Five stars? I must have eaten happy mushrooms for lunch.

DD, an indigenous Canadian, has disappeared and Geoff Berner feels that if he interviews all her friends and fellow band members he might be able to find her. The story unfolds as each person’s thoughts on DD are recorded by Geoff.

It is a very bizarre, strange, quirky book. None of those interviewed can get through a sentence without a sprinkling of some very coarse words in it. Nor do we escape from DD’s lovers telling us, in detail, about their sex life. In fact, I suppose sex, drugs and rock n roll sums up this book in a nutshell.

Under normal circumstances, I might have given this type of novel one or maybe two stars, but there is something so different, so mindbogglingly bizarre about the way the book has been written that I have had to leave my mundane ideas behind and simply look at this book as if I am Alice in Wonderland and have tumbled down a hole following the Rabbit.

Treebeard

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I could not get into this book. There was not a point to the story or a hook that I could find.

Berner uses the risky device of a melange to tell the tale of DD, a talented fiddler who has disappeared. Be aware that the story doesn't flow smoothly because it's told in bits and pieces from a variety of perspectives. Also note that the language can be rough and that there's sex. That said, there's also an intriguing tale here. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. I was not familiar with Berner or with the Canadian music scene so this was a bonus for me. Try this if you're interested in a. different sort of literary hunt.

DD is an elusive Canadian folk musician who has disappeared. The author, in an attempt to find her, interviews people who knew her, mostly fellow musicians, and asks them to divulge their most important memories of DD. What emerges is a character portrait.

Every one of the narrators seems to have been mesmerized by DD. There are some conflicting accounts but it seems clear that DD is a troubled woman who has been wounded by life. Though she is predictable and unreliable, these flaws seem not to matter. Everyone seems mesmerized by her prodigious talent and her charisma; both men and women find her sexually irresistible even though she is serially unfaithful.

Of course, the narrators also reveal themselves as they present their versions of DD. Some of her bandmates are jealous of her musical gift and resent how she attracts others to her. Everyone seems to want something from her, use of her body or talent being foremost. Several people have a love/hate relationship with the quirky fiddler. One lover admits, “There was something about her that . . . I couldn’t figure out . . . I was trying to get DD somehow,” but really no one person has a complete understanding of her.

There is nothing like a traditional plot structure. The narrative shifts among narrators and moves back and forth in time. There are many narrators so it is sometimes difficult to keep track of who is who. I kept wishing there were a list of all the speakers and their relationship to DD; I almost resorted to making notes to help me remember the salient points about each narrator.

What is missing is tension. At the beginning, confusion is dominant; later, interest grows but there is no great suspense. The reader knows from the beginning that DD will not be found; in the introductory note, Berner admits, “I failed to find DD.” Anyone who needs suspense to motivate his/her reading will not enjoy this book.

Even though the book is a novel, a work of fiction, the author does succeed at making the reader think of DD as a real person. That is a commendable literary accomplishment. The insights into the Canadian music scene are intriguing; it is obvious that Berner writes from first-hand experience. DD is an Indigenous woman so I found the references to missing Indigenous women appropriate: DD’s disappearance is dismissed because she is “a woman, a musician, and of Indigenous heritage. Those kinds of people disappear all the time, after all.” DD’s admonition to a friend, “’Just promise me you won’t hitchhike around here,’” refers, I think, to the Highway of Tears.

This is not a book I would recommend to everyone. The subject matter with its proliferation of drugs, sex and profane language will repel some readers; the non-traditional structure along with shifting time periods and multiple narrators will not appeal to others. Anyone wanting a quirky read focusing on quirky characters will enjoy this novel.

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Note: My review will be posted to my blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.ca/) on November 7. It will also be posted on Goodreads and LibraryThing, and links will be provided on Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

Geoff Berner gives his account of interviewing people to find the mysterious DD. They tell him different stories and reminisce about DD. Funny in places and just the right length. The ending I felt was a let down. I kept expecting something more.

This story is set around the music industry. It is written as interviews with various musicians about DD, a talented performer who wants to be out of the public eye. Everyone has a different perspective about her and her life. This book was not my cup of tea, too much profanity and sexual content.

Set up as collected series of interviews, snippets, letters, and recollections, this book is an oddly put together memoir and mystery.

The titular fiddler DD is at the center of a constantly shifting cast of varied characters who want to mother her, protect her, exploit her and/or sleep with her. All of them want something from her. In the end, she disappears off the face of the earth and the author tries to find her later, hence the interviews and stories.

It's an interesting twist to a memoir. It left me feeling quite sad about the level of exploitation and debauchery the author attributes to the traveling musicians on the folk/country circuit. I don't doubt some of the stories and incidents in the book have some vague factual basis, he certainly writes very convincingly. I've read a number of reviews (after reading the book) from folks who were horrified about the things related in the book. If graphic descriptions of drug use or sex or generally disreputable and irresponsible behavior upset you, it's not the book for you.

I found it sad, but very well written and worth reading. It did make me laugh out loud several times, kudos for that.

I'm so disappointed! I was really looking forward to reading this intriguing mystery based on it's description. But unfortunately I will never know what happened to DD because after the first few pages I had to put it down and walk away. I wish I would have known up front it was filled with lesbian lovers and too many four-letter words. This is just not the kind of material I want to read nor can I recommend it to my friends.

I tend to get annoyed when fiction is presented as historical, but Geoff Berner is so nonchalant about doing so I rather feel I can't be bothered. So the good fiddler here is DD, she is a legendary musician of Canadian renown, who disappears quite suddenly and to the dismay of many. Berner's book reads as a log of interviews conducted in hopes of her eventual resurfacing. Rather than try to follow clues, anticipate leads, or reconstruct her accounts, I just enjoyed the story about life on the road for musicians. As told by a good many entertaining perspectives.

3 stars

Geoff Berner, himself a musician, tells the story of “DD” a very talented fiddler. Although he is a big part of the story himself, he lets others tell bits of DD’s history. The problem is that they don’t seem to agree on anything. Each telling DD’s story from a different perspective, the reader gets the idea that not only was DD a talented musician, but a quirky and unusual person.

This is a well written novel, although the plotting itself is – well slightly out there. Of course given that it is supposed to be written from different peoples’ perspectives, I guess I can see the slightly schizophrenic nature of the novel. Not too bad, I’d say. I’ve never read or listened to Geoff Berner, so he is a totally new experience for me. I’d be willing to read his next novel.

I want to thank NetGalley and Dundurn for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

“The Fiddler is a Good Woman,” by Geoff Berner, has a storyline of musicians and their environment. I get excited about the details of living that life. It’s not because I’m a doper, a groupie, or a dead head. It’s because I really like music and am enthralled by those who can skillfully perform it. This book is about a small collection of band musicians who perform country rock in small venues, traveling in meager circumstances, while burning out the candle. What a life.

Geoff Berner is, himself, of that ilk. He’s a singer/songwriter/accordionist who has caroused the world and is a careful observer of the crazy arena he inhabits. Berner has imagined a mysterious and talented woman violinist, DD, who is a sideman with whatever band she can tie up with, and who immediately transforms the group into a talented and cohesive assemblage whose music is instantly wildly received. The problems he outlines, her unpredictability, her unreliability, her personal hang-ups, and her inability to stay the course, are character flaws that threaten every relationship. Then she disappears, much to the consternation of those who depend on her talent to keep them working, flaws and all.

This is a novel into which the author has inserted himself, and it is he who searches for DD, trying to determine where she is and what she intends to do with her talent. To do so, he uses the recollections of the people closest to her, an odd group who don’t agree on most things. He constantly reminds the reader that the story is not true, although it seems to be non-fiction.

The story is loaded with blue language, sexual encounters between all sexes, hateful attitudes, jealousy, and personal instabilities. But there is also an undercurrent of musical resonance and performance that magically dumps the reader into smoky and whiskey-soaked second-rate music venues.

The characters in Berner’s novel are, in his words, “flawed, hurt people…making meaningful music.” That ambiance is reflected in his dislocated and rambling dialogue that, somehow, keeps the reader immersed in its legitimacy.

At the end, the author wants readers to evaluate his book as a piece of art, be it good, crappy, or middling. I’d call it good.

I think I requested this by mistake. I appreciate receiving it, but not knowing a thing about the Canadian music scene, I'm afraid I am not part of this author's audience