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A review by nobodyspoet
Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña by David Hajdu
1.5
I read this book wanting to learn more about Joan Baez within the context of her time and contemporaries, as well as her sister, Mimi, who I didn't know much about. This isn't that book as much as it is one that rhapsodizes the men in their lives, while upholding these women as alternating virtuous maidens and pawn-like figureheads. In attempting to show the ill-effects of these caricatures they were each saddled with, it only goes to further them, beating the reader over the head with Joan as a distant waif that can't have fun unless in under the guiding thumb of Fariña or Dylan, and Mimi the forever childish fantasy of the adult men that wanted to or did indeed take advantage of her, straining to break away from that in a few shining, undeniable moments. I was particularly horrified by the persistent showing, whether through direct quotes or general implication, that Mimi was only seventeen for much of the beginning of this book, and how it was treated as something to either relish, find funny, or count her lucky for.
As for the other subjects of this book, I'm not a fan of Dylan's, and maybe it's because of that that I don't find anything written about him in these pages to be charming, nor can I excuse any of the innumerable moments of cruelty from him as a side-effect of supposed genius. Pretentious, full of himself, there's so many ways to say it. It would be easy to say I don't like him, but can understand the impact he had on many artists since, but truthfully, I can't even understand that. If there's even a grain of truth to be found in this book, most of his work is a slapped together mess of other people's work. He's hardly the first or last artist to do that, much less of the early folk revival, but that just goes to the point of there being so many others to choose from; at best, he's a conduit through which other's electricity flowed. I can think of multiple times I had to put this book down during sections about him because it was either so annoying or so frustrating I had to give myself a break otherwise I wouldn't have been able to finish it.
Overall, I enjoyed less than I outright hated, and I found this to be a mostly devastating look into this period. While the writing style itself was easy to read over the course of a few days, its content was put together in such a way that ultimately made it off-putting. I don't want to seem as though my problem is the real-life aspect of this book, when instead it's the angle the author took. With a narrative that seemed to want to punish Joan Baez for her fame, to reinforce a lackluster portrait of Mimi Baez, to give too much leeway to Fariña's consistently appalling behaviors, and to perpetuate the myth Dylan so wanted, I'd be remiss to recommend it on any account.
As for the other subjects of this book, I'm not a fan of Dylan's, and maybe it's because of that that I don't find anything written about him in these pages to be charming, nor can I excuse any of the innumerable moments of cruelty from him as a side-effect of supposed genius. Pretentious, full of himself, there's so many ways to say it. It would be easy to say I don't like him, but can understand the impact he had on many artists since, but truthfully, I can't even understand that. If there's even a grain of truth to be found in this book, most of his work is a slapped together mess of other people's work. He's hardly the first or last artist to do that, much less of the early folk revival, but that just goes to the point of there being so many others to choose from; at best, he's a conduit through which other's electricity flowed. I can think of multiple times I had to put this book down during sections about him because it was either so annoying or so frustrating I had to give myself a break otherwise I wouldn't have been able to finish it.
Overall, I enjoyed less than I outright hated, and I found this to be a mostly devastating look into this period. While the writing style itself was easy to read over the course of a few days, its content was put together in such a way that ultimately made it off-putting. I don't want to seem as though my problem is the real-life aspect of this book, when instead it's the angle the author took. With a narrative that seemed to want to punish Joan Baez for her fame, to reinforce a lackluster portrait of Mimi Baez, to give too much leeway to Fariña's consistently appalling behaviors, and to perpetuate the myth Dylan so wanted, I'd be remiss to recommend it on any account.