• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Lieff Ink

TELL YOUR STORY

  • About
  • Services
    • Writing • Editing
    • PR
    • Writing Tutor
  • Words
  • Press
  • Blog
  • Clients
    • Client List
    • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Book
    • Accolades
    • Reviews

The Revival of Opal & Nev

June 21, 2023

Dawnie Walton knows how to make a literary entrance. The first sentence of the Editor’s Note that launches The Final Revival of Opal & Nev starts with a disclosure – that the writer’s father was a drummer named Jimmy Curtis who had an affair (while his wife was pregnant with said writer) and then was killed in a race riot only to have his mistress (singer Opal Jewel) become a star following his death. Whew! The first person writing is so convincing that I immediately Googled whether Jimmy Curtis was a real person (he’s not).

I thought I had picked up a novel about a music duo and all of the sudden I was wondering if these people were real – but that’s how I knew the book was going to be good. It’s like hearing a new song and thinking you’ve heard it before because it’s so catchy and well-written. Two paragraphs later, I learn that the “I” is actually Sunny Shelton (a pen name) and then two pages later her real name, SarahLena, is revealed. And it just gets more complex – in the best way possible.

After years of keeping what she knows of her father and Opal in her back pocket, Shelton is ready to conduct interviews, get the real story, and write a book about what really happened to Curtis that fateful night. Written as an oral history – similar to Daisy Jones & The Six – Shelton starts with Opal’s family and upbringing, as well as Nev’s, and all the players involved with the Rivington record label at the time. Taking place over the course of four decades, the interviews exemplify how there can be many sides to every story.

I can always tell when a book author is also a journalist – takes one to know one I guess! Between the interview chapters are Editor’s Notes that are my favorite parts because Shelton (like Walton) is a journalist turned book author and I always appreciate that shared background. “To my mind, serious research required diligent reading.” Amen.

While reading Opal & Nev, it became clear that there is a lot of Walton in Shelton which exemplifies why I’ve been drawn to historical fiction lately. For example, real musicians (Alanis Morissette, Questlove, Merry Clayton, Sly & the Family Stone, The Who, Toots & the Maytals, Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, etc.) are name-checked and quoted demonstrating how truth sometimes can be more enticing than fiction. One stylistic aspect I was surprised to enjoy were the footnotes. Usually I find footnotes to be distracting and annoying, but Walton makes them not only important details, but also fun to read.

In terms of content, a huge theme is racial discrimination and discrimination against women. This book is another reminder that, so many decades later, racism is still everywhere. It’s infuriating and sad that people still haven’t learned that human beings deserve to be treated equally. Thankfully, in most cases, music brings our characters together which is a nice reprieve from some of the bigots Opal and Jimmy come in contact with – especially the Bond Brothers. [Lead singer] “Chet Bond thought he was some kind of gallant…[but] he was still, after all these years, either oblivious to the terror he was capable of conjuring or reveling in it.” I could visualize this redneck asshole and wanted to reach inside the book and strangle him – a testament to Walton’s excellent descriptive abilities. Additionally, her descriptions of Rivington executive Howie Kelly’s sliminess (“like a ball of offensiveness barreling through every single venue”) versus Bob Hize’s patient but also doormat personality are spot-on.

But the most interesting (and flawed) relationship of the narrative is between Opal and Shelton. Their dynamic is interesting for many reasons that I don’t want to give away, but the biggest one is that because of what happened to Shelton’s father (a tragedy Opal witnessed), Shelton was born into chaos. “How dare she be so cavalier, knowing the familial wreckage into which I’d been born?” It’s awful that she never got to meet her father and it’s tragic (but understandable) that his death informs so much of who Shelton is – and who she becomes.

In terms of the plot, the two most significant moments are the Rivington Showcase, which takes place about halfway through the book, and the musical festival at the end as they are both chaotic in their own ways and depict history (kind of) repeating itself. There is so much going on and hearing the details from multiple peoples’ memories is fascinating. Walton is clearly a visual writer – I can picture the characters she describes (quite a feat as there are a lot) – but thankfully she avoids going overboard with the portrayals.

Although defining where Sunny Shelton ends and Dawnie Walton begins is hard, that obscurity makes for excellent storytelling. For example, towards the end of the book there is a scene where Shelton is talking to a concertgoer and says, “I told her I was trying to finish a book about Opal & Nev. I asked: Did she want to be in it?” Even though the concertgoer isn’t a real person, in the narrative Shelton is writing a book about Opal & Nev as I’m reading a book called Opal & Nev making the distinction between Shelton and Walton a bit blurry. In a lot of cases, blurry lines make books harder to read but in Walton’s case everything is in sharp focus.

Stray notes:

I obviously love Daisy Jones but it was nice that the musical duo weren’t the ones in love in this particular narrative.

On page 59, Walton mentions Merry Clayton and Mick Jagger singing together on “Gimme Shelter” which is funny because that’s exactly who I had been envisioning after reading about Opal and Nev in the initial five chapters.

Virgil LaFleur is the definition of a charismatic character and is very easy to visualize: “I can admit that I lacked the finer tuning to detect the line between provocation and recklessness.”

I wonder if Walton actually met these famous people and asked to quote them: Janelle Monae, Henry Rollins, Questlove, Jane Fonda, Quentin Tarantino, Tom Morello, and Gloria Steinem.

Quotes:

“I had my gut and my hustle.”

“The sun is coming strong through the curtains – a million specks of dust exposed and floating in the light, telling stories.”

“He saw me as I was, and still seemed to be choosing me. It’s a basic thing, but I had never in my life been chosen before.”

When a telephone rings at 3 a.m.: “That’s the time of the morning when you find out somebody’s dead or needs some bail money.”

“I dropped the needle on the vinyl with my heart in my throat.”

“My excitement kicked my nerves right on out the room.”

“When I heard the rage and wildness pouring out of the record, Opal & Nev sounded exactly like a little piece of me that lived on the inside.”

“If you size up a group of people based on the best of them instead of the worst, your guard does tend to ease down.”

“throw a fence around her heart at the moments I needed her to give me new insight”

“My armor was me, my best asset. It kept me protected in a world…that either hated me or just didn’t know what to do with me.”

On Opal & Nev’s Things We’ve Seen album: “a give-zero-fucks freak-flag bravado that felt, in some ways, like a tribute.”

“I didn’t know back then that she was my benefactor on this road to self-discovery.”

“It’s dangerous to make art that has people stepping back and thinking critically about the world…Someone’s always going to be upset; someone’s always going to feel implicated.”

“Many things can be true at once.”

“It seemed like a good time to evolve, to leave old triggers in the past.”

“I caught a storminess in her face.”

“She’d preserved the version of him that existed in her fondest, most hopeful memory.”

Laura

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Blog Archive

  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010

Footer

Laura Lieff was named Colorado Mountain College’s 2017-2018 Part Time Staff Member of the Year for her work as a writing tutor and teaching assistant.
Laura Lieff was named Colorado Mountain College’s 2017-2018 Part Time Staff Member of the Year for her work as a writing tutor and teaching assistant.

Work With Me

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
lieff-ink-logo_updated-2
  • About
  • Services
  • Words
  • Blog
  • Client List
  • Contact

Copyright © 2025 · PO Box 1228 Edwards CO 81632 · info@lauralieff.com