The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

Starred review from December 21, 2020
Walton’s spectacular debut pulls off a polyphonic oral history of a fictional proto-Afro-punk performer and her white musical partner. The novel begins with the sensational origin story of unlikely duo Opal & Nev, described by magazine editor S. Sunny Curtis in 2017 as the “progenitors of dissidence and dissonance.” After Opal Jewel arrives in New York City from Detroit in 1970, where she’d been an outcast for her radical politics, fashion, and musical style, she meets “goofy white English boy” Nev Charles, a songwriter from Birmingham, at an open mic. Nev is impressed by her performance, and the two team up to produce a phenomenally successful sound. Their star quickly rises, but after a photo appears in 1971 showing Opal blanketed in a Confederate flag as Nev carries her away from a gig turned riot, their career flames out in controversy. The novel’s diverse group of voices are cobbled together by Curtis as she searches for the truth behind the iconic “picture of chaos.” The story is also personal for Curtis—her father, a drummer, had been having an affair with Opal, and he was killed in the melee. The novel is bookended by an equally violent reunion that confirms a shocking secret, and Opal proves herself the champion of the “marginalized, bullied, discriminated against.” Walton pumps up the volume with a fresh angle on systemic racism and freedom of expression. This is a firecracker. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

March 1, 2021
After being named the first African American and the first woman editor in chief of the music magazine Aural, S. Sunny Shelton (aka S. Sunny Curtis) adopts a passion project: gathering the oral history of Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, an avant-garde rock duo who found success and a certain cult following in the early seventies. How Opal, ""the ebony-skinned provocateur, the fashion rebel, the singer/screecher/Afro-Punk ancestor"" from Detroit, and ""goofy white English boy"" Nev met is the stuff of legend, and Sunny has her own proximity to their story: her father played drums for Opal & Nev, and was killed by the white-supremacist brawlers who stormed one of their concerts. A world-famous photo exists of that terrible night, just one of the many topics Sunny takes to her interviewees--music execs, bandmates, fellow artists, friends, family, and the stars themselves, all memorable characters--for her sprawling documentary project. Former magazine editor Walton's debut novel is so lucidly envisioned, readers will wish that YouTube videos existed of the fictional Opal & Nev. The last third especially shines, when Sunny and Opal break through to each other on a new level and readers understand them both more thoroughly. A cinematic, stereophonic, and boldly imagined story of race, gender, and agency in art.

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March 1, 2021
A fictional history of a 1970s Black rock singer with a complicated past. Sunny has just been named the new editor-in-chief of the storied music magazine Aural--the first Black person and woman to hold the position--when a scoop falls into her lap. It's 2015, and Opal Jewel, "the ebony-skinned provocateur, the fashion rebel, the singer/screecher/Afro-Punk ancestor," is contemplating a reunion tour with her old musical partner, Nev Charles, an Englishman who's since embarked on a successful solo career; Opal herself hasn't performed live in more than 25 years. Sunny begins writing a book--this book, an oral history of Opal and Nev's brief but iconic collaboration during the early '70s--and focuses particularly on the disastrous 1971 concert in which a racist mob kills Opal and Nev's drummer, a Black man named Jimmy Curtis. Sunny's interest in the story is more than merely professional: Curtis, she discloses in an "Editor's Note" at the very beginning of the book, was her father--and Opal his mistress while Sunny's mother was married to Curtis and pregnant with her. Nevertheless, the first section of the book bears all the hallmarks of a rigorously reported work of journalism. Sunny interviews everyone from the label's receptionist to Opal's stylist and stitches together quotes to form a multifaceted narrative of Opal and Nev's rise. But as Sunny reconstructs the events leading up to her father's death, she hears something that changes the story she thought she knew--and forces her to shed her protective, professional shell. Debut author Walton wields the oral history form with easy skill, using its suggestion of conversation and potential for humor to give her characters personality. "But also Virgil sold reefer. Everybody loves the reefer man," Sunny quotes Opal saying about her stylist. Immediately after: "VIRGIL LAFLEUR: I styled ladies' hair. That's how I paid my bills. I don't know what she's told you." And the author adeptly captures the particular tenor of discussions of race in the early '70s (Opal's destruction of a Confederate flag sets off the fateful riot) and in the age of memes: The creator of one Opal GIF, Sunny muses, "understood the culture and the language and this current moment of Black exasperation, and was nodding to the eerie relevance of Opal Jewel in them." An intelligently executed love letter to Black female empowerment and the world of rock music.

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Starred review from April 1, 2021

DEBUT Going way beyond the typical sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll scenario, this story about performing duo Opal Jewel and Nev Charles, and the genre of pop culture music writing, is a deep plunge into their world. Opal, who is Black, is a native of Detroit, while Nev is a white red-haired fellow from Britain. He chooses Opal as his musical partner after seeing her incredible energy and passion in a New York City club. The duo's struggle for success is well-documented (the novel is structured as oral history, with a journalist interviewing the principal characters and their family, friends, and fans), but even more engaging and important are Opal's thoughts and actions concerning politics, history, and race relations. She is a champion for people who have suffered discrimination, bullying, and marginalization, and she is fierce and sticks to her convictions, no matter the consequences to her career. VERDICT The characters seem so real that readers will find themselves searching the internet, hoping to find that Opal and Nev are actual people. Walton has penned a true wonder of a debut novel, bringing real events into her story. Walton has a true storytelling voice, and her writing is impeccable.--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

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