Synopses & Reviews
WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
The celebrated first memoir from arguably the most influential singer-songwriter in the country, Bob Dylan.
"I'd come from a long ways off and had started a long ways down. But now destiny was about to manifest itself. I felt like it was looking right at me and nobody else."
So writes Bob Dylan in Chronicles: Volume One, his remarkable book exploring critical junctures in his life and career. Through Dylan's eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan's New York is a magical city of possibilities -- smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With the book's side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times.
By turns revealing, poetical, passionate and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan's thoughts and influences. Dylan's voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.
Review
"Lucid, cogent, coherent, crystal clear. You hear Dylan's inimitable voice, his cadence, his dry wit, twists of phrase, the rasp, rush and tumble of memories all beautifully articulated." -- Richard Harrington, The Washington Post
"[A] fascinating, maddening time-travel ride....Chronicles affirms Dylan's idiosyncrasies and his mastery of the vernacular. As his best songs also show, he's a great reporter with a talent for vivid detail." -- Boston Globe
"A remarkable achievement, and like Henry Miller's best personal writings, it is a story that opens up the times that it portrays, and then reveals the possibilities of the human spirit."
-- Mikal Gilmore, Rolling Stone
Review
"What may throw some readers about Chronicles is how modest and straightforward it is. Neither a hallucination, like Dylan's Tarantula, nor a coffee-table fan's scrapbook (there are no photos), Chronicles starts in without any preamble, any fuss....[W]hat distinguishes Chronicles is what has distinguished and upset people throughout most of Dylan's career: the inconvenience of his genius." Charles Taylor, Salon.com (read the entire Salon.com review)
About the Author
Bob Dylan is one of the most celebrated songwriters and performers of all time. He has released thirty-six studio albums, which collectively have sold over 120 million copies around the world. He has been awarded the French Legion of Honor, a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. His memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, spent a year on the New York Times bestseller list.