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sohnesorge's review against another edition
4.0
This was a very interesting, well and fairly researched, approachable biography, with lots of charming if salty opinions ("Jessie Lillybelle Skipper was a delicate name for a woman who, had she been a canary, would have sung bass." Right off the bat - hilarious.). Hank's story is one of tremendous talent combined with tragic addiction - his story shares so many parallels to the Winehouse story. It's well worth reading and understanding (and yes, I'm looks forward to the movie).
rabbithero's review
4.0
I'll say this for Hank Williams: he gives new meaning to the word 'alcoholism'. Anytime one of your friends, in that off-handed, vaguely joking way, comments that they drink too much, calmly inform them that until the begin to literally shred their body, dig under chairs like a dog, run down hotel hallways screaming of rescuing old women, and manage, in three years, to ruin his credibility, two marriages, his career, and his life.
Startling.
Escott's book is really quite marvelous in its account of Hank and his life- especially given his (Hank's) general reticence to tell the truth, and country music's notorious tendency to embellish. If anything could be viewed as a fault of the work, it is that Escott devotes an exorbitant amount of page space to names and dates, planting him firmly in a school of biography/history that I personally find taxing. That being said, between these large swathes of "born on ______, in _________, so-and-so was a ____________ before moving to __________", there is some really intense, illuminating narrative of a musician whose talent and personal tragedy were so eloquently, sadly entwined that he could not help but succeed, and fail, with nothing short of explosive fury.
Highly recommended.
Startling.
Escott's book is really quite marvelous in its account of Hank and his life- especially given his (Hank's) general reticence to tell the truth, and country music's notorious tendency to embellish. If anything could be viewed as a fault of the work, it is that Escott devotes an exorbitant amount of page space to names and dates, planting him firmly in a school of biography/history that I personally find taxing. That being said, between these large swathes of "born on ______, in _________, so-and-so was a ____________ before moving to __________", there is some really intense, illuminating narrative of a musician whose talent and personal tragedy were so eloquently, sadly entwined that he could not help but succeed, and fail, with nothing short of explosive fury.
Highly recommended.
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