Lost In Nashville: A Father. A Son. The Open Road. And … (2024)

Lost in Nashville then, a bit of a departure for Neil White whose crime novels I have always loved, this time instead of freaking me out he made me cry. CRY dammit.

Lost in Nashville is an emotional read but it is also an informative one in a very entertaining way. I had a very peripheral knowledge of the Johnny Cash story before going into this, afterwards I had a real sense of the man and his music, learning about it through the eyes of our two main characters here, James and Bruce, whilst they try and rebuild their broken relationship.

This is a road trip in more than one sense, an actual journey and a life journey through the lives of these two, a Father and Son who have fallen apart but for whom there is hope. A journey through the life of Johnny Cash and a literal road trip through the places that informed him. Descriptively speaking this is absolutely gorgeous, you’ll get the sense of time and place, you’ll live this one. I love it when I live through a book rather than just read it. Happens less than you might think.

Lost in Nashville is also strangely gripping – I say strangely because being used to this authors twisty crime plots I didn’t imagine that he could also grip emotionally for an entire narrative but that is what happened here. I was rooting for these two, whipping through those pages hoping they could reconcile their differences, all the while being fascinated by the actual journey they were on. At the end I was a bit of an emotional wreck.

I fell in love with this story. It is a story of life, of family, of the things that separate us and the things that bring us back together. A beautiful story, an intensely emotive one and a story that will stay with me.

Who would have thought it? I think the indomitable Mr White might want to consider writing a few more like this in those moments between. He’s got the magic touch.

A road trip through Johnny Cash America. Son and father reacquaint through their enjoyment of country music.
I enjoyed the factual information about the blues and country music , the people and the places. An enjoyable tale.

Lost in Nashville tells the story of a son trying to rebuild his relationship with his father but it also tells the story of how Johnny Cash’s music was so popular across the decades.
Whilst I did enjoy the part of the novel regarding father and son, the most fascinating part of the novel for me concerned Johnny Cash and civil rights in American History. They start their journey at Johnny’s birthplace and are surprised by how understated the memorial is, expecting it to be more elaborate.
From then on there is the background to some of his big tracks, Busted, Hey Porter, Going to Memphis and Five Feet High and Rising to name just a few. But it is more than just the music, Neil White talks about Johnny Cash’s life, what it was like growing up in the depression and especially the death of his brother, his marriages and drug addiction.
The most fascinating part for me was the section of the book that covered Rosa Parks and the events in Selma. I had heard of Rosa Parks but never knew the story and Selma was just devastating. The film that I had to stop watching and the book that I couldn’t stop reading.
I cried in the book, not at the relationship between James and Bruce but when they visited Johnny’s resting place. He was an artist I was familiar with from being married to a huge fan who met him after a show years ago and who I hounded through much of the book with facts about the songs and making him play them. Since reading the book I have ‘listened’ to the type of music much more closely and the tales that they tell.
With thanks to the author for the copy received for review, I have since purchased the book.