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tommyhousworth's review against another edition
4.0
Like many gifted artists, Paul Simon seems driven by a mix of ego and insecurities. The core example of this dichotomy is his lifelong relationship with Art Garfunkel, which is richly covered by Peter Ames Carlin, from their days in grade school and early performances as Tom & Jerry to their many attempts at reconciliation through reunion tours and abandoned recording sessions.
The controversy at the heart of the landmark album Graceland is also here, with helps the reader understand how it's possible that Simon was both genuinely supporting the South African musicians whom he so admired, while also exploiting their talents. His "Graceland" studio session with Los Lobos is now infamous for similar reasons.
His attempts to win over Broadway audiences with "The Capeman" and Hollywood with "One Trick Pony" show Simon at his most vulnerable and defensive. He has been jealous of Bob Dylan for being revered as the poet of his generation, of Art Garfunkel for being seen as 'the sex symbol' of the duo, and yet he toured with Dylan in the 90's and generously supported Garfunkel spending time in Hollywood working on the film "Catch 22".
Carlin does a balanced job of presenting the many facets of Simon's personality, as well as giving a fair overview of his work as a writer and singer.
Toward the end of the book, Carlin encounters Simon at Emory University, where Simon is scheduled to do a symposium. Simon spots Carlin, gives him an icy stare, and then a dismissive wave. As this book is not authorized, Simon tells us all we need to know about how he feels about his warts-and-all career being presented on the page. That's as close as Carlin ever got to Simon. So, like all third party unauthorized biographies, there should be a huge grain of salt taken with "Homeward Bound". Simon may not be the kind of guy you'd want to have a cup of coffee with - truly, it sounds like it depends on the day. Some days, he's a real mensch, other days...not so much. But, you want him on that stage, you want him at his writer's desk, and in the studio. Because that's where he creates a transcendent magic that makes the rest of it little of our business.
The controversy at the heart of the landmark album Graceland is also here, with helps the reader understand how it's possible that Simon was both genuinely supporting the South African musicians whom he so admired, while also exploiting their talents. His "Graceland" studio session with Los Lobos is now infamous for similar reasons.
His attempts to win over Broadway audiences with "The Capeman" and Hollywood with "One Trick Pony" show Simon at his most vulnerable and defensive. He has been jealous of Bob Dylan for being revered as the poet of his generation, of Art Garfunkel for being seen as 'the sex symbol' of the duo, and yet he toured with Dylan in the 90's and generously supported Garfunkel spending time in Hollywood working on the film "Catch 22".
Carlin does a balanced job of presenting the many facets of Simon's personality, as well as giving a fair overview of his work as a writer and singer.
Toward the end of the book, Carlin encounters Simon at Emory University, where Simon is scheduled to do a symposium. Simon spots Carlin, gives him an icy stare, and then a dismissive wave. As this book is not authorized, Simon tells us all we need to know about how he feels about his warts-and-all career being presented on the page. That's as close as Carlin ever got to Simon. So, like all third party unauthorized biographies, there should be a huge grain of salt taken with "Homeward Bound". Simon may not be the kind of guy you'd want to have a cup of coffee with - truly, it sounds like it depends on the day. Some days, he's a real mensch, other days...not so much. But, you want him on that stage, you want him at his writer's desk, and in the studio. Because that's where he creates a transcendent magic that makes the rest of it little of our business.
susannah_n's review against another edition
3.0
Even as an audiobook, Homeward Bound took some time to complete. Peter Ames Carlin is exhaustive in his detail about Paul Simon's life, and he doesn't pull any punches. An alternate title for this book could easily have been Paul Simon: Still Douchey After All These Years. The book wasn't a hatchet job, though. Carlin delivered the details like a reporter with what I perceived to be little judgment of Simon's tendency to be mercurial towards his artistic collaborators.
Three stars for the content, though at least a half star removed for the borderline pretentious attempt to go in-depth on Simon's songs and another half star removed for length: 375 pages of narrative alone plus another 57 of notes and other material.
Three stars for the content, though at least a half star removed for the borderline pretentious attempt to go in-depth on Simon's songs and another half star removed for length: 375 pages of narrative alone plus another 57 of notes and other material.
paulw1111111111111111's review
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I am a lifelong Paul Simon fan and this detailed biography tells his life story including his complex relationship with Art Garfunkel. The book contains great detail of how he wrote many individual songs and albums.
rebeccabateman's review
2.0
Informative.
I learned that Paul Simon is not a very nice person.
I learned that Art Garfunkel had an acting career.
I learned that I am missing some great Paul Simon tunes from my playlist.
A nice chronology through the life of a master songwriter, but it felt like the author just collected snippets and whisps from various interviews and articles and stuck them into a book without any thoughtful analogy or depth of psychology.
I learned that Paul Simon is not a very nice person.
I learned that Art Garfunkel had an acting career.
I learned that I am missing some great Paul Simon tunes from my playlist.
A nice chronology through the life of a master songwriter, but it felt like the author just collected snippets and whisps from various interviews and articles and stuck them into a book without any thoughtful analogy or depth of psychology.
booksuperpower's review
2.0
Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon by Peter Ames Carlin is a 2016 Henry Holt and Co. Publication.
I read Peter Ames Carlin’s book about the life of Brian Wilson and found it was solid enough for a rock biography. So, when I saw this book on LibraryThing's early review program, I requested it.
Sadly, this book is really disappointing. It has been my experience that rock bios, (not autobiographical), can go one of several ways- They can be stuffed with minutia, detailing every single album or song, or recording, who played what instruments, sang backup and so on, without giving the reader much insight into the artist’s personal life - or- the personal aspects and whining and drama is the main focus and the music is not examined too closely , -or- the author really does their homework and combines musical highlights in with the artist's life story.
I have listened to, and very much enjoyed, the work of Simon & Garfunkel as well as most of Paul’s solo material for most of my life. Yet, Paul Simon remained an enigma for me. Oh, sure, I knew there had been epic squabbles between Paul and Art, and of course I was aware that Paul had been married to Carrie Fisher and is now married to Edie Brickell.
Other than that, I really didn’t know much about Paul's temperament, or how he and Art got together musically, or how they ended up going in separate directions. This book has answered a few of those basic questions, but by the end of the book, I didn't feel as though I ever really got a feel for whom Paul really was in private life, as the insights were far and few between.
There are very few quotes from Paul or Art, and the ones that do pop up here or there are most likely gleaned from other sources, articles, interview etc.
The book edition I received is text only, without the obligatory photos, most of these books toss in. However, this is a nice trade size book, with high quality printing and binding.
While this is a thick book, with lots of information, it’s not the sort of reading that held my attention. It was rather dull, except in certain spots, and I admit to zoning out quite a few times. It took me a long time to read through this book, and I often found myself thinking of it as ‘homework’, because if I win a book, I feel obligated to read and review it.
So, when I say this bio is anemic, I’m referring to the absence of a personal presence, and the portrait of this artist, is far from flattering, in my opinion.
I’m not insinuating the author did not do a fair amount of research, because I think he did put some energy into the book, but I'm wondering if he was deliberately coloring inside the lines by glossing over a lot of the personal junk.
Either way, despite its bulk the book doesn’t have a lot soul, or depth, didn’t encourage me to add Simon’s music to one of my playlists or hunger for more information on the artist. If fact, it left feeling rather apathetic towards Simon and as though, in good conscience, I could not recommend this book, even to the most diehard fan.
1.5 stars
I read Peter Ames Carlin’s book about the life of Brian Wilson and found it was solid enough for a rock biography. So, when I saw this book on LibraryThing's early review program, I requested it.
Sadly, this book is really disappointing. It has been my experience that rock bios, (not autobiographical), can go one of several ways- They can be stuffed with minutia, detailing every single album or song, or recording, who played what instruments, sang backup and so on, without giving the reader much insight into the artist’s personal life - or- the personal aspects and whining and drama is the main focus and the music is not examined too closely , -or- the author really does their homework and combines musical highlights in with the artist's life story.
I have listened to, and very much enjoyed, the work of Simon & Garfunkel as well as most of Paul’s solo material for most of my life. Yet, Paul Simon remained an enigma for me. Oh, sure, I knew there had been epic squabbles between Paul and Art, and of course I was aware that Paul had been married to Carrie Fisher and is now married to Edie Brickell.
Other than that, I really didn’t know much about Paul's temperament, or how he and Art got together musically, or how they ended up going in separate directions. This book has answered a few of those basic questions, but by the end of the book, I didn't feel as though I ever really got a feel for whom Paul really was in private life, as the insights were far and few between.
There are very few quotes from Paul or Art, and the ones that do pop up here or there are most likely gleaned from other sources, articles, interview etc.
The book edition I received is text only, without the obligatory photos, most of these books toss in. However, this is a nice trade size book, with high quality printing and binding.
While this is a thick book, with lots of information, it’s not the sort of reading that held my attention. It was rather dull, except in certain spots, and I admit to zoning out quite a few times. It took me a long time to read through this book, and I often found myself thinking of it as ‘homework’, because if I win a book, I feel obligated to read and review it.
So, when I say this bio is anemic, I’m referring to the absence of a personal presence, and the portrait of this artist, is far from flattering, in my opinion.
I’m not insinuating the author did not do a fair amount of research, because I think he did put some energy into the book, but I'm wondering if he was deliberately coloring inside the lines by glossing over a lot of the personal junk.
Either way, despite its bulk the book doesn’t have a lot soul, or depth, didn’t encourage me to add Simon’s music to one of my playlists or hunger for more information on the artist. If fact, it left feeling rather apathetic towards Simon and as though, in good conscience, I could not recommend this book, even to the most diehard fan.
1.5 stars
beccaz's review
3.0
I learned a lot from this book, and I think Carlin does a good job of offering a nuanced and balanced profile of Simon's complex character. That said, the author's long passages of literary analysis of Simon's music felt self-indulgent. Readers know the music, or can easily look it up, and Carlin's attempts to outdo Simon's lyrics were frustrating. He would have better off to let the music speak for itself, and focus on his otherwise solid retelling of the historical and personal contexts in which the songs were written.
worldswirl's review
3.0
*I received an ARC from Edelweiss in exchange for a fair review*
While I can tell that Carlin was/is a huge fan and Paul Simon is a very complex man, the book dragged at times. Often I felt like the track by track reviews of each album would repeat and start again.
I would actually give it 3 1/2 stars because it was very well researched.
While I can tell that Carlin was/is a huge fan and Paul Simon is a very complex man, the book dragged at times. Often I felt like the track by track reviews of each album would repeat and start again.
I would actually give it 3 1/2 stars because it was very well researched.
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