Boy Island

Book excerpt: Camden Joy tells the picaresque tale of an American rock 'n roll band as they travel below both the Mason-Dixon Line and the cultural radar in early 1991. As the Persian Gulf War escalates in the background, we follow the four members (including a drummer who, like the author, is named Camden Joy) on solo and group adventures amid the vacuous American landscape, of diners, clubs, colleges, and hotels. Boy Island is at once a eulogy for the formerly limitless possibilities of the American road and, ultimately, a meditation on the redemptive power of music and friendship.