Artificial Light

February 13, 2006
Following the alleged suicide of a rock legend in 1994, a 22-year-old librarian called Fiat Lux disappears, leaving behind her 21 notebooks recording the circumstances surrounding the death. The rocker, who fronted for the band N, is known only as Kurt C, and shortly before his death, according to the notebooks, he returned to his hometown of "Dayton, O—," where he moved into the dilapidated former residence of Orville Wright. An ironic discourse on the myths around dead celebrities might be expected, but this ambitious debut novel remains more coy than keen. The notebooks unfold from multiple, obliquely identified points of view, including those of Fiat, a housebound opium-addicted Orville Wright and a local musician working on both a Wright biography and a book about "our life in rock" (perhaps an alter ego for Greer, former bassist and Guided by Voices biographer). While Greer's maverick disregard for narrative conventions works early on, the layered, disjointed structure becomes labored and confusing by mid-book. Greer's eloquence on the booze-soaked angst of the gritty Midwest alternative music scene may speak to indie fans, but too often the narrators disappear, leaving the author airing his insider opinions, stripped of the thin cloak of fiction.

February 1, 2006
Greer does a superb job of transcending conventional genrefication, bringing something fresh to contemporary literature by asking the simple question, -What if? - Specifically, what if Kurt C -, a well-known fictional rock musician, grew tired of success and retreated to his hometown of Dayton, OH? And what if Kurt C - decided to buy a house on Hawthorne Hill named Albion, the former residence of Orville Wright (of Wright brothers fame)? This two-part question is answered by Kurt's dear friend Fiat Lux in 21 personal notebooks found at Kurt's house after his death. It is said that she handwrote this story while Kurt's corpse lay only steps away and that when she finished, she disappeared from society forever. This new book by music writer Greer, former band member of Guided by Voices, is for the most part a very enjoyable read. There are a few instances of confusion and redundancy, but the highly inventive structure, full of eccentricities and rock music factoids, is enough to keep one entertained. Recommended for public libraries with patrons interested in popular culture and/or late Eighties, early Nineties rock music." - Stephen Morrow, Amherst, MA"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
In his ambitious and intriguing debut novel, indie rock expert Greer, author of " Guided by Voices "(2005), employs one of literature's oldest gambits, the book-within-a-book structure, three times over. A young librarian calling herself Fiat Lux fills a set of notebooks with her passion for books and an enigmatic account of her interlude with Kurt C, a famous indie rock star who appears unheralded in Dayton, Ohio, and buys the long-abandoned Orville Wright mansion. A member of the rock group Whiskey Ships is trying to write about his musical odyssey but longs to return to his book about Orville Wright, whose long-lost diaries also feed the narrative stream. Greer picks the lock on the Kurt Cobain mythos and the rapid commercialization of indie rock, although he burdens the story with an excess of skewed and meandering erudition and literary allusions. Yet strong writing and shrewd perceptions prevail, backed by wry humor, compelling stumblebum characters, a true-blue louche atmosphere, and arresting insights into the dream of art, be it literature or rock and roll.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)