Jewel reflects on her Australian tour.
"To hear an entire stadium full of people explode into applause
and feel it crash upon me like a wave in the darkness
is an experience that inspires an altered state of awareness"
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The forward (by Jewel) describes the book as a mosaic, rather than a linear, account of her life... I read it as such. Starting somewhere near the middle then selecting different headings that took my fancy. I was astonished with the diversity of topics Jewel recalls... childhood pranks, homemade bread, first love, butchering cattle, flying near the speed of sound, flying faster still on horseback, even an impromptu rebuff to Mr. Viagra. A mosaic indeed... a very colorful mosaic. As well as some er... interesting drawings presumably done by Jewel, the book features a delightful collection of photographs of her growing years plus some curiously obscure pictures of cattle. In parts I imagined Australians would have more empathy than would most Europeans as Jewel speaks of, "woods without a wolf". She has her beloved Alaskan wilderness and we have our great Australian outback. I found particular relevance in those passages as, like Americans, we Australians enjoy a little elbow room. By its very nature an autobiography (which C.D.T.D. essentially is) invariably is self indulgent. So unless you particularly have empathy with the author the going could become quite tedious, especially with an unnerving feeling that Jewel can, and will, break into fits of poetry at any turn of the page. I love most of Jewel's stuff and at worse I'm tolerant towards it, so her little eccentricities don't bother me. The Jewel chronicles are a 'Must Have' for her fans but offer nothing special for a general read. I lent the book to a few friends who pondered it for a while, but couldn't finish it. Although I enjoyed most segments to varying degrees, it is not the kind of book you 'simply can't put down'. The book delivers no more, nor less, than promised... a patchwork of events Jewel thought worthy of recording, albeit in her somewhat flighty style. Good luck with the book, Jewel, but remember, it's the singer/songwriter who we first grew to love. The Intrepid Prez :-) A.S.P.C.J. |
