APRIL 2023 - AudioFile
Lillian Waters is a country and western star whose glow has faded-- but hasn't burned out. Carrington MacDuffie offers an excellent performance of this audiobook, lending "Water Lil" an appropriate rough-around-the-edges aura that suits her hardscrabble past. The audiobook is easy to embrace. It's a classic rags-to-riches, root-for-the-underdog, rise-from-the-ashes tale with a likable protagonist and a truly fascinating hero's journey. MacDuffie walks the line between gruff and vulnerable with just the right balance. There are a few awkward moments--vocal inconsistencies that might well slip by without too much distraction--but the narration's strengths outweigh any flaws. Listeners will cheer for Lil as she rises to stardom, falls, and tries to rise again for her farewell tour. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
02/06/2023
Clifford (Everybody Rise) recounts the ascent of a Nashville music star in her entertaining latest. After receiving a diagnosis of permanent throat damage, Lillian Waters, a contemporary of Tammy, Loretta, and Dolly, embarks on a farewell tour in 1980. In flashbacks, Clifford traces Lillian’s rise from hardscrabble farmer’s daughter during the Depression to country music legend. As a young girl, Lillian sings with her sister, Hen, on the family farm. At 10, she strikes out on her own, going on to perform on local radio shows and with various small-time bands, meeting longtime collaborator Charlie Hagerty in 1940, and, by 1958, she’s hitched her star to future legend Buck Owens. The road to stardom is long and full of heartache, and, eventually, after an abusive marriage, an abortion, and exploitation by music executives, Lillian finds fame as a 40-year-old. Now, with Charlie once again in the band, Lillian hopes to put the ghosts of her past to bed. Lillian is a memorable, believable creation, but the author’s tendency to tell more than show throttles some of the narrative’s power. Still, as the tour gets underway, Clifford conveys Lillian’s joy in crystalizing an emotion into a song and connecting with a live audience. In the end, Clifford pulls off a moving tribute to the power of country music. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"Breathtaking. . . . The Farewell Tour is a shimmering paean to the deeply flawed American West, which feels real and vital thanks to Clifford’s gift for description." — The New York Times Book Review
"Thought-provoking and entertaining. . . . The Farewell Tour is indeed a redemption tale. But its seemingly predictable arc is disrupted by plenty of smart misdirections and subtexts. Like a particularly sharp country song, it takes clichés and untangles and renews them. . . . Clifford’s emotional acuity is matched by her grasp of country history. . . . The strength of The Farewell Tour is in showing just how much work is required to escape that judgment, to erase the persona and see yourself clearly." — Washington Post
"Terrific, keenly observed....Clifford’s command of country-music history runs deep, and her powers of description are prodigious....There's a song here for sure." — Wall Street Journal
“Seamlessly written, The Farewell Tour reads more like a musician’s confessional memoir than a fictional work. It’s a novel that rock music fans and country music acolytes alike can enjoy—even if they can’t always appreciate one another’s music.” — Southern Review of Books
"A must-read country-music novel. . . . Like a great country tune, The Farewell Tour takes readers on a journey of tough-to-swallow reflection, much-needed self-discovery and plot-twisting closure.” — The Tennessean
"Many details give the book depth, from the history of so-called “hillbilly” music in Washington state during the Great Depression, to rich descriptions of key country figures throughout the genre’s eras. But the most compelling element is the main character herself. Waters is a refreshing and intense artist whose candor kept me rooting for her at every stage. Her story of redemption, unrequited love, and growth brings the reader along on tour. It’s a gig you don’t want to miss." — Nevada Public Radio
"If you ever wondered what would happen if Daisy Jones confronted her past, this book is for you." — Esquire
“A book about music, about country music in particular and the struggle one woman has to achieve stardom in a world dominated by men….but it is so much more than that. Clifford takes the reader on a tour of country music and some of country music’s greatest and most memorable stars, including Buck Owens, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton, as our main character struggles to become a country music legend herself.” — Yakima Herald (Yakima, WA)
"Go places with this country music saga. . . . Clifford takes you into the early generations of country music, to the landscape of eastern Washington state, to the vanished world of mid-century America, and into the heart and mind of a hardscrabble, fiercely independent woman." — The Free Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA)
“Fine-grain detail, historical import, and emotional heft. . . . Early chapters in Depression-era Walla Walla – where 10-year-old Lil leaves her troubled family – read a bit like Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping, while the novel’s exploration of band dynamics would be at home in David Mitchell’s recent Utopia Avenue. . . . Clifford dives deep—genuinely, unapologetically deep." — Post Alley (Seattle)
“Triumphant. . . . Tracing both the rocky start to her farewell tour and her youthful rise to stardom, Clifford introduces readers to a refreshingly alive and authentic protagonist. . . . Both a startling, resonant portrait of a woman creating and living in the male-dominated world of country music and a late-in-life coming-of-age drama that soars with themes of reinvention and redemption.” — Book Reporter
