Novel Travels Back in Time to the Decade of Grunge and Gen X

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'Ninety Days in the 90s' by Andy Frye

With her engagement and her Wall Street career down the tank, Darby comes home to Chicago where she inherits her favorite uncle’s locally beloved record shop, Revolver Records. With life at a turning point, Darby feels nostalgic for the ‘90s, her decade-long coming-of-age party. And with her new role at Revolver Records, how could she avoid slipping into a retro mood?

In Andy Frye’s novel Ninety Days in the 90s, Darby Derrex time travels back to the crossroads of her life, 1996, a year when Gen X was ascendent and “alternative rock” still sounded like more than a marketing catch phrase. The record shop setting with its coterie of musical snobs—their identities forged through knowledge and devotion to genres of non-popular popular music—recalls Nick Hornby’s 1995 bestseller High Fidelity. Given the poor state of the world in 2022, it’s reassuring to imagine along with Frye that there are still 20something record store clerks who revel in “the goodness of old, vintage things.”

Ninety Days is the author’s love letter to the Windy City in the ‘90s and the music of Ministry, Smashing Pumpkins, Material Issue et. al. “I’m not from Chicago originally, but have lived here since fall 1994, since after college,” Frye says, much like the characters in his novel. “So I was 22 with no responsibilities when the decade unfolded and its music became such a pervasive part of the American experience.”

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Photo courtesy Andy Frye

Andy Frye

Andy Frye

The premise for Darby’s adventure in time is her discovery of a mythic subway running beneath Chicago with stops at various post-World War II decades. Ninety Days sets down rules to avoid the conundrums of time travel such as: “You only exist once in all time continuums, you won’t run into yourself.” A traveler can choose to return in time at their present age, but you can only arrive in the past on the calendar day of your departure i.e. if you leave on Sept. 11, 2022, you’ll find yourself at Sept. 11 in the year of your choice.

Ninety Days also reflects on the thoughts that haunt any reflective person about roads not taken and mistakes from the past. Will Darby really have the opportunity for the great do-over—to reset her life on a different course than the one taken?

Frye’s character sketches are sharp and observant. “In writing the book, I tried to make it relatable to anyone who loves music and pop culture, with quirky characters and circumstances that weren’t just particular to the 1990s,” he says. “The story has a few characters that are much younger than Darby, the protagonist, and it sort of juxtaposes the different tastes and generational differences between Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. I think Gen Z is as curious about music as Gen Xers always were, and I believe it’s restarting conversations about the ‘90s being the greatest music decade.”

Andy Frye will discuss his book 6-8p.m. Sept. 8 at Lion's Tooth Bookstore, 2421 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. A portion of the proceeds from Ninety Days will go to KT’s Kids, described by Frye as a Chicago charity “that takes physically disabled kids and teens on field trips to Bulls games, the zoo, etc. It was founded by KT Augustyn and a few rock music people here in Chicago like Scott Lucas from Local H. They do good work.”