Elvis & You: Your guide to the pleasures of being an Elvis fan
Authors: Laura Victoria Levin and John O'Hara
Published in paperback by The Berkley Publishing Group (A Perigee Book)
ISBN 0-399-52565-3
My bookshelves are fairly groaning under the weight of Elvis books. I should probably save the furniture by getting rid of a lot of these books, for they are so often not worth reading, filled with errors and hyperbole, or just plain repetition (of course, I know I would never be able to throw a single one away!). Fortunately, "Elvis & You" is not just another test of the strength of the shelves, despite my initial reservations, brought on by the book's subtitle, "Your guide to the pleasures of being an Elvis fan."
Indeed, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading "Elvis & You," a book clearly written by a couple of dedicated American Elvis fans, Laura Victoria Levin and John O'Hara. The book's concept is unusual: 33 chapters spread across well over 600 pages, each chapter examining a topic of Elvisology, some predictable ("The Death of Elvis," "Elvis Fan Clubs"...), some far less so ("Elvis and Charity," "Elvis and Friendship"...), but each containing essentially the same elements: an essay providing background information on the subject of the chapter, a set of facts and trivia, a list of books, videos and Web addresses relevant to the subject of the chapter, and a list of suggestions of how to increase your experience as an Elvis fan.
The essays are very well written, presenting the basic facts sensibly and, where necessary, sensitively. There's nothing over the top, though it is clear that Laura and John are less than enthusiastic about certain people in Elvis's life, especially manager Tom Parker. The set of facts and trivia will be an excellent source for Elvis quizzes, containing not only the common knowledge that can be found in most Elvis books, but also a huge amount of fairly obscure information. The media list is exhaustive, but is also perhaps the weakest part of each chapter: the problem is not with the books and video titles, which are well selected, but with the Internet data that is provided. Because of the nature of the Internet, such information is subject to constant change, so that a list printed in a book is seldom accurate, and many of the URLs (Web addresses) and email addresses provided in "Elvis & You" already result in errors just a few months after publication (and even worse, the URL of my own web site of Elvis fan clubs is incorrect!). Nevertheless, the majority of the addresses are still valid and there are literally hundreds (thousands?) listed, providing many hours of surfing and some useful email contacts. The final part of each chapter, where numerous suggestions are made for increasing your Elvis experience, will, I am sure, be ridiculed by some, but authors Laura and John take care to point out that not everything is to be taken too seriously and the tongue-in-cheek nature of many of the suggestions is an excellent example of this. Furthermore, the book is sprinkled throughout with quotes from fans, other books, acquaintances of Elvis, and Elvis himself, and as if this were not enough, it is also illustrated with hundreds of black and white photos. Sadly, the reproduction of the photos, many of which appear for the first time in a book, is not always as good as could have been expected: the paper is of insufficient quality for good photo printing and the size of many of the photos is another drawback.
In a book of this size and offering such a wide variety of information, errors are bound to slip through, but at least the authors admit to their fallibility and ask to be told about errors in order that future editions of "Elvis & You" can be more accurate. In fact, few if any major errors glare out, though a number of minor ones will certainly need attention: Joan Blackman is referred to as "June"; Elvis's 1941 Lincoln Zephyr is also called a "Zepher" and two different purchase prices for it are given ($35 and $175); and Laura and John clearly have great difficulty with the German names associated with Elvis's stint in the army, including three different spellings of Friedburg in just two pages! The book need not be read from cover to cover: each chapter stands on its own and can be referred to separately. In this respect, it might have been a good idea to have included an index in order to more easily locate a particular reference.
All in all, "Elvis & You" is an excellent source of information for any Elvis fan. It is not an intellectual study of the significance of Elvis, nor does it pretend to be. It is, on the other hand, a vast collection of interesting facts and figures: Essays, book lists, video lists, website and email addresses, things to do, loads of photos, Elvis's films, cars, girlfriends, addresses, guns, records, what to buy and where to buy it... It just goes on and on. Wonderful! I certainly have the feeling that Laura and John had as much pleasure collecting and collating the information as I had reading it.
David Neale
Copyright December 2000
Return to previous page