SEATTLE – Author Jeff Norburn denies that he created a character in his novel Triple Barrel, to be a hardcore fan of Seattle grunge rockers Pearl Jam in order sell copies of his novel to fans of the band – at least the ones who are into reading novels.
“It seems obvious to me that Norburn made the character of Ana a Pearl Jam fan because he wants Jammers to buy his book,” said Stone Cameron, President of the on-line fringe Pearl Jam Fan Club ‘PJ is my Jam’.
“Most Pearl Jam fans are in their 40s and 50s now,” Cameron elaborated. “25 years ago we spent our time jostling about in mosh pits, smoking weed, and wearing flannel, but nowadays we watch a lot of Netflix, read novels, and go to bed early – at least until the boys release a new album and go on tour.”
We contacted Norburn at his palatial home in Quesnel, Canada where he claimed he was unaware of the controversy. “I had no idea this was a thing,” Norburn said. “I’m a huge Pearl Jam fan and I thought it would be fun to make the character of Ana a fan too. That’s all there is to it.”
When asked if he thought that including Pearl Jam references in the novel would help him sell more books, Norburn said, “That’s ridiculous. You can’t expect someone to buy a novel just because one of the characters has a dog named Lukin, or they have a key chain with PJ20 on it, or they engage in heated discussions with their coworkers about how egregiously Creed sucks.”
“Obviously I’d buy a novel for those reasons, but that’s me. Like I said, I’m a huge Pearl Jam fan. Whenever Pearl Jam is mentioned in a book or a movie, it’s a pretty safe bet that I’m going to buy it but I wouldn’t expect anyone else to buy a novel simply because Pearl Jam is mentioned a few times – I mean it would be great if they did, but I wouldn’t expect it.”
Norburn stressed that while there is content in Triple Barrel about the band, they don’t play a significant role in the story. “Triple Barrel may be wildly entertaining, but it’s not about the ‘Best Band in the History of the World’. It’s actually the story of a paramedic (and huge Pearl Jam fan) who gets mixed up in a blackmail scheme, a series of warehouse thefts, home invasions, and murder, after someone kills her brother.”
Stone Cameron isn’t buying Norburn’s argument though. “He’s simply taking advantage of Jammers the same way David Crane and Marta Kauffman did when they got us to watch that final episode of ‘Friends’ just so we could hear 30 seconds of Yellow Ledbetter,” Cameron said. “Mind you, it was a powerful scene. David Schwimmer is a national treasure.”
Norburn maintains that his only motivation for making Ana a Pearl Jam fan was that it ‘felt right’. “They always say, ‘write what you know’ and I know Pearl Jam.”
“Norburn can say what he likes but it won’t work – at least not anymore,” Cameron said. “I mean – it worked on me, but that’s because I was drunk when I bought that copy of Triple Barrel on Amazon. I’m not going to lie – it’s really good, and not just because Ana tunes in to Pearl Jam Radio on Sirius XM and talks trash about Scott Stapp. As far as novels go, it has all the violence, profanity, and full frontal nudity I expect, and it’s pretty damn funny.”
When asked how he would rate the novel Cameron said he would put it in terms he thought most Pearl Jam fans would understand. “It’s not ‘Atlanta 1994 Black’ good (I mean – is anything?), but it’s easily ‘L.A. 2009 Red Mosquito’ good, maybe even better than that.”
Triple Barrel is available on Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Triple-Barrel-Jeff-Norburn/dp/1691923729/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
The Norburn Shuffle 