Poet of The Wrong Generation

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars Full Text: Captivating. A book not just to be read, but experienced. This book takes off in the 90's during a free concert in Central Park with Johnny and his girl Megan, and friend Andy. As Andy wanders off in search of those bootleg t-shirts he comes back with a lovely Brit in tow Jacqui. Johnny is a writer/poet. Even at the concert his notebook and pen in hand taking in all he sees around him and puts it on paper. You know from the start that Megan and Johnny are meant to be. Megan is from money, her mother Katherine (dare I call her that) a heavy hitting self made PR woman; manipulative and cunning this woman takes no prisoners. There's no love lost between she and Johnny and she does what she does best. Drives a wedge between her daughter and the boy. His betrayal so raw he sits and pens a song about what has happened. He's in college as is his friend Andy, Jacqui is here attending school as well when she gets called home because of her father. When he passes, she remains in England. Andy is devastated. Johnny writes a song. While in school Johnny meets and older song writer who has returned to school determined to get his degree so he can teach. Howard sees something in Johnny, he helps him along. Helps fine tune his gift meanwhile taking his music to a friend at a music label. Pulling together some old friends, Howard gives Johnny a little studio band and the label falls in love with him. Singer-songwriters in the 90's are long gone. Johnny is one of the rare treasures that don't come along often. At the same time Megan's life changes dramatically as well. His career takes off in a huge way. A tour. Social obligations. And then there is Megan's mother Katherine, ready to cut this boy off at the knees. For no other reason than because she can. Without defense Johnny retreats to Connecticut where he lives alone, goes back to school learns to play guitar and basically removes himself from life for 5 years. There are some things that transpire leading Johnny back into the music arena. Jacqui and Andy are married. His friends are firmly rooted in their lives. With the help of a couple of old friends he makes his re-entry into music in a huge way and also with Megan. There aren't enough good things to say about this book. It's moving, emotional, captivating, the music and songs accompany the book (they'll wreck you) and I couldn't put this one down. Lonny Ostrow is a gifted writer. This book with it's twists and turns, magic and emotion will take you on one of the most wonder filled and painful journeys in life. Honestly I hope this makes the NY Times list. It's uncomplicated simplicity is as complex as one of Johnny's songs. He is the Poet of the Wrong Generation. **arc from NetGalley and Publisher** in exchange for an honest review. Links: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1796995311

Reviewed by Jenny & Gitte 4.5 stars “No one can rationalize why something so positively beautiful comes from the depths of our pain. I guess that’s what classifies art and artists among life’s ironies…..there would never be a love song if folks were always happy.” What a soulful emotional and beautiful story! Music themed romances are one of our favourites, though all too often we find the focus weighs heavily on the sex and romance factor of the story, missing the all-important music ‘feel‘ we crave from this theme. As much as we love the romance, we equally hunger the musical aspect; we want to live in the moment, breathe in the enthusiasm and experience the inspiration and the atmosphere behind the scenes. And on that note, we can declare Lonnie Ostrow’s Poet of a Wrong Generation, a fictional love story between a rock star and the woman who would always claim his heart, set in New York and peppered with real events that shaped our lives delivered with a musical landscape that spoke to our hearts and it was everything we could possibly desire. A real, raw, compelling and heartbreakingly emotional story that at times read like a memoir. “Perfection is a myth. It just doesn’t exist, unless we accept each other for who we are and what we’ve been through. Love and understanding, it’s the closest we’ll come to reaching it.” If you’ve ever been inspired by a love song, if a songwriters words have ever spoken directly to you, if you’ve ever felt so overcome with emotion watching your favourite singer/band bringing their words to life in concert, then THIS story is for you. Lonnie Ostrow has spectacularly, truthfully, intensely and vividly captured the heart and soul of a musician with his beautiful words and stunning writing. ‘For one breathtaking moment, two tortured, wandering souls had rediscovered a common spiritual bond.’ If you’re looking for a sex, drugs and rock and roll romance with a self-destructive hero you won’t find it here but what you will experience is a soulful story of a love that refused to die, of a sensitive, talented man whose meteoric rise to fame was inspired by pain, heartbreak and lost love and for whom, fame would come at a price. It’s August 1991 when we meet 22 year old Johnny Elias; a sensitive, poetic young man whose sole existence revolves around his girlfriend Megan. Johnny, together with Megan, his best friend Andy and Andy’s girlfriend, Jacqui, are enjoying the Paul Simons free concert in Central Park. They have a life full of endless possibilities before them, yet neither could foresee the twist their lives would take after that day, both good and bad. “Remember: life isn’t calculated in years and days. It’s measured in moments.” After being hurt and betrayed by Megan following a miscommunication, theirs would be a break up which would see Johnny pen some of the most beautifully evocative, relevant and wistful songs that would launch his career into stratospheric proportions, with critics declaring him the ‘Dylan of his generation.’ In a market swamped with techno and nonsense pop songs, Johnny struck a chord with his meaningful lyrics. Having been signed by Highpeak records, Johnny quickly rose to fame until a bitter cruel manipulation saw him fighting for survival in the fickle music scene. “The boy you walked away from – the one scribbling in a poetry notebook – he’s become a man with this crazy career.” Poet of the Wrong Generation at its heart is Johnny’s story. Despite having everything he could want materially, all Johnny craved was stability, love and someone to share in his success. It’s a story of strength, friendship loyalty and love, of a man who never lost sight of who he was, who retained his dignity in the face of continual betrayal. One betrayal would see him rise above and pour his heart out in lyrics, another would shatter his confidence, his world and his heart. “You were my support system. My reason to believe that life could actually mean something besides endless transition…” We did find Megan irritating at first and wanted to shake some sense into her, though we knew her actions were not out malice, but merely a young girl still trying to find herself and assert her independence against her strong willed, manipulative and cruel mother. We devoured this book and everything about it felt so real.

