Sorta Like a Rock Star a Perfect Vacation Read

I read Sorta Like a Rock Star this summer when I was on vacation. I had already received my books from Barnes & Noble and thought I might get ahead on my reading due to my course load this year. I looked for something that looked intriguing and light-hearted (I was going to New York City to visit a friend and then to beach and didn’t want to have to think too hard about what I was reading). I settled on Matthew Quick’s Sorta Like a Rock Star and got something, yes, light-hearted and interesting but also something I didn’t expect. I was surprised that this book touched on such deep and meaningful issues as in-group versus out-group dynamics, shattered soldiers, religion, addiction, poverty, as well as the path we choose to lead in our lives as being a “hope spreader” like Amber Appleton, a recluse like the Private, or a pessimistic cynic who walks around with a chip on their shoulder like Amber does for a brief period of time in the novel.

I liked this book and found it thought provoking but not in a way that would over stimulate my vacation-mode mind. It was the perfect time and the perfect setting for me to read this book because I was allowed the time and freedom from other homework to give the issues brought to light in this book some serious thought. As I wrote in my reflection paper, this book inspired me to have a better, more positive attitude and perspective on my life and having one bad day and be more like Amber Appleton, to be a hope spreader. I for too long in the last couple years was the pessimistic cynic with a chip on my shoulder and a horrible disposition (I didn’t even want to be around me) and I realized that being happy, having a positive outlook on my life, and putting a smile on my face when crawling in a dark corner and curling up for the next few years sounded great is so much better than carrying that chip along with me everywhere I went. People like to be around others who aren’t doom and gloom all the time and can have fun with. Having such a personality draws people to us as if we were magnets when we smile, when we laugh, when we lend an ear or a positive spin to a truly crappy situation and that’s what I think Sorta Like a Rock Star is all about. It’s about taking those truly crappy situations we find ourselves in and looking beyond that and ourselves to something better and helping someone else whose truly crappy situation is even crappier than ours.


Kaylin