Matthew Crain

Determination Matthew Crain

No one in Big Hole, Kentucky, denies that Monroe Furnace is pious. Heck, he's been preaching (well, O. K., occasionally) since he was twelve, hasn't he? But by means of an ear plug and a transistor radio, Monroe injected himself with a new Holy Ghost: rock 'n' roll. Monroe thought, "Guitar players might be men on the outside but they're boys on the inside, boys at play, the life they love has been given to them, with no responsibilities to anyone." God, please don't destroy the world before Monroe can play like Eddie Van Halen! Or before Monroe can save Beans, the monkish ex-hippie subsisting in a bar band. Or save Dorothy, the blasphemous bassoonist powerless before the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. But will Monroe be able to save himself?DETERMINATION is a Fundamentalist comedy, a love story divided against itself, and a dead-on portrait of an earnest hopeful trying too hard. It's got passionate footnotes, and how about that cover!