SOURCE: “Legends of Rock,” in Times Literary Supplement, No. 4978, August 28, 1998, p. 21.

In the following mixed review, Greif argues that although the opening of Cavedweller holds promise, the various characters and their life experiences eventually become tangential and repetitive.

The path of the West Coast rock star from rural obscurity to premature death makes one of the most alluring and persistent of American stories. A miserable, small-town childhood sets the myth in motion. There is a frigid, authoritarian father; torment at the hands of schoolyard bullies; escape through music. At the other end of the arc, the rock star's demise retains an air of magical incompleteness. His corpse is stolen by friends to be burned in the desert; or else there are rumours of conspiracy, faked death, murder.

The musical successes of such stars as Jim Morrison, Gram Parsons, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain depended on each singer's ability...