King Cal
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King Cal, a novel by Peter McDade, will be published by Trouser Press Books on April 16, 2025. Many novels set in the world of rock music depict stardom, debauchery and deceit. King Cal instead focuses on the creative process, the devotion required to choose an uncertain life in music, the inspiration for songwriting and the challenge of making the rent while making art. In the course of one ordinary day, Atlanta fast food worker Calvin loses his girlfriend, his band and his best friend. Suddenly, everything he had planned to spend the rest of his life doing seems to have flown away. Told with insight, sensitivity and deep respect for what it really takes to make a life in music, King Cal is a coming-of-age novel about a determined young man who starts with little, aims to earn a little more and has to decide whether success, or even clinging to his dream, is worth the sacrifice.
What People Are Saying:
A compelling exploration of friendship, identity and the healing power of music.
Having lived through my own musical coming-of-age, I’m often dismayed by just how wrong most music-themed books get it. Not King Cal. This is one of the few novels about music that have felt utterly real to me. As the book wound its way to a deeply moving end, I was both desperately hoping it would all work out for our unlikely hero and thanking Pete McDade for getting it so right.
When I am asked by parents of kids who are considering a life in popular music if I would recommend that path, I say that if their child can even imagine doing anything else with their life, they should do that. But if the kid can’t conceive of any future but music, I urge them to offer encouragement. Now, I can just tell them to read this book.
King Cal evocatively captures the challenges of music in the digital age, where a hit can go viral and change everything.
