Play for Me

April 1, 2015
Lily finds herself unexpectedly bereft when her only son goes off to college, and adrift in her job as a corporate videographer and in her relationship with her kind, solid husband in their home on New York's Upper West Side. On the cusp of 50, she pines for a second chance or a whole separate extra life. Her chance comes in the form of JJ, a folk-rock guitar virtuoso, whose performance Lily happens to catch on her son's campus. Equally stunned by the music and JJ himself, Lily soon propels herself forward into his life, dropping everything to follow the band, Rising Stars, and become their video documentarian. As Lily and JJ's relationship evolves on the road, Keating (Layla, 2011) effectively explores the psychic force that performers have over their audience, and the reciprocity of adoration between musicians and their fans. With a background as a music reviewer, Keating combines the soul-searching of Eat, Pray, Love with the rock 'n' roll fable of Almost Famous to create a novel of midlife crisis with music at its core.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)