DEEP CUTS

Creative partnership or romantic relationship? Berkeley undergrads who connect over his music and her ideas about it spend eight years agonizing over which is more important.

Brickley’s first novel lovingly evokes the indie scene of the early 21st century—and lots of other pop music as well—while deftly crafting the bumpy emotional journey of her insufferably opinionated, touchingly vulnerable heroine. Narrator Percy Marks clicks with singer/songwriter Joe Morrow from the moment they bond in the fall of 2000, in classic collegiate fashion, over the distinction between “a perfect song” and “a perfect recording.” He appreciates her critiques of his songs, which they both know make them better, and when Joe’s girlfriend, Zoe, tells Percy that she’s gay, Percy moves on her long-simmering attraction to Joe. It’s definitely reciprocated, but Joe tells her he values their work together too much to complicate it. This back and forth goes on while Percy gets an MFA at Columbia and Joe tours and self-releases his first album—“with special thanks” to Percy, who told him she didn’t want co-writing credit. She’s not so sure about that decision four years later, long after she’s told him she can’t work with him anymore, when she finds a song she co-wrote on his second album, with the same evasive “special thanks” credit. Percy now lives in San Francisco, where she writes a music blog in tandem with a vintage early-aughts job as an “intelligence specialist” searching out “trendsetters” for corporate brands looking for street cred. Zoe, now her best friend and roommate, offers a running reality check on Percy’s tortured, ambivalent feelings about Joe and her future career goals as they navigate the years from 9/11 to Barack Obama’s election. Brickley’s sensitive depiction of Percy’s (very) slowly growing professional and personal self-confidence will appeal even to readers who miss most of the pop-culture references and are weary of the “will they/won’t they” plot.

A promising debut notable for sharp characterizations and a vividly conveyed sense of time and place.