Launched my blog, Musings on Music, Marketing and Make-Believe. Check it out at http://authorlonnieostrow.blogspot.com/

Poet of The Wrong Generation opens with a poet's lament: specifically, that of Johnny Elias, who faces disillusionment after a whirlwind of luck has propelled him from a life as a directionless poet to a megastar and back in the blink of two-years. In 1991, Johnny is a Brooklyn college student in love and filled with big dreams for his future. He views the world (and his love) with rose-colored glasses; but her mother's pragmatic assessment of his pros and cons and ability to be the kind of partner she wishes for her daughter leads to some heartless decisions about their relationship which ironically spins Johnny into the very limelight he'd seemed destined to never reach. As lovers and friends spiral around an elusive definition of success, the seeming pinnacles of achievement in life, and a meteoric rise and fall that will carry them both on a wave of many changes, Poet of The Wrong Generation brings its readers along for a roller coaster ride through poems and songs, successes and failures, and epic decisions that alter the course of life. Plenty of stories revolve around success and failure; but few are able to capture the subtler nuances of life decisions and changes through the eyes of various protagonists who have different perspectives on life's wealth and how to grasp it. This juxtaposition of experience, tied to song lyrics and a struggle to represent the empowering language and experience of those in Johnny's life, makes for a compelling read filled with depth, music insights, nostalgia, and the motivations of lovers, parents, friends and all whose lives intersect in his journey. Alluring and engrossing, Poet of the Wrong Generation's saga of the costs of achievement and the promises of love will attract and hold any fiction reader interested in more than a casual probe of love's evolution in the face of life's greatest obstacles and successes.

REVIEW: POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION by Lonnie Ostrow is an amazing and cleverly written, contemporary romance story of fiction following musician Johnny Elias, and the woman he loves Megan Price. Told from several third person points of view, POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION covers approximately six years in the life, beginning in 1991, of contemporary singer/song writer and poet Johnny Elias –from his early days in college to his meteoric rise to fame and fortune, and the eventual downfall, not of his making. The reader is front and center as twenty one year old Johnny Elias enters into the world of an upstart musician working his way to the top. Before Johnny’s life begins its quick ascent he will lose the one person who keeps his heart beating and his soul alive. Megan’s rejection of the boy that she loves is the perfect muse for our story line hero, and with it comes the fame and notoriety of celebrity status and the fortunes of success…but jealousy, revenge and betrayal are accomplices to Johnny’s fall from grace- a fall that is triggered by someone from his past. POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION is an astonishing and profound story; a unique look at one man’s climb to the top only to be destroyed by someone else’s greed, ambition, and need for retribution and revenge; a story of forbidden love between two people whose lives will be destroyed by resentment, the hunger for power, and a need to control. Lonnie Ostrow’s POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION is a masterpiece of literary fiction for today’s generation and the next. Make POET OF THE WRONG GENERATION your next go-to read and enjoy! Copy supplied by the publisher for review www.thereadingcafe.com