Crazy Heart - by Thomas Cobb (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"Crazy Heart just might be the finest country-western novel ever written, bar none." -- Houston Post

"A masterpiece. . . . Cobb has created an unforgettable character who engages not only your interest but your emotion . . . and who proceeds to take you on a roller-coaster ride through his tawdrily tumultuous life." -- Chicago Tribune

Thomas Cobb's riveting novel tells the unforgettable story of a former country music star hoping to take one last shot at a better life.

At the age of fifty-seven--living a life riddled with ex-wives, one night stands, and daily diet of Jack Daniels--Bad Blake is on his last legs. His ticker, his liver, even his pick-up truck are all giving him trouble. A renowned songwriter and "picker" who hasn't recorded in five years, Bad now travels the countryside on gigs that take him mostly to motels and bowling alleys. Enter Jean Craddock, a young journalist sent to interview him after a beautiful concert, and a tentative romance blooms. Can Bad stop living the life of a country-western song and tie a rope around his crazy heart?

Review Quotes

"A measure of Thomas Cobb's talent is that he can make Bad Blake's story amusing even as we watch him fall. Bad is entirely sympathetic, and this crazy heart is vivid; the milieu is as resonant as a steel guitar, and the plot moves along without skipping a beat." - New York Times Book Review

"Thomas Cobb has written a bitter, witty psychological profile of an aging genius that is also a wonderful celebration of country music. Bad Blake lives at the poor end of the rainbow, but you'll never forget him. Crazy Heart is a splendid achievement." - Donald Barthelme

"Blake's dedication to, and integrity towards, his country music is more than matched by Cobb's moving, respectful evocation of the world of country music, and the life and times of Bad Blake." - Boston Herald

"In producing as nearly a masterpiece as the subject has yet attracted, Cobb seems to have triumphed....Cobb has created an unforgettable character who engages not only your interest but your emotion...and who proceeds to take you on a roller-coaster ride through his tawdrily tumultuous life." - Chicago Tribune

"Crazy Heart just might be the finest country-western novel ever written, bar none." - Houston Post

"Thomas Cobb's marvelous first novel doesn't just play on your heartstrings, it breaks them." - San Francisco Examiner

"Crazy Heart is a beautiful book....The characters are cut cleanly out of America--the roadside West, the dance halls and beer joints, the occasional big concert, Houston, Nashville, Southern California, and the endless, eternal hotel rooms that are as close to home as a country singer ever gets....Bad Blake is a man you will not soon forget." - Washington Times

"A beautiful book....The characters are cut cleanly out of America....Bad Blake is a man you will not soon forget." - Washington Times

"A piercing, keenly observed chronicle of modern Americana." - Los Angeles Times

"A heartfelt book: the descriptions of writing songs and playing them, of finding love and ruining it, of sweet, painful memories. There's nothing startling in the plot or the characters, but they are alive." - Houston Chronicle

"You can almost hear the whining twang of a pedal steel guitar and the droning of a mournful singer while reading Crazy Heart." - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"[Cobb's] picture of the scraggly underside of Western music is brutally convincing." - The New Yorker