‘Ivy Hill’ by Arthur Ruben with Eleanor Cooney
Ivy Hill: A Novel Inspired by True Events
Arthur Ruben with Eleanor Cooney
(Manhattan Book Group)
Ivy Hill is in the Vailsberg section of Newark. Taken from true events like the 1967 race riots, Eddie is traumatized by the death of his dad, and alienated from the asshole his mom decides to marry. Music is his salvation and he forms a band, The Camaros. When they lose an audition to another local act, Stone River, the lead singer of the winning band recruits Eddie to play keyboards. Here’s where it gets personal.
Ruben’s a good writer. He was a good organ player. He looked good. He sounded good. I know. I know because it was my band—The Rock Garden—to which Ruben joined. I had advance warning that my old keyboard player was writing a book about his experiences in Newark in the guise of a novel. I didn’t know I’d be a character named Jeremy in that book. My only question is why it took him 286 pages to introduce me.
“The competing band had been Stone River, a wildly popular local `white soul’ band with a huge following. The Camaros had lost the audition, but Stone River’s vocalist, a young dynamo named Jeremy, who you’d swear was the reincarnation of Otis Redding if you listened to him with your eyes closed, recruited Eddie afterward.”
Ruben goes on to write about our gig at my alma mater, Weequahic High School, in Newark, but he remembers it differently. The same thing can be said for our gig at West Orange’s Cabana Club. But memory is a funny thing. The truth probably lies somewhere between Ruben’s recollections and mine.
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What is not in doubt is the danger of Newark during the riots. And the immediacy of Ruben/Clooney’s writing as they attempt to traverse the perimeter of the violence. He, like me, was caught in the crossfire. His chapters are riveting, filled with emotional responses to highly-charged events. From falling in love for the first time to courting illegal activities, Eddie is practically a juvenile delinquent before he finds his true self.
It reads quick. Like a movie. There’s a cinematic quality to it all as Eddie negotiates family tragedy, the pitfalls of school, bullying, the death of a close friend, a depressing homelife and the need for ESCAPE. As it says on the back cover, the five-year old Eddie, “over the next 13 years, is transformed from helpless heartbroken child into an entirely different creature.”