Charters, Samuel. Elvis Presley Calls His Mother After the
Ed Sullivan Show. Coffee House Pr., dist. by Consortium.
Apr. 1992. c.128p. ISBN 0-918273-98-6. pap. $11.95
[FICTION]
Charters, a ethnomusicologist and writer on the blues and
jazz, takes on the deified Elvis Presley in his latest novel.
Writing partly to defend Elvis from his critics, and partly to
illuminate a more human side of the singer that is rarely
documented, he succeeds in conveying the sense of innocence
Elvis still possessed after his controversial 1957 appearance on The
Ed Sullivan Show. The book, an extended monolog by Elvis on
the telephone to his mother, effectively captures his
bewilderment about the uproar caused by his then-provocative
gyrations: "Those shakes I put in is just so the girls will
have a little show. Most of the time they're all screaming so
loud I know they can't hear what I'm singing so I give them
something to look at." Even at this stage of Elvis's
career, we see the groupies and the beginning of drug problems,
and we get the feeling of a mixed-up kid with a smouldering
sexuality entering the lion's den. Recommended for public
libraries, especially where Elvis remains popular.
Kevin M. Roddy, University of Hawai'i at Hilo