Adult Review: The Best of Adam Sharp

The Best of Adam Sharp
Graeme Simsion

Overall Rating: 4/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 5/5

The Best of Adam Sharp introduces the character of Adam Sharp, a musician who has a day job in information technology. While Adam is a very talented pianist, he limits himself to noodling around with the piano at his favorite pub. Adam has been content in his life, living with his partner, Clare, and knocking 'em dead in music trivia at the pub quiz challenge. Re-enter Angelina Brown, a TV actress with whom Adam had a brief affair in his twenties. It starts with something simple, a single word email that mushrooms into a wild romp across several countries and many different states of mind.

I loved this book, honestly. I picked it up on the recommendation of a patron who knows my tastes and she was dead on, as usual. This book also found me in a strange point in my life, so some of the off-kilter nature of Adam's mid-life crisis was familiar to me, even though he is 15 years my senior. The book is peppered with musical references, both to pop music of the 60s and 70s and to obscure musicians and how all of this can weave together to make a sound track of your life. To continue this theme, the publishers also made a Spotify playlist called "Music to Read By" which contains all of the music referenced in the story (that's available on Spotify), in the order it's mentioned in the story. Listening to this playlist while reading the book really added to my experience of immersion in the world and was an inspired touch.

The plot moves slowly in places, but in a way that feels like it's supposed to feel slow, as if the world has shifted perspective and everything is seen in the disjointed flashes of stop-motion or a strobe light in a dark club. Likewise, the characters are not always likable, though I feel like I could sit down with Adam and have a pint easily. Likability aside, they are excellently developed and you can see Adam's progression from his twenties to his late forties, how life and experience shapes him and renders things from the past nostalgic if vague. Simsion's writing carries a voice that I could almost hear, a rhythmic, musical language that made me very attached to Adam by the end of the story.

A warning to those who have read the Rosie books: This is not the Rosie Project. While I haven't read his other work, I have been told by those that have that The Best of Adam Sharp is a widely different experience, harsher in places and with an ending that seems sad to some, but felt logical and satisfying to me. I encourage everyone to read it, but just be aware that it's a very different story that showcases the author's flexibility. In particular, I would recommend this to adults in their late thirties through late forties who may remember the music without needing the playlist. Men and women will take different things away from the story and I feel it would be interesting to both.