Suze Rotolo’s memoir: encore

 

Thanks to PJ in DC:

“The Rotolo book is not worth the money, and I must say that I am astounded at how much critical praise it received.

“Rotolo’s new age-y writing style is, in places, very irritating. Moreover, though the Dylan information is somewhat interesting, hardcore fans will not glean much that is news or unknown…

“… In the sections where Rotolo discusses her life independent of Dylan, I skimmed or skipped. When I did try to read these passages, I found them uninteresting at best.

“If you really want to see the Dylan-specific stuff in the book, I recommend simply waiting until you can borrow a copy.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, UK publishers Aurum have kindly agreed to supply Dylan Daily with a review copy, so watch this space for an early review. Aurum also corrected my price info given yesterday: their UK hardback edition of A Freewheelin’ Time is priced at £16.99, not £18.99.

Gerry Smith

Suze Rotolo’s memoir

I stumbled upon a stray copy of A Freewheelin’ Time, the new Suze Rotolo memoir, in my local Borders last night. I assume it was “stray” as I understood that it wasn’t due to be published in London until 25 September (though the US edition has been available – online – since 13 May).

But there it was in Borders, the UK hardback edition published by Aurum.   A 10 minute skim read raised the possibility that an earlier claim on Dylan Daily that Ms Rotolo’s book would be one of the big Dylan events of recent years might have been premature.

Perhaps it isn’t intended as a “Dylan event”? Though I don’t see any reason why anyone would want to know about Suze’s early life without the Zim connection. Anyhow, Dylan only figures in half the book’s almost 400 pages, and I failed to find any Earth-shattering revelations.

A full-length, fair-minded Dylan Daily review will follow – if I can get hold of an advance copy. In the meantime, if you’ve bought the book and have views on it, I’ll be very pleased to publish them here.

Gerry Smith