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A review by lory_enterenchanted
How Sondheim Can Change Your Life by Richard Schoch
informative
reflective
2.5
A few interesting insights into Sondheim songs, pointing out especially where the music expressed something other than the lyrics, but for full impact this would need to be conveyed through a music lesson. A lot of the rest of the writing felt like filler, banal platitudes.
A couple of teasing glimpses at the author's life -- if it had been more of a memoir, How Sondheim Changed MY LIfe, it might have been more compelling. But he doesn't seem to want to go there, rather to keep things on an impersonal, general, and therefore boring level.
And, the big "revelation" he has about the Baker's Wife from Into the Woods -- that her story is a tragedy because she turned away from the prince who dallied with her to return to her husband and child -- is just stupid. This is an example of overthinking, of wringing a story out to find some original twist on it that does not exist.
I made a playlist of songs mentioned in the book. I think listening to Sondheim, is preferable to read ing about Sondheim.
A couple of teasing glimpses at the author's life -- if it had been more of a memoir, How Sondheim Changed MY LIfe, it might have been more compelling. But he doesn't seem to want to go there, rather to keep things on an impersonal, general, and therefore boring level.
And, the big "revelation" he has about the Baker's Wife from Into the Woods -- that her story is a tragedy because she turned away from the prince who dallied with her to return to her husband and child -- is just stupid. This is an example of overthinking, of wringing a story out to find some original twist on it that does not exist.
I made a playlist of songs mentioned in the book. I think listening to Sondheim, is preferable to read ing about Sondheim.