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So sorry to post this late, folks! Let’s get talking. Any surprises in the book for you? Do like Dolly even more now, after reading, or somewhat less?
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
I found it while researching a murder (…this is a sentence I have more frequent use for than most), the true story of a neighborhood legend from my childhood. I grew up in a leafy, …
I’m still reading, but I had no idea how much I would learn about Dolly’s level of horniness throughout her life.
My favorite quote so far is when she’s talking about wanting to cuss someone out, but she gets too flustered to do it right. “Kiss my ass, that’s what you are. And don’t think I can’t do it!” Beautiful stuff there.
I was surprised at how much I liked the book! And I remember being in Sevierville, TN in 1980 and staying at Sevierville HS and there in a glass case was Dolly’s marching band uniform and her drum. All jokes about her assets aside, that uniform shows just how curvy, yet tiny, she was! I was quite surprised to learn how many of her siblings also perform and write. Something in the genes, or perhaps the water in the Smokey Mountains. I do have a tough time wrapping my mind around her love of jogging naked . . .
The Good: I was afraid the thing was going to be littered with one-liners, since they’re such an major part of her celebrity schtick. And I mean it does have a shit-ton of them, but she manages to use them in a way that lightens the mood without undercutting her sincerity. Like you get the feeling that she’s not brushing off the heavy stuff with them; she’s just using them as a silly, gentle way to keep things in perspective. At least that’s how I felt. Do you guys agree, or did you find them annoying?
The Bad: She’s a little vague when talking about her relationship with Porter Wagoner and her depression in the late 70s. She sets these up like really pivotal, formative moments in her life, but then she gets uncomfortable and skirts around them, and my attention waned a little bit in these sections. It’s especially frustrating because a lot of her greatest songs are from this era, and she barely talks about them.
The Ugly: That promotional picture of her and Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn in the photo section. Whoever did the makeup and lighting on that shoot must have really, really hated country music.
I have confess: I didn’t read this one, but only inadvertently. I put off going to get it, then couldn’t find one in any of the used bookstores, and of course it’s out of print so no regular bookstore carries it. By then it was too late to order one on Amazon and I don’t own a Kindle/Nook Whatever The Hell, so I guess I’ll just sit over here and pout over my totally avoidable problem.
Do want to say that I admire the hell out of this woman–this is, on one hand, the “American Success Story” in every cliched inch, but on the other hand–not. Name one other woman born into the systematic, insane poverty of rural Tennessee, who became not only a wildly successfull singer but wildly successful businesswoman–without enduring multiple bad marriages/publicized drug or alcohol problems, and has held onto her fortunes while still doing the job she loves.
I haven’t read this one, either, but I did happen to go see Dolly in concert a week and a half ago. I decided it was fun bucket-list sort of thing to do, and it was totally worth the money. She works hard to put on a great show. It was also funny to see how varied her crowd is.
I did think that it was a little bit obvious, seeing her show, that she does the exact same thing and tells the exact same jokes every night. Not that that’s bad, just that she’s very old school. I wondered if anyone reading the book felt that way, as if it was a little bit canned.
I agree with Andrew’s assessment of how she uses humor. She is both sincere and self-deprecating. I also admire the hell out of her.
I enjoyed the book, but by the end was ready to be finished. You can “hear” her saying everything in the book with her quip style and wonderfully real laugh. I never paid attention to the gossip about her, just knew her from the radio and watching Bob Hope specials, so there was a lot of references to smak I hadn’t heard and therefore did not quite get. We’re still laughing about the coon in the privy, it was worth the read.
Ugh, there “were” a lot of references, not “was”.
Pros: I enjoyed Dolly’s natural voice. She is totally not afraid to make fun of herself and I admire that. She doesn’t romanticize having grown up in poverty (but neither does she overdramatize it), and this woman clearly loves her fans. While I am not a fan of country music, I am a fan of celebrities who remember that they are rich and famous because of their fans. (Kristin Stewart, take note.)
Cons: I think it could have used some tighter editing. She tended to wander here and there, and I think that probably could have been reined in a bit while still letting Dolly sound like… Dolly. Areas that could have used more details sometimes didn’t get them (although I assume that she didn’t talk as much about Porter Wagoner as perhaps she should have, for storytelling purposes, because at the time the book was written he was still alive and they had only reconciled in the last few years).
All in all: I enjoyed myself. I don’t know if I would have actually bought the book if I hadn’t gotten it from the library, but I don’t think the time I spent reading it was wasted, either.
Jen S 1.0–I borrowed a copy from the public library. Might be worth taking a look. Mine had the hard copy, the book on CD and the electronic copy.
Andrew–you’re absolutely right about that picture! Dolly actually looks pretty nice but Loretta and Tammy look a bit drag queenish and they’re both nice looking women.
Rebecca U–coon in the privy. Shudder!
Andrew articulated better than I could my feelings about the “vagueness” aspect of certain stories. I don’t begrudge Dolly privacy on any issues that she prefers to keep private. What was odd though was that she seemed to present some information as if she wanted us to believe she was being completely transparent when she wasn’t.
I didn’t really know that much about her before reading the book, so it was all new to me anyway. Now I wish I had paid more attention when my parents dragged me and my sister to Dollywood on a family vacation years ago!