Has anyone else here read #1 with a Bullet? What are your thoughts/opinions?
I just recently read it after a friend loaned me her copy. Earlier this year, Stephanie interviewed the author Elaine Jesmer for her
internet radio show. Jesmer admitted the book wasn't very well written and she
wasn't kidding! True, it's a trashy book in the vein of Harold Robbins,
Jacqueline Susann and Jackie Collins, but the plot construction/execution and
the pacing left a lot to be desire. At times, the book was a slog to read.
Also, trashy novels in which characterization is best conveyed through quick,
flashy means rather than through nuanced observation. Jesmer opted for the
latter approach but she doesn't have the talent to make it all that compelling. Matters
aren't helped much that Jesmer has many of her characters speak in what she
depicts as a Texas African American dialect. Fortunately almost all of the
main characters in the book are based on Motown and show business personalities
so the reader is playing "guess who" as they read the book.
That being said, if you know the Motown personalities, it's a worthwhile enough
read. The main characters are Kate, obviously based on Jesmer herself, a white Press
agent who is unhappy working as a PR person in the sleazy, shallow, cutthroat
world of show business, and Daniel Stone, [[aka Marvin Gaye) a troubled and
talented soul singer. The two meet as Stone is preparing for a show that will
open a glamourous new club on the Sunset Strip. Stone is married to the sister
of the President of his record company, Finest Records of Houston Texas. Finest
has become very successful producing assembly line pop soul records. The head
of Finest is Bob Vale who has allowed the mob to become involved in the running
of Finest. Bob has an appetite for sadistic sex and he beats a female singer on
his label until she is bloody and near brain dead while having sex. Bob's two
sisters are just as trashy and decadent and nearly everyone else who appears in
the novel is either trashy and sleazy, or just a pathetic victim. There's
really no one to root for in this book. Though melodramatic, Jesmer does seem
to capture some truths about the seamy side of the music industry, but the book
is so cynical and ugly in its depiction of nearly all aspects of humanity, that
it is a very unpleasant read. Nearly all of the sex scenes depict ugly,
humiliating, or degrading couplings or orgies.
There's no Diana Ross type character in the book. There are a few mentions made
of "The Violets" a 4 woman vocal group who is Finest top act and making top
dollar doing club gigs and television appearances, but the Violets don't factor
into the story.
Though I'm sure Motown and the Gordys weren't pleased about the book, given the
quality of the novel, I think it's safe to say that the reason the book didn't
do that well wasn't because Motown had it spiked, but because in comparison to
the slick quality trash of contemporaies like Susann, Robbins, Sidney Sheldon,
Irving Wallace and Mario Puzo, #1 With a Bullet just doesn't compare. But
again, if you're a Motown gossip connesieur, then the book is worth a try.
