The Exes [Hardcover]

The end of Hank and Lilly's love affair is not a happy start to this novel. But you know what they say about clouds and silver linings. Lilly's idea that she and Hank should form a band--hence The Exes––with bassist Shaz and her ex, Walt, who happens to be a drummer, is a master stroke. The loveless quartet dive headlong into the grungy heart of Boston's hip and happening music scene and begin their climb up the very greasy pole that is the music biz career structure. The emotional complications of being shackled together beyond the natural life of their relationships proves to be a gold mine of character development. Neurotic Lilly's fractious relationship with the grumpily superior Walt-- terrifically described as ''the Ross Perot of the Boston music scene''--is the book's catchy hook line with Shaz and Walt's slightly less interesting story providing a solid if uninspiring rhythm section. Just like a real band, everyone thinks about stardom and sex all the time and Kennedy exhibits an acute take on small time rock'n'roll life and a wry insight into this emotional roller-coaster. Does this make it sound like a late period Abba song? Maybe. But can there be a higher recommendation? --Nick Wroe

A week after Hank and Lily decide to break up, they start a band together and come up with a unique gimmick: the band will be made up of ex-girlfriends and boyfriends. But as soon as THE EXES go on tour, the band finds out it's not so easy to share a motel room with your old flame. The novel is told from four different viewpoints as the characters try to cope with working together and examine the new emotions triggered by being on the road. Jealousies flare and intimacies renew as they discover each other's foibles, failings and fuck-ups.

Pagan Kennedy is the author of SPINSTERS (shortlisted for the 1996 Orange Prize), STRIPPING AND OTHER STORIES and PLATFORMS: THE MICROWAVED CULTURE OF THE 1970s. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing, she lives in Boston.