Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation
by Sheila Weller
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sheila WellerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-04-14
ISBN: 0743491483
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Book Reviews of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation
Book Review: Despite Some Glitches, A Great Piece Of Work
Summary: 5 Stars
To be honest, when I heard that Sheila Weller had released, in 2008, a triple biography of Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon entitled "Girls Like Us," my initial reaction was one of skepticism. After all, a 530-page book on three of the greatest singer/songwriters of the 20th century...why, that's less than 200 pages, on average, per subject! How could an author possibly do justice to these three great talents in so short a space? But then I heard Ms. Weller being interviewed on local radio station WFUV, and talking so intelligently and lucidly on her recent book, and so decided to give it a chance. Well, as it turns out, my initial qualms have turned out to be groundless. Sheila's book is a terrific success; wonderfully well written and concisely giving as much information about its three subjects as any reasonable fan could hope for. This reader has long been a marginal fan of Carole and Carly, and a 40-year adorer of everything Joni; I have read three previous biographies of the Big Mitch, but had been aware of nothing beyond the commonly known outlines of the other two women's lives. Now, I must report that Ms. Weller's book is not only the best Joni biography that I have read, but also provides a wealth of information on its two other subjects. I have always been a fan of novels that utilize a parallel plot device, and in this "alternating biography," we have a triple doozy. Carole, Joni and Carly have all led exceptionally interesting lives, of course, and Sheila has organized her book like a series of cliffhangers. Just as Carole moves to Laurel Canyon and is about to start a new phase of her life, we cut to what Joni was doing at that time. Then, just as Joni is about to release her first album, we move on to Carly. It is an extremely compelling method of moving this work along, and really does carry the reader. Ms. Weller has put an enormous amount of work and time into the production of her book; over the five-year course of "Girls"'s creation, she interviewed no less than 150 friends, spouses, relatives and coworkers of her three subjects, including Carly herself. I can't even imagine the logistical and organizational dilemmas that a biographer must deal with in creating a work of this kind, but they must have been numerous and constant. The end result, however, is a very wonderful tribute indeed. Ms. Weller effectively demonstrates how Carole, Joni and Carly were not only affected by the nascent women's movement of the time, but also served as a triad scaffolding of sorts for the movement itself. And despite being a longtime journalist, Sheila's writing is anything but dry. Though she writes in long, complex sentences, filled with M dashes and parentheses and footnotes (I like that kind of writing), she is also capable of penning something as touching as "...love is as much a locked box of esoteric intimacy that dissolves when it meets air as listening to a song is." And if you can read Sheila's depiction of Joni and her given-up-for-adoption daughter reuniting after 32 years, without getting a bit misty eyed, well, I guess you're better than me! As a work of juicy triple biography and as a social history of the women's struggle from the '60s through the '80s, "Girls Like Us" is a shining triumph. I came away from this book with an even greater admiration than I had before for these three great gals (and a slightly lower one, inevitably, of James Taylor, the man who figured so prominently in all their lives) and a desire to explore more of Carole's and Carly's work. (I already know Joni's, who I deem the greatest Canadian who's ever lived, exhaustively well.)
Having said all this, I must also report that the book has its fair share of minor problems. When I alerted Ms. Weller, via e-mail, of a couple of mistakes that I had noticed in her work, she seemed genuinely upset and gracious about my reporting this. She even intimated that perhaps my corrections would be incorporated into a later publishing of this book (and the book certainly deserves to be reprinted many times and to become a perennial). So it is in the spirit of helping to make a great work slightly more accurate that I humbly offer these nitpicking observations: On page 6, Sheila refers to "shav" as a drink, whereas it is actually a type of nasty, sorrel-based soup. On pg. 99, she reports that Carly's Uncle Peter had inspired her to go professional, but on pg. 159, she says that it was Carly's Uncle Dutch. Sheila tells us that Jim Morrison's dad had served in the Army (pg. 192), whereas it is fairly common knowledge that he was a Navy admiral. She refers to a Marvin Gaye album called "Sexual Healing" on pg. 257, whereas that was "merely" a song on Gaye's 1982 album "Midnight Love." The terms "lid" and "kilo" are used interchangeably on pg. 267 for pot measurements, but a lid is merely an ounce, and a kilo 2.2 pounds. (Don't ask me how I know this!) Joni's "Songs To Aging Children Come" is referred to as "Songs For Aging Children" on pg. 285, while on pg. 494, Joni's "Stay In Touch" lyric "we perceive one another" is given as "we receive one another." There is also, in the book, a problem with some dates. The Human Be-In in San Francisco took place on 1/14/67, not in 1966 (pg. 289); Cat Stevens almost drowned in 1976, not 1975 (pg. 354); Joni is five years older than Jackson Browne, not six (pg. 408); and actor Al Corley is not "over a dozen years" Carly's junior (pg. 468), but only 11. Some additional glitches: Real-life Lady of the Canyon Estrella Berosini has stated that her father was a high-wire walker, not a trapeze artist, as Sheila writes on pg. 244; jazz great Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona, not in Watts, California (pg. 433); and the referred-to "National Association of Record Merchandisers" (pg. 511) should be "...Recording Merchandisers." Finally, besides that inconsistency with Carly's uncles, two other Carly inconsistencies are revealed by a close reading: Sheila tells us on pg. 479 that Carly married second husband Jim Hart on 12/23/87, but in the photo caption of the wedding, the date is given as November 1987! Carly's album "Letters Never Sent" is said to have been released in 1995 (pg. 520), but in Carly's discography (pg. 563) is said to have as its date 1994. Again, don't ask me. Anyway, I feel a bit churlish in caviling about these errors, and only do so in the spirit of helping to eliminate what in essence undermines what is otherwise a great piece of research and reporting. For all its minor glitches (seemingly unavoidable in a work of this length and complexity), I really do love what Sheila has done here. I have read her book twice already and will doubtless be referring to it for many years to come. For all fans of the book's three great subjects, I would have to say that Sheila's "Girls Like Us" is absolutely essential reading. Thanks, Sheila! And if you should ever decide to continue in the same vein with a sequel on, say, Laura Nyro, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and/or the Wilson sisters, I promise to be one of your very first customers. And with great, uh, anticipation.
More Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation reviews:
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Summary of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--and the Journey of a Generation
A groundbreaking and irresistible biography of three of America's most important musical artists -- Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon -- charts their lives as women at a magical moment in time.
Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon remain among the most enduring and important women in popular music. Each woman is distinct. Carole King is the product of outer-borough, middle-class New York City; Joni Mitchell is a granddaughter of Canadian farmers; and Carly Simon is a child of the Manhattan intellectual upper crust. They collectively represent, in their lives and their songs, a great swath of American girls who came of age in the late 1960s. Their stories trace the arc of the now mythic sixties generation -- female version -- but in a bracingly specific and deeply recalled way, far from cliché. The history of the women of that generation has never been written -- until now, through their resonant lives and emblematic songs.
Filled with the voices of many dozens of these women's intimates, who are speaking in these pages for the first time, this alternating biography reads like a novel -- except it's all true, and the heroines are famous and beloved. Sheila Weller captures the character of each woman and gives a balanced portrayal enriched by a wealth of new information.
Girls Like Us is an epic treatment of midcentury women who dared to break tradition and become what none had been before them -- confessors in song, rock superstars, and adventurers of heart and soul.
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