A vibrant, sympathetic portrait of the once and future king of rock ’n’ roll by the award-winning author of Shiloh and In Country

To this clear-eyed portrait of the first rock ’n’ roll superstar, Bobbie Ann Mason brings a novelist’s insight and the empathy of a fellow Southerner who, from the first time she heard his voice on the family radio, knew that Elvis was “one of us.” Elvis Presley deftly braids the mythic and human aspects of his story, capturing both the charismatic, boundary-breaking singer who reveled in his celebrity and the soft-spoken, working-class Southern boy who was fatally unprepared for his success. The result is a riveting, tragic book that goes to the heart of the American dream.

If you’re going to read one book to find out what Elvis was all about, Mason’s is a good choice. She brings to the task a novelist’s eye and the sensibilities of a Southern girl who came of age in the 1950s. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

If you’re going to read one book to find out what Elvis was all about, Mason’s is a good choice. She brings to the task a novelist’s eye and the sensibilities of a Southern girl who came of age in the 1950s. (The San Diego Union-Tribune)

Bobbie Ann Mason is the author most recently of the novel An Atomic Romance and Nancy Culpepper, a collection of stories. She is also the author of Shiloh and Other Stories, winner of the PEN/ Hemingway Award; Feather Crowns and Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail, both of which won the Southern Book Award; and the bestselling novel In Country. Her memoir Clear Springs was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is currently writer-in-residence at the University of Kentucky.

Imprint: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Distributor: Penguin Group USA, Inc
Publication Date: 07-31-2007
Pages: 192
Measurements: 7.14in X 5.24in X 0.54in X 0.31lb