Faithfull: An Autobiography

Early in this engrossing if somewhat disturbing autobiography, rock 'n' roll star Faithful remarks, ``The ony way I could handle being on tour with all these weird people was to treat it as a sociological study.'' This approach aptly describes her dissection of her own life as well. Faithful is more analytical, ironic, self-scrutinizing and literate than most celebrity autobiographers. Writing with Dalton ( Mr. Mojo Risin' ), she depicts with penetrating insight the world of ``free love, psychedelic drugs, fashion, Zen, Nietzsche, tribal trinkets, customized Existentialism, hedonism and rock 'n' roll'' that absorbed her energies from the beginning of her singing career as a teenager in 1960s London. From her tumultuous four-year relationship with Mick Jagger through her descent into junkydom to her ``comeback'' in the late '70s as a punk-rock diva, Faithful embodies rock culture at both its most glamorous and most destructive. A self-described ``victim of cool,'' she is nevertheless a tough (and often astutely feminist) commentator on the underside of the rock 'n' roll dream. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (Aug.)