In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre

Editor's Pick for July 8, 2008

By Eric Pasteur, Peoria P.L., IL -- Library Journal, 7/8/2008 9:33:00 AM

Frank, Josh with Charlie Buckholtz. In Heaven Everything Is Fine: The Unsolved Life of Peter Ivers and the Lost History of New Wave Theatre. Free Pr: S. & S. Aug. 2008. c.288p. index. ISBN 978-1-4165-5120-1. $25. MUSIC
Frank (coauthor, Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies) presents a time line revolving around Peter Ivers and his friends—National Lampoon founder Doug Kenney and actors Stockard Channing and John Lithgow, among the gifted writers and actors he met at Harvard. Frank intersperses newly documented interviews to write an engrossing account of the players who formed a loose collective of tragicomic artists responsible for Animal House and Caddyshack and who influenced the likes of Saturday Night Live and MTV. Yet Ivers’s own work—including his recently rereleased debut record, Knight of the Blue Communion—proved too challenging for mainstream consumption. In 1983, he was murdered inexplicably and, treated with carelessness and indifference, the case remains unsolved. A music television pioneer—host of L.A.’s New Wave Theatre, a fusion of stand-up comedy, performance art, and punk/new wave music—Ivers and his never-ending tug-of-war between artistic purity and the pursuit of fame and fortune provide the backdrop for this story of hit-and-miss successes, both personal and professional. Overdue and highly recommended, this work assays a crucial era of popular culture history.