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Lamar's Rebellion
Author: James S. Gibons
Published in paperback by Xlibris Corporation (www.Xlibris.com)
ISBN 0-7388-4829-8
Elvis fiction seems to be becoming an ever more significant part of the Elvis book world. Unfortunately, many pieces of fiction that attract readers by including "Elvis" in the title do little more than that, with Elvis further playing little significance in the tale. There are some notable exceptions, of course: the memory of Elvis is used as the motivational force for the hero of Barry Hines' 1998 "Elvis Over England," for example, and Elvis is very much the lead character in the more recent "Kill Me Tender" by Daniel Klein. But even these titles use Elvis's name, or an indirect reference to one of his more famous numbers, to attract potential readers. James Gibons resorts to neither tactic with the title of his recently published work that can well fit into the category of Elvis fiction, "Lamar's Rebellion."
Gibons grew up in Memphis, close to Graceland, and all the action in "Lamar's Rebellion" takes place in just that area. It's the summer of 1960 and Elvis has returned from the army; preachers are still warning of the detrimental influence of rock'n'roll music and the biggest worry of adults seems to be the communist threat. Teenagers, however, have other things on their mind!
The main characters of the tale, Holly Jensen (confused), her brother Lamar (always wanting to impress), Jeremy Grant (disillusioned student preacher) and Lauralee Lange (poor little rich girl), along with their friends, are coming to terms with puberty and its effects on their attitudes and feelings. They are the spawn of the revolution started by Elvis and they are very aware of Elvis's importance and achievement: living so close, his influence is perhaps even greater and, indeed, on a number of occasions throughout the tale, he plays an active in personally influencing their actions by offering them sage and almost fatherly advice. Surprisingly, these occasions do not seem contrived and manage to fit well into the story.
Still, "Lamar's Rebellion" does not rely on Elvis to carry it along, but instead reflects the uncertainties, expectancies, and confusion of those awkward teenage years that most of us have been through. It does this in a sometimes comic, sometimes dramatic way. Gibons adjusts his narrative style to suit the subject of the different phases of the story and there is, I suspect, more than a hint of autobiography in the story: when living in the part of Memphis in which the tale is situated, Gibons met Elvis on a number of occasions, so perhaps some of the events are to some extent based on fact. Even if this is not the case, the atmosphere does seem to be accurate and the author has certainly captured the mood of the time, the relationships between, and the emotional upheavals of, the characters well.
The title of the book is the name given to a party thrown towards the end, during which at least some of the characters come to terms with their lives. Again, Gibons mixes comedy and pathos well.
Elvis's character, both when he appears in the story and when he is spoken about, is accurately portrayed. Unfortunately, some avoidable errors detract somewhat from the quality of the tale: an excerpt from Leiber and Stoller's excellent "Yakety-Yak" appropriately introduces the story, but Jerry's name appears as "Lieber" -- he must be fed up with the number of times this happens; the opening lines of "Jailhouse Rock" are incorrectly reproduced (nobody was "Goin' to a party" and it wasn't the prison cats who began to wail!); and could Ann-Margret really have visited Graceland in 1960? Nah! Unfortunately, too, some excessive bad language is used.
David Neale
Copyright March 2001