I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon by Crystal Zevon Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon
Book Review: I want my money back
Summary: 1 Stars
While not a member of Warren Zevon's - to quote the liner notes - "fanatical cult", I am a constant admirer of his music and philosophies and impatiently awaited the release of this book. After a frequently grueling four hours spent reading it, I am stunned by how the title made ME feel voyueristic and dirty. The compiler - surely the former Mrs. Zevon cannot consider herself an "author" since the majority of her tome is provided by Mr. Zevon's own words, as well as those of his acquaintances - certainly reveals every skeleton in her ex's closet and ultimately the list of his sexual escapades becomes tame, tedious and dull.
Editorially, the books lacks a plethora of time-related inconsistencies and straight-out mistakes...I wonder if the spelling of Aaron Copland's name is an error or a reference to some other musical giant. Furthermore, I am bemused by the cavalier manner in which the former Mrs. Zevon her mentions her stepson, Jordan. Perhaps the compiler's closet also contains a skeleton or two.
The book is disappointing and I do want my money back, plus punitive damage based on the hours I spent crawling through the Dirty Life and Times of a great musician. But since this request is unlikely to be fulfilled, I have decided to put the book to a more practical task...shred the darn thing and put the snippets of paper and pulp into the kitty litter container. I hope the cats find the pages more absorbing than I did!
Book Review: You will love him and depise him, but ,you will miss him more.
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't elaborate on what all the reviewers had written. I will only say that if you are a true Zevon fan, this books puts you in rich territory and it's in the deep end. If you care about music, art, literature and life and you don't have an appreciation of Warren Zevon, well, buy this book and his music, then dive in and leave the baby pool behind. Tell Gans hello for me Warren.Book Review: time to sleep
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a great read for any Warren Zevon fan. The glimpses of Warren from friends, colleagues, lovers and family including Journal entries from Warren himself lets the reader into the world of this Genius. I am glad I added this to my collection of Warren's material.
Thanks for sharing Crystal.
Book Review: Wow!
Summary: 5 Stars
The greatest of the obscure ones is immortalised here by people who know him and love him, even though he has moved on. Zevon's legacy lives on and the anthems he created still reverberate through our lives: we miss you, maestro!Book Review: "Warts and all" sadly turns into "warts only"
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is a terrible failure, leading to questions about why it was published at all. After it begins promisingly with a vivid portrait of Zevon's early life and career, it sinks fast. Apparently a dying Zevon authorized his ex-wife, Crystal, to tell his full, uncensored story, but what should have been a "warts and all" portrait really becomes "warts only." I am fan of Zevon's music, and as I read this book I kept forgetting why I liked the guy so much. (Luckily, taking a listen to his songs provided a quick reminder.)
Basically, the book repeatedly dodges in-depth exploration of Zevon's music in favor of telling the same kind of tales about his sex addiction and obsessive-compulsive behavior over and over again. Again, we the readers do indeed want the truth, but this is just unbalanced stuff here, and it's a slog to get through. The worst offense to me is that pretty much the only non-lyric words of Zevon's in the book come from his diary, and these entries reflect almost none of the cleverness or fondness for wordplay that he's known for. His diary entries make him seem like a lousy writer -- luckily the song quotes that head each chapter remind us that the man actually had something to say. His lyrics remain razor sharp, even on the page.
Zevon's friends (especially Carl Hiaasen, Waddy Wachtel, and Jorge Calderon) do a nice job in a way, but overall the comments are hit-or-miss; they show when sometimes they could tell (long bits from everyone illustrating how selfish and insecure Zevon was, when we've gotten the point fully by a certain stage), and, worse, they tell when they should show (again, many of these people gush about how Zevon was so smart and charming, but there are too few actual anecdotes to illustrate this).
This book could have been so much more -- after all, hardly any of his fans know all that much about the man. I won't accuse the author of anything worse than doing a lousy job, but I still don't understand how she could think that presenting such a skewed portrait would do anything positive, in any way (I am certain she was neither trying to "get even" nor deliberately setting out to do him injustice). Zevon may really have been as miserable a man as he comes off as, but, again, his work gets short shrift, and his work is the reason why anyone would want to read this. So I say skip the book, and instead watch YouTube clips, listen to the good interview that comprises the second disc of a new compilation, and, most importantly, just listen to the music and don't let this spotty little tome spoil it for you.