The Last Revival of Opal and Nev

 The Last Revival of Opal and Nev

By Dawnie Walton

This is the story of an interracial rock duo from the 1970s -- as well as the magazine-editor working to tell

their intertwined story. Nev is a British songwriter trying to find an electrifying partner when he stumbles upon Opal in a Detroit nightclub. It is Opal's sister who has the voice, but she who has the panache of a star. The two put out a record that is destined for obscurity until one night when their record label puts on a showcase of its talent headlined by their one hit-maker, the Bond Brothers. This southern-rock band attracts an audience of Hell's Angel-like bikers who are obscene and loud -- and riotous when Opal, who has been eyeing warily the Confederate flag the Bonds like to use as a prop at their show, reveals that she has stolen it and gathered it around her like a diaper. A picture of a wounded Nev hauling an even more wounded Opal out of the theater makes a splash in the Times and Opal and Nev ride the attention to a new record, fame, and a small fortune.

Oh, and the drummer for the band, Jimmy Curtis, is killed in the melee. He happens to be the father of the editor/reporter hoping to tell Opal and Nev's story ahead of a reunion tour, LenaSarah "Sunny" Curtis. The book switches back and forth between interviews with Opal and Nev, Sunny's narrative, and other bits of media, all of which are designed to make the book read like the "real" thing; there are even footnotes. In her research, Sunny interviews the sole surviving Bond brother, who claims it was Nev who told his drugged up former self that Opal had stolen his stars and bars and started the riot that night. It's a fact that has the potential to blow the Opal and Nev reunion tour up -- if anyone believes it. It also provides a window into an exploration of the role that race and gender play in the music industry (and world as a whole). 

All in all, I found this to be an engrossing book. I wonder, though, whether its realism adds to it or detracts from it. The series of events are so tied to real events that it sometimes felt tedious to re-read them. I was certainly ready for it to be done when it was over.