“The Farewell Tour is rich in historical touches and will appeal to fans of American culture and country music alike. The novel is the second by a New York Times bestselling author with a no-nonsense ear for both narrative and dialog; the style is well-paced and accessible without sacrificing depth. . . .Her final tour stop is both bookend and epiphany for a woman who had sacrificed self-awareness for a life lived in the minds of others. Recommended reading.” — Historical Novel Society
“Years ago, someone told me that you should write as though your characters have immortal souls. I keep trying, but Stephanie Clifford has done it, with a novel that feels like real life, so alive and heartbreakingly authentic. This story is a fictional paean to real survivors, a tribute and a triumph.” — Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
"Beautifully written, wise, and true, THE FAREWELL TOUR honors the hard-working, hard-living women of country music—their resilience, courage, and powerful devotion to artmaking. I won’t soon forget the indomitable Lillian Waters.” — Elizabeth Wetmore, New York Times bestselling author of Valentine
“What happens when your coming-of-age story begins with your retirement tour? What happens when we become too old to feel young? Stephanie Clifford's novel is about regret, love, despair, country music triumph and failure, and betrayal. It's about ‘the music spreading...out from the migrant camps and down from the mountain towns, over radio waves, into jukeboxes.’ It's about a Nashville where everybody is hungry for fame and a Walla Walla, Washington, where everybody is broken by shame. This is a novel to be read by dusty barlight and wheatfield sunlight. I loved it.” — Sherman Alexie
"Stephanie Clifford nails the character of Depression-era songbird-turned-country crooner Lillian Waters in her fabulous new novel, The Farewell Tour. . . . I saw myself in Lillian’s journey, from the highs to the lows to the numbness, from the bench seat of a roadster rumbling across dirt roads to shiny tour buses humming down interstates. . . . By the last chorus we learn that a life in country is a holy sacrifice to the Gods of hillbilly music—for which The Farewell Tour is a worthy offering." — Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and performer Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show
"A dual-timeline redemption story and an epic journey through a half-century of country music….Full of marvelous period details about World War II-era Tacoma, Washington, and its proto-country music scene as well as glitzy 1970s Nashville, Tennessee….Like a country ballad, this is a bittersweet testament to the healing power of old love, long friendships and heartfelt songs.” — BookPage
"Clifford conveys Lillian’s joy in crystalizing an emotion into a song and connecting with a live audience. . . . a moving tribute to the power of country music.” — Publishers Weekly
New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Wetmore
Beautifully written, wise, and true, The Farewell Tour honors the hard-working, hard-living women of country music—their resilience, courage, and powerful devotion to artmaking. I won’t soon forget the indomitable Lillian Waters.”
Ketch Secor
Clifford nails the character of Depression-era songbird-turned-country crooner Lillian Waters…from the highs to the lows to the numbness, from the bench seat of a roadster rumbling across dirt roads to shiny tour buses humming down interstates…By the last chorus we learn that a life in country is a holy sacrifice to the Gods of hillbilly music—for which The Farewell Tour is a worthy offering.”
APRIL 2023 - AudioFile
Lillian Waters is a country and western star whose glow has faded-- but hasn't burned out. Carrington MacDuffie offers an excellent performance of this audiobook, lending "Water Lil" an appropriate rough-around-the-edges aura that suits her hardscrabble past. The audiobook is easy to embrace. It's a classic rags-to-riches, root-for-the-underdog, rise-from-the-ashes tale with a likable protagonist and a truly fascinating hero's journey. MacDuffie walks the line between gruff and vulnerable with just the right balance. There are a few awkward moments--vocal inconsistencies that might well slip by without too much distraction--but the narration's strengths outweigh any flaws. Listeners will cheer for Lil as she rises to stardom, falls, and tries to rise again for her farewell tour. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2023-03-28
From a hardscrabble Washington farm to the stage of the Grand Old Opry, this lyrical novel showcases one woman's hunger for stardom as she tries to outrun her past.
Fans of the TV series Nashville will fall under the spell of Lillian Waters, a washed-up country star who drinks and misbehaves while fans prefer the wholesome charms of Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. Born Lena Thorsell in the 1920s, the daughter of impoverished Swedish immigrants, she leaves home at the improbable age of 10 to make her way in the world. As time passes, her musical talents are revealed, but her simmering anger thwarts career opportunities and healthy relationships and becomes the "repetitive melody" of her life. Yet after decades of touring, her voice damaged, her body wrecked by alcohol, she stages a comeback in the 1980s. Told against the backdrop of history, including job opportunities that opened for women during World War II and the issue of sexism in the music industry in the mid-20th century, Lillian's operatic story highlights how unresolved childhood trauma can permanently alter one's life. Clifford writes with authority about life on the road and the challenges faced by women struggling to make it as singers and musicians. Country music fans will love the name-dropping as Clifford slides Dolly, Loretta, Buck Owens, Charley Pride, and others into this hard-knocks tale. This character-driven novel is sometimes bogged down by a narrative style that frequently recounts events rather than dropping readers into the action. Still, the story shines like a rhinestone-bedazzled costume fit for a country queen.
A break-your-heart, toe-tapping story that deserves a song of its own.
