It’s the 1980s and Bob Dylan is midway through his contentious “Gospel” tour. Matt Dominico, the music critic for Boston’s Real Paper, has been sent to review the show. Outside the venue he runs into Johanna, an artist, who is optimistically handing a security guard one of her paintings in the hope that it will reach Dylan himself. Matt’s intrigued by the free-spirited artist and they arrange to meet after the concert. A romance begins but it initially seems one-sided as Johanna is not prepared to fully commit to the relationship. Driven by the persistence of Dominico they begin the slow waltz of a love affair conducted, mostly, at a distance as they each live in different cities. As Matt and Johanna begin to gain more success in their chosen careers their lives drift apart, neither realizing that sharing the secrets they are hiding from each other could have been the glue that kept them together.
Taking it’s title from the famous song, VISIONS OF JOHANNA, Peter Sarno’s debut novel is imbued with the lyricism and dark romance of many of Dylan’s most poignant compositions. Told in the first person, Sarno writes eloquently about the struggles of balancing creative aspirations with personal relationships. The majority of the novel is set in the 1980s and Sarno evokes the era well. There is enough period detail included to conjure a time and a place without the fetishization of an analogue era that often overloads books set in the recent past. Unsurprisingly VISIONS OF JOHANNA is filled with musical references and Sarno writes about music and musicians with some style. A moment in which Matt watches Johanna at a Janis Ian concert is skillfully rendered. Elsewhere he writes brilliantly on art, especially when viewed from a feminist perspective. A passage interpreting Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party is particularly astute. Throughout the novel the interplay between the two leads is beautifully modulated. Any frustration felt by the reader in the characters inability to properly connect is deftly explained by the slow reveal of each character’s hidden history.
Peter Sarno’s VISIONS OF JOHANNA is an engaging, mature and compelling debut novel which, though comparatively short, carries great emotional weight.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader