. Phil--oops, I mean Punky. Like in the old days, producers slapped their own name and sometimes that of business associates on the songwriting credits to distribute the cash in the way they wanted. In this case, Dink and Princess are the sole writers of "Love Will Cut You Like a Knife," the last song of the Annas which flopped in the 1960s but in present day has come back as a retro hit and is widely used in commercials--thus prompting the lawsuit. In this story, Punky has added his own name as songwriter (if you didn't believe he was patterned after Spector, that should do it) along with that of his thug friend Manny.
Actually, the book is fiction, since in this story Anna herself died under mysterious circumstances back in the 1960s. As the trial unfolds, we learn how many of the men around Anna loved her--and the only one she really loved in turn. |
The discovery of Anna's secret diary, Manny turning violent, and other twists really give the ending of this book a punch. If you want a captivating story, you have it here. If you want to re-live the 1960s from the inside perspective, that's here, too, in rich detail--writing songs on the old piano while Mom yells from downstairs; finding raw talent at a local club; being in the studio with a talented producer who creates a special sound; being young and less jaded and seeing the future as a bright pathway ahead.  The author, Robert Dunn, is the author of the musical novels Pink Cadillac, Cutting Time: A Novel of the Blues, and Soul Cavalcade, and has published short fiction and poems in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and the O. Henry Prize Story collection. He teaches fiction writing at the New School University in New York City, where he lives, and is also on the editorial staff of Sports Illustrated. His music group, Thin Wild Mercury, plays often in Manhattan. I highly recommend Meet the Annas! © 2007 |
