Editorial Reviews:
The story of a legendary rock star as seen through the eyes of his illegitimate son...a "charismatic and heartfelt performance" from the author of Waking the Dead. (New York Times Book Review)
"Told with wit [and] assurance" (The New Yorker), this brilliant, bittersweet novel from the acclaimed author of Endless Love follows a directionless young man in search of his father, the gravel-voiced American icon Luke Fairchild, superstar musician who first rose to fame in the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. For the fans, the followers, the crowds of critics and biographers, solving the puzzle of Luke Fairchild is a passion. But for his son Billy, the search for the superstar feels like a search for his very own soul.
"A tale of over-the-top intensity that enthralls to the end." -People
"A fabulous book that catches the spirit of its time."-Stephen King
"Startling...A mournful, moving work." -Kirkus Reviews
Scott Spencer has not yet written the Great American Novel, but the stunning opening of Endless Love (which puts the Brooke Shields film version to shame) is a fair contender for the Great American First Chapter. A study of obsessive lust, it belongs just one shelf down from Lolita. And Spencer's 1995 Men in Black, about a downtrodden serious novelist who pens a trashy bestseller about space aliens, is by most accounts even funnier than the 1997 sci-fi comedy of the same name. Now Spencer has written the Great American Novel About Bob Dylan. The Rich Man's Table calls Dylan Luke Fairchild, and it's narrated by his illegitimate son, Billy, obsessed with forcing Fairchild to acknowledge him. Now, the real Dylan's (legitimate) son is the bandleader of the Wallflowers, and his papa is clearly proud that both of them have hit albums (Bringing Down the Horse and Time Out of Mind, with tie-in paperbacks for both Bringing Down the Horse and Time Out of Mind). Even so, Spencer's Luke Fairchild is a completely plausible, richly detailed portrait of the rock star Dylan might have been in a parallel world. "How did a shapeless Jewish kid from the Midwest become so famous, so beloved, so despised, so lonely, so pious, so drug-addicted, so vicious, so misunderstood, so overanalyzed?" wonders Billy, who proceeds to find out by interviewing everybody Luke ever knew. Young Luke (a "faintly girlish beauty") learns his trade from old blues singers and New York pinko folkies, spurns them for decadent rock, sings about an unjustly accused man who embarrassingly turns out to have been justly accused of murder, and ages badly. ("The mockery was gone ... his drugged-out eyes were no more expressive than olives.") Luke is high and mighty about being down-home and unpretentious, like Dylan who, when he was offered fine wine by the Beatles, demanded cheap wine instead (and guzzled the fine wine while waiting for the cheap to arrive by expensive courier). So close is Luke to Dylan that much of Spencer's novel constitutes a clever criticism of Dylan's actual pretensions and achievements. Unlike the deranged Romeo who narrates Endless Love, Billy makes the object of his obsessive affections come to life as a character. To verify Luke's similarity to the real singer, check out Bob Dylan's only book, Tarantula. Some readers will find the roman a clef aspect of The Rich Man's Table irritating, distracting. The book's defenders will have to excuse a plot as reedy as Luke's (and Bob's) singing voice. And Luke's song lyrics, while often good pastiche, are too obviously connected to the events in his life to be fully, incomprehensibly Dylanesque. Even so, you've got to grant Spencer's emotional perfect pitch, especially when he's describing self-deception and self-loathing. He has a poet's eye and a wicked gift for metaphor. And while he takes his characters seriously, he is a merciless satirist of celebrity culture: One doctor Billy interviews tells him, "Luke didn't have much of a capacity for pain but then added, with an inside dopester's smirk, that he did, however, have a large capacity for painkillers." We will probably never have a real insider's portrait of Bob Dylan. But who needs it? The reality can't match Scott Spencer's imagination. --Tim Appelo
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 1 to 5 of 11 total reviews (Page 1 of 3):
 A good contemporary novel but high literature it's not!
I like Bob Dylan, and I like the premise of this book; it's fun to read about places like P.S. 41 in Manhattan if one grew up there. This tale of the quest for the absent father has some good writing in it, but it is no better or worse than a dozen other "literary" novels. The prose is good, but not innovative or especially perspicacious concerning the measure of the human heart. But then who am I to judge. I'm just articulating my views in this silly forum, while Scott Spencer has made tons of money with "Endless Love" and other work. More power to him. Scott Spencer's The Rich Man's Table (review4659@aol.com)
I read The Rich Man's Table by Scott Spencer with more than keen interest. Employing the fictional vehicle of a bastard son in search of his father, Mr. Spencer has written an imaginative novel obviously inspired by the Folk-Rock legend, Bob Dylan. The raw outlines of biographical event in Bob Dylan's career direct the presentation of his character, Luke Fairchild. Anyone who has ever wanted to have a sense of "who" Bob Dylan is will find more insight in The Rich Man's Table than in any biography of Bob Dylan I have ever read. But there is a larger venue here than imaginative insight into the person of Bob Dylan, this is also a novel about the character of genius and the hysteria of celebrity.I think there is a misguided popular notion that the dynamically enabled and insightfully directed character of genius is virtually clairvoyant, nearly omniscient. The real brilliance of Mr. Spencer's novel is in its revelation of genius as something that quite simply is; that is, a force that is large, impressive, and dynamically persuasive but one that moves and forever alters the world more incidentally than knowingly. As Mr. Spencer writes: I was now one of those people who believed in the sympathetic magic of the well-meaning sentiment. And why not? What else do we have? The clenched fist eventually becomes crossed fingers. (Quality Paperback, p. 191) Scott Spencer also paints a portrait of celebrity that is wonderfully experiential. The clamoring presence of lost souls and sycophants around Luke Fairchild makes the absurdity of such shameless adoration markedly visible. The oddity of celebrity becomes dramatically apparent and helps inform the richness of the novel. However, the pleasure of the novel is spoiled as it nears its conclusion. It loses its impressiveness when it turns to the keenly improbable to realize its completion. The last several chapters reek of contrivance ruining the wonderful believability of the chapters preceding them. It's not that events could not have happened as they do, it's that they are highly unlikely. A national icon of far reaching resources would indeed have found a more capable means of handling a medical emergency than the plot affords. What was wonderfully alive becomes fancifully artificial. It is a shame, before its clumsy, concluding chapters, The Rich Man's Table was an accomplished, animated work.  Knocking on heaven's door!
What a beautiful novel. I read this right after MEN IN BLACK, also a great Spencer book. I must admit I'm not much of a Dylan fan, but this book makes its own sense, with or without Bob. It's a wrenching look at parents and children, and at the lonely frightening maddening world of a man who gets what he wants. It's like the Midas touch, but real. I'll never forget this one. one of the best novels ever
I got this book for my birthday (because I'm a Dylan fan) and I totally liked it. It held my interest all the way --every page was either good or great. It's not really about Dylan but it real made me understand what it feels like to have so many people riding your coat tails. Scott Spencer is the man and I'm going to read all his books this semester. Dylan connection is no turn off - a fine novel anyway!
I read this novel because I've been enjoying Bob Dylan's music for over 25 years. But I found myself admiring Scott Spencer's ability with words regardless of the Dylan connection. The book stands on its own as novel and has made me want to read more of this author. More Customer Reviews:
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