The slyly subtle wit of David Starkey meets the quirky cultural universe of Japan in Starkey’s new novel, The Fairley Brothers in Japan. A family road trip adventure following two middle-aged brothers, once moderately successful as a folk-rock duo but mostly estranged since their career — and relationship — fizzled out in the 1980s.
Andy, the younger, more optimistic brother, has made a home in Kyoto, teaching English and marrying a Japanese woman, Fumiko; while his older, more uptight brother Chris is recently divorced, retired, and a bit at loose ends when the random use of one of their old songs — aptly titled “Whenever I Hit the Road” — in a Honda commercial gives them the opportunity for a reunion tour in Japan.
It’s such a great setup for a road trip story that explores the ideas of family, aging, and culture. “Where did the inspiration come from?” I asked Starkey. “Well, my son went over there nine years ago to teach English as a foreign language and at some point got married to a Japanese woman,” he laughs. “I’ve gone over there just about every year, other than COVID.”
And while the characters aren’t based on Starkey and his son, and for the record, he has a sister but not a brother, Starkey does say, “I’ve been in bar bands my whole life [one of his bands, the Winehounds, can be heard frequently at Samsara Winery], and I’ve also been a poet for a lot of my life. I’ve gone through a lot of bad poetry readings and a lot of unsatisfying gigs, so I just thought I could kind of meld that together and create these characters. … But the more I thought about two brothers who had been successful, semi-successful earlier, and were trying to resurrect their career based on this chance use of a little bit of their song in a Honda commercial. … I have all the details already. I have the place, the smells, the sights, every little thing. All I have to do is drop these two characters in there and put them in gigs and make stuff up. But it was, it was one of those, everything kind of fell into place and it was that.”
The eccentricities of Japan are definitely another major character in the book, and the ups and downs of touring life as well. For example, the brothers are invited to the Honda headquarters, which they think is a big deal, only to be brushed off with the gift of a travel mug. And they book a wedding reception where the couple only wants them to play the same song (their Honda hit) over and over and over again.
Song titles and lyrics add a layer of humor and complexity to the story, as they did in Starkey’s previous novel, Poor Ghost. “It’s mostly songs that I have written myself, just like before,” says Starkey. “So, the song titles, the lyrics, are just things I figured I could borrow because I wrote them.”
While he didn’t have any specific band in mind as musical inspiration for the Fairley Brothers’ sound, when asked to describe it, Starkey says, “I think they would be kind of an alt country, maybe something like a mellower Uncle Tupelo, their second album … before they became Wilco and Son Volt; it’s like they had this kind of funky energy.”
Funky energy is also a good way to describe the book itself, funny but also moving and relatable as it explores the ephemerality of creativity and fame, the outrageous quirkiness of Japanese culture, and the complexity and deep connections of family relationships.
While The Fairley Brothers in Japan is not a sequel to Poor Ghost, the books are thematically linked to the music world, and Starkey says the third book in the trilogy — “it’s about Elvis Presley being elected president” — is also well under way.
The Fairley Brothers in Japan (Keylight Books) comes out in both paperback and hardcover on September 16. David Starkey will have a book talk and signing at Chaucer’s Books on Sunday, September 28, at 3 p.m. See bit.ly/4mLPPx6.
AloJapan.com