{"product_id":"ruby-dreams-of-janis-joplin-9781496207586","title":"Ruby Dreams of Janis Joplin","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003eMusic, whether a Debussy étude or Gram Parsons’s “Hickory Wind,” has been a constant in Ruby Gervais’s life. After Ruby helps fuel a paranoid fervor that spreads like wildfire throughout her rural Montana community, her home life deteriorates. As a sixteen-year-old high school dropout busing tables at the local bar two nights a week, her prospects are uncertain. So when, after her shift one night, the Idaho Rivermen invite her to join their band and head toward fame and fortune, Ruby doesn’t think twice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eRuby Dreams of Janis Joplin\u003c\/i\u003eMary Clearman Blew deftly braids together memories of the past with the present, when the Rivermen have implodedand a severely bruised and disillusioned Ruby returns to her hometown to find everything she ran away from waiting for her. In lyrical yet muscular prose, Blew explores women dealing with the isolation of small towns, the enduring damage done when a community turns against itself, the l\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eRuby Dreams of Janis Joplin\u003c\/i\u003e represents the latest achievement in Mary Clearman Blew’s distinguished career across several genres. . . . \u003ci\u003eRuby Dreams\u003c\/i\u003e demonstrates that you can go home again and that home can lead to health. But the return is harrowing.”—O. Alan Weltzien, \u003ci\u003eWestern American Literature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mixing real time with past time, Blew reveals the underbelly of small-town life—secrets, betrayals, Satanic cults, and sexual abuse. But she also discovers grace and generosity driven by love, and how music may have the power both to heal and to connect. This is a stunning narrative told in vivid detail with the insights of someone who has been there. You will not be able to put it down.”—Annick Smith, writer, filmmaker, and coeditor of \u003ci\u003eWide Open: Prose, Poetry, and Photographs of the Prairie\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What makes the novel unforgettable is how Ruby Gervais rescues herself. . . . Only Mary Clearman Blew could have found the words, the songs, the friends, and the lost family that enable Ruby to survive and make a little dignity for herself along the way.”—David Huddle, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Story of a Million Years\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eRuby Dreams of Janis Joplin\u003c\/i\u003e begins like a slow float down a river, and then somehow you find yourself in very big water, being driven along on dark currents of paranoia yet feeling yourself pulled toward something promising and generous and sweet.”—Kent Meyers, author of \u003ci\u003eTwisted Tree\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Over decades and a sequence of empathetic, vivid, and compelling books, Mary Clearman Blew—one of our master artists—has shown Westerners enacting sometimes difficult truths about our societies and selves. Once again, she is to be thanked, and congratulated.”—William Kittredge, author of \u003ci\u003eHole in the Sky: A Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49409221951831,"sku":"9781496207586","price":15.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/ruby-dreams-of-janis-joplin-9781496207586","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}