Book Titles With That Indie-Rock Feel


By JOHN WILLIAMS

Robert Smith of The Cure.Chad Batka for The New York Times Robert Smith of The Cure.
When Douglas Coupland, born in 1961, called a novel “Girlfriend in a Coma,” after the song by the Smiths, it made perfect generational sense. The song was released when Mr. Coupland was 25. But certain bands — the Smiths, R.E.M., the Cure — continue to hold a special place for bookish listeners of new generations, and to influence writers looking for titles.
Some among us may be alarmed to learn it’s been almost 19 years since Morrissey, the former Smiths leader, released “The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get.” Two novelists, Jo Brand and Travis Nichols, have written novels titled “The More You Ignore Me.” Ms. Brand’s book features a mother and daughter obsessed with the singer. Mr. Nichols’s book, scheduled to be published in June, is told from the perspective of an unwelcome commenter on a wedding blog.
Andrew Porter’s novel “In Between Days,” published in September, is named after a 1985 hit by the Cure. Mr. Porter has said “the song’s lyrics (that sense of being in a time of transition) resonate perfectly” with one of his character’s conflicts.
Next year comes Allie Larkin’s novel, “Why Can’t I Be You,” which takes its name from a song recorded by the Cure when Ms. Larkin was 10. (The Cure has shown that literary inspiration works both ways. The band’s controversial “Killing an Arab” was modeled after the Albert Camus novel “The Stranger,” and its song “Charlotte Sometimes” quotes directly from the 1969 children’s book of the same name by Penelope Farmer.)

Full article at The New York Times

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