The Age of Anxiety, Pete Townshend
The Age of Anxiety, Pete Townshend
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

The Age of Anxiety
A Novel

Author: Pete Townshend

Narrator: Michael Jayston

Unabridged: 9 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 11/05/2019

Synopsis

In his debut novel, rock legend Pete Townshend explores the anxiety of modern life and madness in a story that stretches across two generations of a London family, their lovers, collaborators, and friends.
A former rock star disappears on the Cumberland moors. When his wife finds him, she discovers he has become a hermit and a painter of apocalyptic visions.
An art dealer has drug-induced visions of demonic faces swirling in a bedstead and soon his wife disappears, nowhere to be found.
A beautiful Irish girl who has stabbed her father to death is determined to seduce her best friend's husband.
A young composer begins to experience aural hallucinations, expressions of the fear and anxiety of the people of London. He constructs a maze in his back garden.
Driven by passion and musical ambition, events spiral out of control -- good drugs and bad drugs, loves lost and found, families broken apart and reunited. Conceived jointly as an opera, The Age of Anxiety deals with mythic and operatic themes. Hallucinations and soundscapes haunt this novel in an extended meditation on manic genius and the dark art of creativity.

About Pete Townshend

Pete Townshend is the legendary lead guitarist and principal songwriter for The Who, one of the most influential rock-and-roll bands of all time. He's also the author of The Age of Anxiety as well as one of Rolling Stone's ""100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time"". He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and resides in West London, where he was raised.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Hilary "Fox" on January 26, 2020

This book was utterly perplexing. Louis is a dealer in Outsider art who gets a new client, an ex-rockstar who claims to have seen a whole host of angels. Louis's godson, Walter, has begun to hear the anxiety of the people in the front row at his concerts in auditory hallucinations. Selena claims to......more

Goodreads review by Keshia on January 18, 2020

Self indulgent novel about self obsessed characters. I was intrigued by the synopsis of the novel, thinking it would be told from different povs about their difference experiences with anxiety, drugs, and spirituality...but that’s a hard no. We get a story told from a godfather (ex druggie, abandon......more

Goodreads review by Keith on September 11, 2020

It's. Finally. Over. The story is of Louis, who's an art dealer, a dealer in Outsider Art. It's also the story of Walter, a semi famous harmonica player for a rock band. Walter think's he going insane and hearing the feelings of the people in the audience. This is also, most poignantly, a story about......more

Goodreads review by Sophie on January 31, 2021

As a fan of The Who and musician/writer myself I really wanted to like this book. The premise was interesting and it started off ok. I was very intrigued by the two characters Old Nick and Walter who were having strange visions/aural hallucinations respectively. Actually one of the big issues I have......more

Goodreads review by Alyssa on May 12, 2021

Cover? LOVED Back of the book? LOVED Book? What in the world did I just read!?! Book 2 Chapter 19 was my favorite part! Yup, that is it. First person, second person, third person, what is it? Sex, drugs, rock and... no, no roll. I honestly don't know how to properly review this. I don't recommend it.......more

Quotes

"A cracking story about sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll."—Mail on Sunday EVENT

"A dazzling whirligig of a novel, featuring reclusive rock stars-turned-seers, visions of heaven and hell, young musical pretenders, artists and groupies."—Daily Express

"Setting his novel in the milieu he knows in all its excess, Townshend directs a cast of memorable characters while examining themes of creativity, genius, music, and love."—Daily Mail

"The scope of The Age of Anxiety is broader than first appears: this modern-day fable dwells on creativity and madness."—Radio Times

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List