Matthew Specktor That Summertime Sound

Matthew Specktor reads from and discusses his semiautobiographical debut novel: a summertime coming-of-age story set in Columbus, Ohio, in the mid-1980s.

Music drives and frames the story, and thinly disguised local musicians and hangouts fill the pages. Specktor's book has captured quite a bit of buzz nationally and reignited many local memories'so come see what the noise is about (or add to it). Specktor signs books after the program.

Specktor's protagonist'a California boy who's just finished his first year of college'sets off to connect with his favorite band in Columbus, instead of returning to the familiar environs of his home and family. The author captures the flavor of the time and place, as his imagined versions of real bands and local music personalities (Boys from Nowhere, Mick Divvens, Great Plains, Ron House) populate the tale and hangout at venues recognizable as Crazy Mama's, Stache's, and Apollo's. Also making an appearance in the book is Daniel Ash, of Love and Rockets and Bauhaus, who was cohabitating in Columbus during that eventful summer.

That Summertime Sound (MTV Press, $24) has been praised for its vivid and cinematic evocation of its narrator and his musical enthusiasms, with frequent references to the Feelies, Hüsker Du, Pere Ubu, and Uriah Heap. Matthew Specktor grew up in Los Angeles, earned his BA from Hampshire College, and received his MFA from Warren Wilson College's writers' program. He has been a MacDowell Colony Fellow and has worked in film development for Jersey Films and Fox 2000. His writing has previously appeared in Open City, Salon, and various anthologies, and he is presently completing his second novel.

Cosponsored by the Wexner Center Store and Gen Wex.