The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton

This book, yet another from Obama's 2021 reading list, is the type of novel that grabs you no matter your interests--it covers a lot of ground, including music, art, the 1970s, black culture, and the progress of civil rights through the decades. The book is constructed as an oral history, with a premise as complex as its characters. Fictional cult classic ’70s punk rock band Opal & Nev is coming together for a 2016 reunion show and to tease the possibility of a tour. Music journalist Sunny Shelton is tasked with writing the band’s biography, potentially because her father used to play for them — and was even killed at an event where they were playing. Underneath that, Sunny has a deeper secret: Opal Jones had a love affair with her father. Despite all of this, Sunny is determined to provide a fair and balanced look at this band that affected so many people, including her. The beauty of this book for me is that it allows readers to reckon with how we view pivotal moments in history and how tragic and personal moments can be turned into flashpoints that are discussed but not fully understood. As Sunny gets to the bottom of what happened to her father that tragic day, everything jolts into a new perspective.