The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton

 The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton is the fictionalized oral history of an iconic interracial rock duo made up of a British dude and a badass from Detroit. 

When I first started reading this, I was immediately reminded of Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Rock and roll, drugs, the ampersand in the title, the entire framing structure of an oral history, the journalist with a familial tie-in to the story - the parallels are there and the parallels are strong. But while there are a lot of similarities, the characters of Daisy and Opal are so different that you soon forget about all the likenesses and move right along with the compelling narrative.

What I really appreciated about this book was its seamless integration of historical details with the main story. Opal and Nev are listed right alongside other real acts of the time period, Opal discusses real current events, and it all makes it seem as if you're reading a real oral history, not a fictional one. The book begins with a fictional "editor's note" and just keeps going all the way to the end.

There are so many aspects of the novel that were just so well done. It's an important look at the developments, or lack thereof, in race relations in the United States, and this book does that by integrating Opal's experiences in Detroit in the 60s and 70s (her description of staying huddled up with her sister and mother during the riots in 1967 was harrowing) to her reaction to the current BLM and MeToo movements.  It also raises very important questions about what the role of allies is and what the responsibilities of allyship are. Honestly, as a white person reading this book, I wondered a lot about Nev's role and what he could have done to make things easier for Opal in a way that Opal wouldn't have found insulting. (I mean, there are one or two BIG things he SHOULD have done and I think the reader will know what those are when they come up, but in day to day, what could or should Nev have done differently?)

The last thing I want to rave about here is Walton's writing. It's so good. She's writing dozens of people, in their voices, and she just does it so well. There's no wondering if Opal, Rosemary, or Chet is speaking because they all have unique voices. I am not a writer and I have no idea how this is technically done, but it was absolutely refreshing to have an author code switch so effectively and impeccably.  

Notable Lines:

"That's what the South was like for me. Sweet on the first taste, but something gone sour underneath. It'll try to trick you, now - the sugarberries and the quiet and those lovely spread-out homes. But after that day with Auntie Rose, I could smell the rotten too." (page 18-19)

I've traveled in the Southern United States a few times and I love the food and the architecture, but I'm always kind of on edge waiting for some sort of violence to break out. It doesn't make sense - I live within an hour's drive of Milwaukee, a very segregated city with tense race relations - but there you have it. 

"Survival skills. Some of us have them; some of us don't...I'm not talking about blaming victims. I'm just saying that some of us are naturally stronger, better equipped to deal with the bullshit than others, and that's the same as saying that some people are taller than others. Just fact, no judgment. And for those who are going through the tough ties and don't have that kind of strength already? Well, that's all right, because trust me: It can be learned." (page 38)

This is quite encouraging, in its own way. Some real growth mindset stuff here.

"...we got a Butterick Fast & Easy pattern that I nearly tore to shreds because it was so difficult." (page 93)

I have a "Fast & Easy" pattern I've been working on for about a year. Ha!

"Anyone who says they're color-blind is a damn lie. But there is plenty of time between what you see and what you say. And their little comments, their trying to talk Black or whatever, to me that was the going out of their way to announce they were cool with me being there, cool with me participating in what they obviously believed was their scene." (page 117)

When I taught American Minority Politics, students would regularly use their "color-blind" bullshit with me and I would call them on it.  It's not noticing race that's the problem, it's using it to change your thoughts and actions.

"When you talk about challenging to absorb, so is Bob Dylan's whiny ass, in my opinion, and that fucking Ulysses book I had to read in college. Nigga, what? But aren't we supposed to better and smart because of the challenging art that makes us uncomfortable? Isn't the culture better for it? Or does that only apply when heterosexual cisgender white men do the challenging?" (page 336)

This is a great encapsulation of why art matters and makes the world a better place to be.

Things I Looked Up:

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth (page 17): A civil rights activist in Birmingham, Alabama and co-founded SCLC. He worked with MLK, although the two sometimes disagreed on tactics and strategies.

Panto (page 27) - Informal, British abbreviation of pantomime. 

Brummie boy (page 45) - I think this is also British slang for a man/boy from Birmingham, although I'll take corrections on this.

Angela Davis and George Jackson (page 106) - This is a sad, sad tale. George Jackson was an innocent man sent to jail and he and Angela Davis shared a relationship via letters. Jackson became more and more radicalized the longer he was in jail and eventually Davis smuggled weapons that were used in a courthouse hostage situation. Jackson tried to escape San Quentin prison and was shot and killed in that attempt. (There's a great Ear Hustle episode on George Jackson that I remembered listening to as I started reading more about this.)

Toulouse - Lautrec sketch (page 214) - Henrie Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec Monfa "is known along with Cezanne, van Gogh, and Gaugin as one of the greatest painters of the Post-Impressionist period." I mean, I got that straight from an article from the Toulouse-Lautrec Foundation, so make of that what you will.  (Not related: He had some sort of disability/genetic disorder that he didn't grow very tall and he wasn't able to really do much physical activity, so that's why he immersed himself in art so much.)

George Wallace got shot (page 252-253) - I am familiar with George Wallace, the Alabama governor who proclaimed "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." I did not know, however, that he was shot in 1972 while he was campaigning for the presidential nomination and that this left him paralyzed for the rest of his life. He also suffered from Parkinson's in his later years. I have no idea how I didn't know this, but my husband didn't either, so that makes me feels somewhat less uneducated.

Pat Cleveland (page 276) - An African-American fashion model in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Melissa Harris-Perry (page 318) - A mixed race TV host/political commentator who hosted a weekend morning show on MSNBC from 2012-2016, when she left the network in an acrimonious manner.

Wait on line (page 332) - This is the third or fourth time that this phrase has come in my life recently, so I looked it up. Waiting in line (this is what I would say) is much more common that waiting on line, which is a phrase mostly found in the area of NYC. They mean the same thing.

You guys, I loved this book. 5/5 stars