A pop music critic relates how his love for soul music was fostered by records his father left behind when his parents divorced, and explores how he tried to make sense of living in Arkansas during the 1980s and 1990s.
A coming-of-age memoir about a young boy in rural Arkansas who searches for himself and his distant father through soul musicSoul Serenade is the memoir of pop music critic Rashod Ollison, whose love for soul music was fostered by his father, a disturbed Vietnam vet. After his parents’ volatile marriage ended in divorce, when Rashod was six years old, he retreated into the records his father left behind—discovering that the music of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, and others provided solace and coherence.Soul Serenade is the captivating coming-of-age story of a boy who tries to makes sense of life in central Arkansas in the 1980s and ’90s, his family’s tragic past, and his sexuality, all through empowering soul music.