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Recommended Reading: "Girls Like Us"

May 1, 2008 Last weekend I went to Manhattan, and I wanted to carry just one messenger bag, instead of toting a lot of stuff (the way I usually do; Mr. Bethanne refers to me as "Anna Karenina" when we travel). Now, how could I possibly take just one bag when I had a) a book to review and a deadline to meet, b) three novels in various states of unfinished reading, and c) a nonfiction title that I was dying to read?

The answer, of course: my e-reading device (The Device Which Must Not Be Named, lest more readers of this blog believe I am shilling for it. Believe me, that is far from the truth. I shelled out for the pricey little devil just like you might have). 

Cost of device: Too much
Cost of books: Pretty reasonable for the consumer
Toting five books in the space of less than one hardcover: PRICELESS

On the ride up, I finished my review -- and then eagerly dug into Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us: Carol King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon -- And the Journey of a Generation (Atria). I'm a decade or so too young to have actually taken that journey, but adults close to me rode that peace train and taught me to love songs like "Case of You," "(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman," and "We Have No Secrets." I wanted to read Weller's book for the feelings I associate with the music of her three trailblazing subjects; I finished reading Weller's book because I learned a lot about how the lives of her subjects influenced that music.

Before you say "Well, isn't that the point?" allow me to amend that statement: I learned a lot that surprised me about how the lives of her subjects influenced that music. I hadn't realized what a white-glove-wearing, genteel Canadian thing Joni Mitchell was in her early days, nor how incredibly young Carol King was when she and her first husband Gerry Goffin wrote their Motown hits  (they were married at 17 1/2, Carol pregnant -- and baby Louise Goffin was literally raised in studio), nor how intensely Carly Simon's artist sisters envied her pop stardom. 

Weller made the interesting choice (at least at first; she later corresponded with Simon) not to interview her subjects, but instead to interview their friends, family, and colleagues. I liked the perspective this provided, although sometimes it seemed weirdly removed or tangential. For example, I couldn't understand why it mattered that Joni's early next-door neighbor knew about her pregnancy early on; later in the book, this becomes extremely important. Why not connect the dots? Weller sometimes sounds breathless and scatty -- and judging from her sources, footnotes, and thorough research, she's not.

No, she's really not.  Her subtitle underlines Weller's purpose. It's the "journey" of a generation, rather than "story." That journey continues for King, Mitchell, Simon -- and Weller. It's one that has taken all of these women through lots of twists and turns. Just to look at one thing, pregnancy and motherhood: there's teen pregnancy (King), unwed motherhood and adoption (Mitchell), and seemingly idyllic married motherhood (Simon) (the "seeming," of course, because of husband James Taylor's ongoing heroin addiction). These experiences affected the "girls" personally, professionally, and spiritually. 

Of course, to know that, all you have to do is listen to Joni Mitchell's "Little Green." But Weller has created a volume of the world's best liner notes for the soundtrack of a generation.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on May 1, 2008 | Comments (5)