speed of dark

I mentioned in our first installment of Time Travel Tuesday that one of its inspirations was the fact that I had read the novel The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger last December. I just finished reading it again, and I could start yet again from the beginning--it's that good. It has all the elements a great novel should have: characters who turn into people you know and care about, joy, conflict, sorrow, mystery, deep loss, and a love that endures beyond time. Niffennegger deftly describes a devoted couple who must keep secrets in order to protect the other person.

Just one of the many things about this book that I enjoyed is that the time traveler's character, Henry, likes so much of the same music from the 80's and 90's that I like. The names of punk and post-punk bands are strewn throughout the book, and some specific songs and lyrics are even used. Paying more attention to these details on the second reading, I realized that I could share some of those songs here.

There is a detailed description of a Violent Femmes concert that occurs in the story on December 22, 1991, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, where most of the novel takes place. The lyrics to "Gimme The Car" and "Blister In the Sun" are twined into the narrative. In another chapter, Henry is stuck somewhere in time, occupying his mind by trying to remember the lyrics to "I Love a Man In Uniform," a big favorite of mine. "The Passenger" turns up as background music elsewhere.

No specific songs of the Buzzcocks or Television are mentioned, so I chose these tracks from my own collection. I picked "In World" because guitar legend Richard Lloyd plays on this track.

Violent Femmes: Gimme the Car (1983)