Book Review: West of Babylon by Ted Heller

Danny, Jules, Joey, and Howie make up the fictional band The Furious Overfalls in Ted Heller’s latest novel West of Babylon—but Long Island is the main character. LI is a place people feel strongly about and the group’s members are no exception. Their first order of business in becoming a rock band the likes of which no one has seen since the Rolling Stones has but one goal: never to end up back on the Island. And in their most successful years, when they are rocking out to stadium-filled crowds, when their groupies have all of their teeth and no visible moles on their faces, each member has a place in the City. But as the country-infused rock of the Seventies is drowned by disco and whatever it was that made up the Eighties, The Furious Overfalls become their worst fear: has-beens. Heller crafts a world in which he imagines a coulda-been Keith Richards who just missed the boat of super-stardom, waking up in his 50s, to a wife, kids, and a house in the godforsaken suburbs of Lawn Guyland. He paints this aging rock band in all of their advanced glory: with creaky hips, Viagra prescriptions and cardiologists. The reader accompanies them on a journey that rivals a trek on the LIRR—from Montauk to Mineola, hitting every bump on the road.