OH loves this book. I've picked it up a couple of times and not been able to get into it, though each time I've felt like it was me, not the book. Need to try again.
Ah, I see. OH loves it, huh? That's cool.
It might not be you. There are some things that are corny (The Flaming Dildos, anybody? Please. How un-punk is that name?) and some things that might rub one the wrong way; for instance, the fellatio of the older man at the first punk show is a bit neutral in its authorial assessment. There are also some things that seem like red herrings at first, like one of the first stories centers around kleptomania and the disappearance of items that the woman is stealing. That's more of a character study than the other chapters that tie into the book.
It was a slow opener, those first few chapters if I recall correctly, but I gave it a chance because she was at least
trying to write about music and punk rock in L.A., but in the end it turned out to be a very fast-paced, relevant, and exciting book that was heartfelt and showed an author that truly loved her own characters (the last chapter, once one has become sensitive to the novel's Altman-like form, is thrilling in its experimentation, at least to me. I was stunned).
Loved it. Planning on rereading in the spring as it's one of the assigned books for my son's English class.
Oh, wow. Your son is lucky in more ways than one. That's quite the draw for an assignment, which probably speaks to a good experience overall in English for the semester or year also. I hope it is for him. Sounds fun as a father, too.