Five Night Stand was written by Richard J. Alley and was released May 12, 2015 via NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing.
The story centers on Oliver Pleasant’s retirement from jazz music and his final five back-to-back performances in a New York club. He is an aging African-American pianist who has spent the bulk of the past seventy years performing everywhere from his parents’ restaurant to international stages. Unfortunately, his love affair with music has destroyed his familial ties, something he hopes his final performances can help remedy.
Agnes Cassady is a talented young pianist who struggles with a debilitating disease that has left her unable to control a constant tremble in her left hand. She is in New York just in time for Pleasant’s final performances. Though she is excited to hear Pleasant, a man who she has idolized for years, she has actually come to New York to see yet another doctor in hopes of a miracle cure, or even the whisper of one.
Frank Severs has lost his journalism job and is now a freelance writer. Word reached him in Memphis, Tennessee that Oliver Pleasant would be performing for the last time and suddenly a passion for writing has resurfaced within him. Despite his wife’s financial concerns, he feels the pull of New York and knows that a story on Oliver Pleasant will sell. With his marriage and financial stability in question, Severs leaves for New York in what he hopes will be a successful journey.
With Severs digging into Pleasant’s past and Cassady invited to hear it, Oliver Pleasant’s past and present are slowly unraveled. With Oliver’s life being drawn out, Frank is reminded of the power of music and relearns what it means to write, Cassady comes to understand what life is about, and Oliver begins to see beauty in more than just “the gool ol’ days.”
With elegant prose, meaningful themes, and a firm grasp of storytelling, Alley presents a world of love, pain, and music. The deliberate pace in which Alley writes is mirrored in Pleasant’s music and theme of relationships. The links between father and son, father and daughter, man and woman, man and music, woman and music, life and death, and more are presented throughout Five Night Stand and three lifetimes are spanned neatly within the space of five nights, blending the old with the new.
Side characters, such as Oliver's neighbor "Winky" and Frank's fellow writer Davis McComber, reinforce the links between good music, good people, and a healthy mixture of “what was” and “what is” to produce all of the "could-be's."
Alley weaves a story so close to home that I felt everything the characters did. I often laughed as I read and near the beginning of the end the tears kept falling down my face. I felt like I was in the dark club where Oliver Pleasant performed, I could see the smoke in the air and smell the alcohol on the breath of the characters. The dark prison Agnes is caught is was reflected in my own heart as I sat with her in doctor after doctor appointment, and the frightened realizations Frank has with his marriage and profession were my own as well.
Losing myself so completely in Five Night Stand is why I give it 5/5 stars. Not only was I every character, but I was swept away in the fragrance of music, emotion, and artfully arranged prose. There is not a single thing I would change about this book, it is already elevated and inspirational without trying to be. If you are looking for a good fiction, I suggest you purchase Five Night Stand as quickly as possible and buy a second copy to loan out. I know I will.