Lives of Photographs, 14.2

Hendrix is everywhere: this photo is also now up at the French Wikipedia's entry on Jimi Hendrix. Creative Commons in action.

2007 books

107) Shena Mackay, Music Upstairs, 1965
Shena Mackay's first novel, which is set in London's Earls Court before the '60s had really got into their swing. Sidonie O'Neill, young, impressionable and far too passive, becomes the lover of both Pam and Lenny, her neighbours, and finds herself veering between the two while ignorant of Lenny's increasingly obsessive behaviour towards her. Written when she was just 19, Mackay's writing could definitely have done with some tightening as well as some development of the scant few descriptive passages. But the narrative technique is similar to that of reality TV today, following Sidonie around while documenting the details of London life and building towards some kind random ending (while the sex remains strictly off the page). It barely holds together now because it was written with contemporary bohemian Londoners very much in mind; if memories can fill in the missing details of a grubby London bedsit life then Music Upstairs could actually feel like a rather authentic journey back in time.