Dashboard Elvis Is Dead by David F. Ross

 

Dashboard Elvis is Dead by David F. Ross.

Published 8th December 2022 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

Renowned photo-journalist Jude Montgomery arrives in Glasgow in 2014, in the wake of the failed Scottish independence referendum, and it’s clear that she’s searching for someone.

Is it Anna Mason, who will go on to lead the country as First Minister? Jamie Hewitt, guitarist from eighties one-hit wonders The Hyptones? Or is it Rabbit – Jude’s estranged foster sister, now a world-famous artist?

Three apparently unconnected people, who share a devastating secret, whose lives were forever changed by one traumatic night in Phoenix, forty years earlier.

Taking us back to a school shooting in her Texas hometown, and a 1980s road trip across the American West – to San Francisco and on to New York – Jude’s search ends in Glasgow, and a final, shocking event that only one person can fully explain…

An extraordinary, gritty and tender novel about fate and destiny, regret and absolution – and a road trip that changes everything…

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Let us begin with a rainy Glasgow in 2014, reeling from the aftermath of the failed bid for Scottish independence, where American photo-journalist Jude Montgomery is searching for something, or is it someone? The answer to this mystery lies way ahead in the story, and David F. Ross leads us ever so slowly to the truth via a long and twisted path that throws absolutely everything at you in shades of gritty realism (from both sides of the Atlantic), road trip adventure, coming of age tale, band biopic, and gut-punching trip down memory lane. 

The story unfurls unconventionally, with a fabulous kick of existentialism, starting towards the end and then looking backwards across time with two central threads - one following the life of Jude Montgomery; and the other, the sad history of The Hyptones and how their dramatic failure to launch affected the lives of the band members. At first, it is hard to see how these threads relate to each other, until a violent episode one night in Phoenix, during the band's first tour of America, connects them in a way that leads to massive ripples through time. Deliciously, Ross also breaks the fourth wall by inserting himself into the story in the cleverest of ways with an anecdote that brings in Jamie Hewitt and the tale of The Hyptones - and ties into the cracking ending that broke my heart to pieces.

It is hard to sum this book up in a brief review, because there is just so much wonderful stuff packed into these pages. Ross delves into an exploration of the American psyche through Jude's story, spanning both coasts and small-town USA, touching on events that highlight the massive contradictions that characterise America, particularly gun culture, racism, and twisted notions of freedom. Her tale is threaded with themes of family, both birth and found, identity, guilt, and searching for meaning. This plays against other side of the tale, with a mixed bag of characters who make up The Hyptones and their associates, in a storyline full of equal parts dark Scottish humour and tragedy that impressively echoes many of the same themes, despite the marked difference in tone.

I love how Ross floods all parts of this book with references to songs, popular and musical culture, celebrity spotlights, and the historical events that have shaped generations. For someone my age, how Ross portrays the 80s is key to connecting with what he does in these pages, progressing onwards through the 90s and beyond in a manner that takes you right back the the time and place he sets his characters against - until you come full circle once again to the fateful culmination of each and every thread in 2014. It is genius.

Imagine, if you will, a little bit of On the Road, a splash of Natural Born Killers, a twist of Trainspotting, and perhaps a touch of a more edgy Spinal Tap, distilled into a heady concoction from Ross' imagination that begs to be swallowed whole. It might be hard to get your head around at first, but then blossoms into something absolutely stunning, and vividly cinematic. If there is such a thing as the great Scottish-American novel then this is it!

Reading this book has been an experience, and I absolutely loved it. This is my first book by David F. Ross, but it will certainly not be my last.

Dashboard Elvis is Dead is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats from your favourite book retailer, or direct from Orenda Books HERE.

Thank you to Orenda Books for sending me an ebook copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

David F. Ross was born in Glasgow in 1964 and has lived in Kilmarnock for over 30 years. He is a graduate of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art, an architect by day, and a hilarious social-media commentator, author and enabler by night. 

His debut novel The Last Days of Disco was shortlisted for the Authors Club Best First Novel Award, and optioned for the stage by the Scottish National Theatre. All five of his novels have achieved notable critical acclaim and There’s Only One Danny Garvey, published in 2021 by Orenda Books, was shortlisted for the prestigious Saltire Society Prize for Scottish Fiction Book of the Year. David lives in Ayrshire.