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numinaluna 's review for:
Dolly Parton, Songteller
by Dolly Parton
Preface: I love Dolly. I have admired her music, her style, her confidence, and her philanthropy for decades. I am not an unbiased reader.
I'm glad I listened to the audiobook for all of the song snippets spliced in between the sections. However, it took me several weeks to finish this book, because I was not compelled to finish it. There wasn't a clear structure -- vaguely chronological, but not precisely -- and the interviewer who was supposedly guiding the conversation did not ask anything new. Any Dolly fan will know the story-behind-the-song for "Jolene," the little red-haired girl asking for an autograph, but that is about as deep as most of the stories go. Dolly is, by definition, a songteller, because her songs speak for themselves and tell her stories, whether they are fictional or autobiographical. A significant portion of these stories was Dolly reciting the lyrics in almost tautology of "the song is about what it's about."
I enjoyed hearing her narrate, and I love hearing her sing, but I think I would prefer a more in-depth and structured biography to get any real Stories behind the music.
I'm glad I listened to the audiobook for all of the song snippets spliced in between the sections. However, it took me several weeks to finish this book, because I was not compelled to finish it. There wasn't a clear structure -- vaguely chronological, but not precisely -- and the interviewer who was supposedly guiding the conversation did not ask anything new. Any Dolly fan will know the story-behind-the-song for "Jolene," the little red-haired girl asking for an autograph, but that is about as deep as most of the stories go. Dolly is, by definition, a songteller, because her songs speak for themselves and tell her stories, whether they are fictional or autobiographical. A significant portion of these stories was Dolly reciting the lyrics in almost tautology of "the song is about what it's about."
I enjoyed hearing her narrate, and I love hearing her sing, but I think I would prefer a more in-depth and structured biography to get any real Stories behind the music.