Lola Bensky by Lily Brett

Release Date: 10th September, 2013

Publisher: Counterpoint

Pages: 267pgs

The Story

Lola Bensky is a nineteen-year-old rock journalist who irons her hair straight and asks a lot of questions. A high-school dropout, she's not sure how she got the job but she's been sent by her Australian newspaper right to the heart of the London music scene at the most exciting time in music history: 1967.

Lola spends her days planning diets and interviewing rock stars. In London, Mick Jagger makes her a cup of tea, Jimi Hendrix (possibly) propositions her and Cher borrows her false eyelashes. At the Monterey International Pop Festival, Lola props up Brian Jones and talks to Janis Joplin about sex. In Los Angeles, she discusses being overweight with Mama Cass and tries to pluck up the courage to ask Cher to return those false eyelashes.

Lola has an irrepressible curiosity, but she begins to wonder whether the questions she asks these extraordinary young musicians are really a substitute for questions about her parents' calamitous past that can't be asked or answered. As Lola moves on through marriage, motherhood, psychoanalysis and a close relationship with an unexpected pair of detectives, she discovers the question of what it means to be human is the hardest one for anyone—including herself—to answer.

The Review

A big thanks to the publisher on netGalley for accepting my request in reading this book early!

LOLA BENSKY was quite a interesting book and surprisingly I actually enjoyed it for the most part. I guess that comes from the main character, Lola, being only nineteen-years-old and having what most would consider the dream job as she's traveling to the likes of London and America, and also interviewing up and coming rock-stars for an Australian publication. What's not to love when she interviews music legends such as Mick Jagger, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Cher? I mean it can't get better than that for a storyline and an interesting one at that.

But moving away from the music scene, what I loved the most was getting to know Lola personally - her alone as an individual - and all of the insecurities she has had for most of her life and one coming from her mother who continues to put her down about her weight and such. You felt quite sorry for her in that matter. But what I particularly enjoyed was Lola's backstory and how the book shifts between the years of her younger years, her adult years and eventually moving up to her much older years which was such a great transition for me as a reader and it was great learning so much about her as well as the music scene. It was very well-written to say the least.

Overall, LOLA BENSKY isn't my typical read nor everyone else's, but if you love the music scene as much as me then you're going to definitely enjoy this book! It may seem like a lighter read at first, but once you dive into it, it's actually quite a heavy book dealing with plenty of interesting things and I really enjoyed reading about them all.

The Rating

4/5 stars