Chronicles, Volume 1 Summary and Reviews

Chronicles, Volume 1
by Bob Dylan

Chronicles, Volume 1
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Book Summary Information

Author: Bob Dylan
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2004-10-05
ISBN: 0743228154
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Book Reviews of Chronicles, Volume 1

Book Review: gives insight...
Summary: 4 Stars

Chronicles is fragmented in structure and doesn't have a great literary style, but it is a very interesting look at Bob Dylan from the inside. While I don't expect a personal memoir to be completely objective, I do think there is a great deal of integrity in the way Dylan reveals some of the driving forces behind his work. First and foremost, he is an artist, not a social reformer. The motivation to achieve a pinnacle of success was very strong. Unfortunately, he became a victim of his own success when many, maybe most, of his admirers failed to distinguish the man from his work. As an artist, he wanted to achieve a powerful, coherent vision of some real element of existence. He was more interested in constructing an artistically convincing model than in what that model represented to his admirers. Folk music provided the original fuel for his creative factory until a more personal vision began to coalesce. According to Dylan, he gathered the raw materials from a myriad of sources, and the black box of his creative mind then supplied him with words to describe an artistic synthesis. He reveals himself as being a great skimmer of all facets of culture, from folk, blues, and pop, in the music department; movies; and more intellectual fields such as poetry, literature and painting. He took only what interested him and quickly moved on, bearing down on those things which he instinctively recognized as relevant to the development of his music. His approach was much the same with the performers whose acquaintance he was able to gain. There is an amazing amount of colorful and interesting detail in his recollections which bespeaks the poet's deep impressions of the appearance of things. It seems this memoir is, at least partially, an attempt to validate the stance he has taken through the years of disclaiming any responsibility for the meanings his fans read into his lyrics. Dylan the man comes across to me as being clever as well as intelligent in exploiting this native genius for transforming the everyday stuff of life into art. It is worthy of admiration, but not worthy of worship. Dylan and success seem to be analogous to Br'er Rabbit and the tar baby. Once he made contact with it, he found it wasn't easy to free himself from it's demands.

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