Synopses & Reviews
"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
"Gone is the druggy logorrhea of his 1966 novel, Tarantula, as Mr. Dylan...looks back on his life. Yet Chronicles is hardly tame. It is lucid without being linear, swirling through time without losing its strong storytelling thread." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review
"[L]ucid, 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
Review
"A key to understanding the most important figure in American cultural history. It took courage to write, to unlock a chest of secrets and set them free, but Dylan's always had plenty of that." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Review
"Its generally sprightly pace occasionally unwinds like an old pocket watch to accommodate slow, rambling scenes that make for some of the book's most compelling passages and sometimes actually do hint at what it's like to be Bob Dylan." Los Angeles Times
Review
"Chronicles must be taken on its own terms, enjoyed for what it is regardless of what one may have expected or wished it to be. There's a lot to enjoy. And it's a surprisingly honest and revealing autobiography, albeit an eccentric and unconventional one." San Diego Union-Tribune
Review
"[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
Review
"Surely no one really expected Bob Dylan to produce a typically linear autobiography, coherently taking readers step-by-step through his life and career....And it's obvious Dylan penned this book to confound loyal fans as much as inform them." Dallas-Ft. Worth Star Telegram
Review
"[T]he real literary achievement of Chronicles is the voice Dylan has devised for his youthful self, which is spellbinding in its hokum." Tom Carson, The New York Times Book Review
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)
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
The first installment of a three-volume memoir by one of the greatest musical legends of all time.
About the Author
Bob Dylan is one of the most important songwriters in the history of rock and roll, and one of music's most compelling singers.