Starred review from May 24, 2010
This work is a rare treat, as Cash, firstborn to country music legend Johnny Cash, is not only a hereditary celebrity musician, having made scores of albums and #1 singles, but a terrific writer in her own right. Indeed, her memoir is an intensely reflective, carefully hewn chronicle of her coming-into-her-own as a writer. Born in 1955 to Johnny Cash's littleknown first wife, Vivian, just at the breakthrough of her father's music career with the hit "Cry, Cry, Cry," Cash describes herself as a "pudgy, withdrawn girl" already aware that she was "a counterfeit with a strange, hidden life." That included an anxious mother, three younger sisters, and a father who was frequently absent and erratic, due to his abuse at the time of amphetamines and barbiturates. From growing up in Southern California to visits to her father's house in Hendersonville, Tenn., Cash idolized her father and rarely questioned his authority, such as sending her off to work at CBS Records in London at age 20. At Vanderbilt University, she studied with Walter Sullivan; toyed with Method acting in L.A.; then recorded four demos in Munich, Germany, for Ariola Records, away from the scrutiny of comparison with her father. Cash depicts pensively her early delight in analogue recording and honing her writing craft. Despite an inordinate preponderance of funeral eulogies and some odd structuring toward the end, Cash's memoir sheds clear light on her talent and drive.
Starred review from May 15, 2010
Beautifully written meditations on love, death, family and redemption from the celebrated songwriter.
As the title alludes, this is very much a"portrait of the artist" memoir, in which the author shows not the slightest interest in dishing dirt or settling scores. A country hitmaker who has received considerable critical acclaim, Cash is also a previously published author of the short-story collection Bodies of Water (1996). Yet for some she will always be foremost the daughter of Johnny Cash. Here she leaves no question that the father she knew was quite different than the legend portrayed in the 2005 film, Walk the Line, which she calls"an egregious oversimplification of our family's private pain, writ large and Hollywood-style." By contrast, intimate vignettes writ small fill this account, which illuminates her close, complicated relationships with both her mother and her father—whom she remembers as"strange, dark, and intensely distracted" when she was the young daughter of a dissolving marriage, yet a pillar of support and inspiration through the majority of her life. The tension at the center of both her career and her memoir is her realization that"I wanted success, certainly, but I wanted it without the merciless exposure of a public life." Unflinchingly honest and incisive on matters she chooses to address, Cash provides little detail about her marriage to and divorce from country artist Rodney Crowell, whose collaboration with her proved pivotal in the careers of both. A generosity of spirit informs her portraits of friends from decades past, fellow musicians, husband and collaborator John Leventhal and the children who have enriched the life of their mother. Despite the spate of recent deaths she has mourned, and the traumas of brain surgery, miscarriage and a mysterious loss of voice that she recounts in these pages, warmth and humor characterize the resilience of the author's spirit.
An excellent memoir that ends on an encouraging note:"More to come."
(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
Starred review from July 1, 2010
Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash is much more than Johnny Cash's daughter, but the presence of the Man in Black looms large in her memoir. Cash recounts stories of growing up, getting into the music business, evolving as a songwriter, and going through a divorce, brain surgery, and the loss of her parents. She writes about her relationship with her father, Johnny and June Carter Cash's marriage, and her connection with the early 20th-century folk-country tradition via the Carter family. Although Cash discusses her recordings and a few of her most poignant songs in detail, some readers will wish for a book that delves into the entire body of her work. Cash includes the texts of eulogies she wrote for the funerals of her mother, father, and stepmother. VERDICTFans of Rosanne and Johnny Cash will find this essential, as she offers insight into their lives, the importance of family, and the music industry. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ"3/15/10; ebook available; eight-city author tour.]—James E. Perone, Univ. of Mount Union, Alliance, OH
Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
July 1, 2010
I learned more from songs than I ever did from any teacher in school, admits Rosanne Cash in the introduction to her engaging memoir. Cash writes about her upbringing in Southern California, her love for her mother and the relationships she had with her father, Johnny Cash, and her famous stepmother, June Carter Cash. She recalls feeling like an outcast at her Catholic school, remembering herself as a withdrawn, pudgy girl with a swollen face and a foggy head. She recounts the time she spent in London as an assistant at Columbia Records, her marriages, life in New York, and surgery in 2007 for the removal of a benign brain tumor. The most compelling parts of this episodic memoir describe Cashs musical heritage, what she calls her familys vocation, and her development as a singer and songwriter. And the story behind her 2006 album Black Cadillac, an artistic response to the death of her father, mother, and stepmother within a short period of time, is a moving testament to the resiliency of the human, and creative, spirit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)