More Real Life Rock

A funny, fierce, and uninhibited musical chronicle of the convulsive past six years from one of our finest cultural critics

“A smart set of suggestions for further reading, viewing, and listening by a most trustworthy guide.”—Kirkus Reviews

“This new collection of Marcus’ long-running column continues his role as a great chronicler of the highways and byways of American culture. This book feels like reading the diary of a friend who had noticed things I’d missed and seen deeper into what I’d noticed.”—Morgan Neville

For the past thirty‑five years, celebrated author Greil Marcus has applied his unmatched critical apparatus to everything from music, television, radio, and politics to overheard comments, advertisements, and happenstance street encounters—an eclectic collection of what he calls “everyday culture and found objects.”

More Real Life Rock collects hundreds of items from the crisscrossing spectrum of culture and politics throughout the tumultuous past six years of American life, an essential travel guide to the scorched landscape of recent history. Tracking the evolution of national identity during the Trump administration, Marcus spotlights the most whip-smart cultural artefacts to compose a mosaic portrait of American society, replete with unexpected heroes and villains, absurdity and its consequences, humour and despair, terror and defiance—as seen through media, music, and more.

Bursting with Marcus’s effortless, no-nonsense, unapologetic verve, this book features seventy-three columns from 2014 through February 2021.