Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Chronicles: Volume 1

Bob Dylan writes just the way I would imagine he would talk. He uses wild descriptions and his explanations left me more confused than when I started the paragraph. For example, early on in the book Dylan writes about hearing Roy Orbison's music on the radio and how it is the kind of music that would make you drive your car off of a cliff. The kicker here is that this is a compliment. Dylan was raving about how good Orbison is and how Orbison's music makes everything else sound poor in comparison.

But that sort of description is fairly common for Dylan's autobiography. Half the time I had no idea what he was talking about or what he meant. I could tell when he was passionate about something or excited about a certain type of music because he made the emotion clear. I just didn't know what he was saying.

This isn't a traditional autobiography. He jumps around in time quite a bit and doesn't always tell us what he's doing. It's interesting, but while I have a better sense of who Bob Dylan is I have no greater understanding of Bob Dylan than I did before I started the book.

Still, if he writes Volume 2, I'll probably read it.

No comments: