Reviews - My Effin' Life | The StoryGraph

321 reviews for:

My Effin' Life

Geddy Lee

4.55 AVERAGE

alistairjack's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

bookhipster's review against another edition

3.75

emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

I like music bios, and it's just fun to read about stories from the road. I respect Neil Peart with my whole heart

pholz's review

4.0

Terrible title aside, this was a surprisingly engrossing and absorbing biography. Unfortunately it laboured through the usual "portrait of the artist as a young man" stage, which seem to plague most biographies. My desire to read a person's biography is generally piqued by my interest in their achievements, not where they went to primary school. The book became a lot more engaging once it reached the Rush stage. Rush write such complex and esoteric songs that I was hoping for some insight into their conception, development and meaning, which the book did deliver. It was never going to satisfy all my musical desires and did, unfortunately, ply us with too many of the standard rock and roll excess stories. However, there were real insights into fame, fans, touring, the creative process, magic and loss, which I very much appreciated. It is compulsory reading if you are a Rush fan. And if you are not a Rush fan, why not?

seullywillikers's review

5.0

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

I was born in 1990, and my father was a huge fan of Rush, Yes, and Led Zeppelin, so they were a staple in our house and in our car; I guess when I was an infant the only music that would help me calm down was Zeppelin; I remember being a little kid, and putting on a Yes album (I can't recall which one) and putting on my prettiest nightie that was like a lady's elegant gown (in my eyes at the time) and dancing around the living room singing to it with all of the earnest intensity that only a child can; I remember our old boom box, and plugging it into that one outlet in the dining room, and putting in Fly By Night and laying on the floor reading all the liner notes and lyrics as the album played all the way through. I distinctly remember all of the covers of these albums, the nervous woman peeking from the curtain on Exit...Stage Left, and being inspired to try writing my own sci-fi dystopia after listening to 2112 every day for a month, and taking the boom box into my room (against the rules!) to listen to Roll the Bones and feel very grown up and almost edgy because my dad hated rap and didn't want us listening to it in the house, but Rush's homage to great rap artists was allowed and I thought it was SO COOL. So, while Rush was never my favorite band (I was a girl in the 90s, what can I say?) it was still a very formative, important, and recurring soundtrack of my early life. And now, Geddy has written one of the most impactful, raw, introspective, and emotional memoirs I have ever read. In fact, I was up far too late last night crying about this book-I didn't finish until 1 am and I had a big meeting this morning. So, whether you're a Rush fan, whether you're interested in rock and roll from the 70s through the 2000s, whether you're interested in thoughtful memoirs, or fascinated by the lingering generational effects of the Holocaust, there's something in this memoir for you. Also, the amount of photographs is staggering and illuminating. I was hurt by reading this book, but also energized; it gave me nostalgia for my own childhood, and for the decades before that I didn't actually experience. And, it ends on such a note of bittersweet hope, that I think everyone should seek out and feel every once in a while. Geddy Lee, thanks for all that you've done for music, and for sharing this personal side of yourself.