While the book has some humorous moments, this is a pretty tough hang unless you just really, really love failed musician lit.

I’ll be honest and say that I’m tough on band novels because my father was a musician and all the gossip and infighting and desperation to keep chasing the dream are not new to me nor are they usually portrayed accurately in novels. This one is no exception, which I would have loved to write off as “that’s because it’s a comedy!” but the humor doesn’t hit quite accurately in that regard.

Lipsyte writes well and the humor lands often enough, but the premise isn’t new, the mystery is well below average, and the tired starving musician stuff is a yawn.

All other things aside, the novel works just fine as an audiobook. The format can’t rescue the novel, but it also doesn’t detract from it. The author narrates, and he does a perfectly good job of it.