Elvis by Bobbie Ann Mason
When Bobbie Ann Mason first heard Elvis singing on the radio, she recognised immediately that 'he was ours...a country person who spoke our language'. Born to a poor family clinging to the edge of respectability, Elvis was catapulted into a stratosphere of wealth and fame he could never have imagined. His music, blending black and white influences and drawing on his powerful sexual allure, exploded across 1950s America as the sound of liberation. But as Mason shows with great understanding, nothing in Elvis's life had prepared him for his mythic status. Locked into a sharecropper-like contract with his manager, Colonel Parker, he was forced to keep churning out mediocre movies and albums, while turning to drugs and spending sprees to cope with his isolation. Even his triumphant comeback in Las Vegas couldn't banish the demons that eventually cost him his life. Elvis is a book that only Bobbie Ann Mason could have written, and the Elvis she portrays is unforgettable.
Finished copies of ELVIS have gone out, with a publication date of 13th MarchThere has been initial interest from LOOSE ENDS (BBC Radio 4). Teletext are also planning a feature. The first two full pages reviews have come in, andare great: 'Bobbie Ann Mason makes an efficient guide to Elvis country.'Craig Brown, MAIL ON SUNDAY (***) 'It is a measure of Mason's deft touch as a writer that the story she tells us does not become too heavy with symbolism...[a] considerable achievement.'Justine Picardie, DAILY TELEGRAPH '...an admirably balanced study.'IRISH TIMES 'Mason cuts through the crap and gets to the agony and the ecstasy of Presley's life and times, painting a picture of a deeply flawed and hugely contradictory mythical hero sacrificed, Osiris-like, on the alter of the American consumerist dream.'David Sutton, JACK MAGAZINE There
Bobbie Ann Mason is one of America's leading contemporary fiction writers. Her first short story was published by the New Yorker in 1980. She then went on to win the 1982 Ernest Hemingway Foundation Award for Shiloh and Other Stories. Other works include In-Country, Spence and Lila, Midnight Magic, Clear Springs: A Family Story and Feather Crowns. She lives in rural Kentucky.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780297829799 |
| ISBN 10 | 0297829793 |
| Title | Elvis |
| Author | Bobbie Ann Mason |
| Series | Lives |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Orion Publishing Co |
| Year published | 2003-03-13 |
| Number of pages | 160 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |