Thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ebook. In 1993, in the East Village, Jack is a bass player in a struggling punk band. One morning the lead singer, who is having problems with heroin, goes missing and so does Jack’s bass, just a few days before their next gig. This is the start of a humorous and gritty detective story as the story keeps getting more complicated and a brass, publicity seeking real estate tycoon might be responsible for starting it all.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the chance to read and review No One Left to Come Looking for You by Sam Lipsyte.

This was a pretty lightweight and quick read. A murder mystery woven around a struggling musician's quest to recover his stolen bass, it's set in the New York City (mainly below 14th St.) of the early 90s. As is often the case, the city's the star character of the novel and the people are just bit part players who consist of various bandmates, ex-bandmates, future bandmates, and the people with whom they come into contact in their day-to-day battles to stay relevant and alive.

It's funny and fast paced - I read it in a single Covid-fever-laced day and enjoyed it but I think that's partly because I lived in NYC directly preceding the year in which the novel is set so I was overcome with nostalgic emotions for the places in which I spent time as a much, much younger man in a much, much different city.

It's also a poignant read since the city at that point was on the cusp of the Giuliani (what ever happened to that guy?) revolution when all traces of that post-1960s/70s NYC would be extinguished and by the end of the book the characters are acknowledging that reality in their words, thoughts, and actions.

That aforementioned nostalgia is the main reason, I think, that I pushed this from a three- to a four-star read.

This book was nothing I expected. While the prose was enticing and with the well-thought-out plot, I felt it still needed more of the gritty 90s feel to it. I kept forgetting that it wasn’t present-day, as the setting tended to get lost in all the dialogue.

It has a dark, murder-mystery style with a rock and roll twist. The premise is interesting as we follow Jack S. around the city as he tries to track down his stolen bass and missing bandmate. Many intriguing characters pop up along the way to help the plot but end up somewhat muddying it, in my opinion. I think a few of the scenes could have been done away with as they took away from the whole gritty city life that the author could have focused more on.

Otherwise, it was an exciting book that held my attention. I would have loved to read more about what living in New York in the ’90s felt like without the numerous distractions stealing the show.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Sam Lipsyte is a master of the small novel, of flailing young men trying to find their way. He's also incredibly funny, with a dark sense of humor. I've loved his other books and look forward to them.

Having said that, I don't know what "No One Left to Come Looking for You" wants to be. The protagonist is Jonathan Liptak a/k/a Jack Shit, a suburban NJ kid and bassist in a barely extant punk band, the Shits, in the East Village of 1992. The plot turns on the theft of his bass and his efforts to find it. The book feels like it's trying to be a coming of age tale about Jonathan, a young man unsure of who he is or wants to be; a satire of the East Village scene of the early 90s; and, with its references to Trump, a political allegory. It's all of those things and, as a result, none of them. As an aside, I did appreciate the shout out to his father, Robert, a great former writer for the Times.

Again, Lipsyte is an incredibly talented writer, and you should pick up "The Ask," "Home Land" and "Hark."

My rating would really be 3.5 or 3.75 stars but the system is what the system is.

This honest review was given in exchange for an advance reader copy from #netgalley.

Much like the other novel I read by the author, this one was appreciated on the intellectual and not emotional level. Lipsyte is a clever and stylish writer, he has a way with words, he knows how to create multilayered characters.
But the thing is I didn’t much care for the plot and didn’t at all care about the characters; and appreciation of narrative skills can only take a reader so far on its own.
Early 90s, New York music scene. One fecally named band is trying to make it but hitting all sorts of obstacles from murder to personality explosions.
It’s one of those fairly stereotypical NY stories of struggling artists and grimy streets, cheap bars, cheap pizza, cheap lifestyles. Sort of like waxing nostalgia for a past that isn’t necessarily worth it.
New York has, for a while now, been a city aggressively hostile to nourishing most life (outside of the very wealthy or very naïve/stupid), but apparently once upon a time it welcomed those who dreamed or artistic self-expression and whatever fame and fortune that might bring.
If you want to read about that time, this is as good of a book as any. Nothing special, though. Nothing really original, either. Seems like a really familiar story.
So there you have it, folks…the novel about The Sh*ts isn’t quite The Sh*t it probably saw itself as, but it’s decent enough, well written, and a very quick read. Thanks Netgalley.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of No One Left to Come Looking For You.

I came of age in the late 90s and was into punk and alternative rock. One of my silly teenage dreams was to be a rock star even though I don't like attention, can't play a musical instrument or sing.

But that's why I was intrigued by the premise; a struggling New Jersey musician named Jonathan, I mean Jack, who is inadvertently pulled into a strange mystery when the lead singer of his band absconds with his prized Fender bass.

As Jack and his motley crew of quirky friends pursue leads on how to find their singer, hoping he's not lying in a an alley stoned or dead, Jack finds more than he bargains for.

I wasn't a fan of the author's writing style, the tone was fine, and there were a lot of quirky names and descriptions that made it hard for me to remember who was who.

Jack has random internal dialogues about his past, movies, music, playing music, that I wasn't interested in.

The mystery is not suspense or page turning; I didn't connect with anyone, not Jack or Hera or any of his friends.

The only people I did like was Jack's supportive parents.

I also liked the early 90s setting, way before social media, cell phones and the Internet took over our world and our lives, the feeling at this time in NYC where being young and having big dreams and the ability to chase them is all you need to make it. That and a few bucks to buy ramen. You still have to eat!

This wasn't for me but some readers might enjoy this.