 |
- Biographies - |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Life and Times of Janis Joplin |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Scars of Sweet Paradise:The Life and Times of Janis Joplin by Alice Echols Henry Holt 408 pages, 2000 ISBN 0805053948 Reviewed by Morgan Ann Adams So much has been said, written and rumored about Janis Joplin, it is hard to imagine anyone could have a fresh approach to her story. Alice Echols has succeeded by crafting a book that focuses more on the people and cultures that created Janis, and less on how she influenced them. Though talented and popular as a child, adolescent acne and a plain face made Janis feel like an outcast. Her attempts to gain attention were ridiculed by her classmates and scorned by her mother. Janis seemed adept early on at defying and disappointing conformity at the same time. She gained a fast reputation for her foul language, and open sexuality. However, it was the power of her voice that made the world take notice and the stigma of drug-induced death that has made the world forget. In a style that almost captures Janis's own mix of shy inhibition, Echols takes us through the short life of a misfit from Texas. A great deal of attention is paid to Janis's young life in Port Arthur and Austin, Texas. There the strained normalcy of her family life set impossible standards for a brilliant, yet unattractive girl. Janis Joplin's intense feelings of inadequacy are contradicted by her incredible popularity in the underground beatnik community. This inadequacy stems more from subtleties than from open taunting by her family and classmates. What shines through is Janis's innate normalcy, despite her outward attempts at the outrageous. Echols goes deep into the soul of a generation through this particular artist, comparing her not just with a certain group (hippies and beatniks), but with all individuals who have struggled in the search for identity. Based on five years of research and interviews, this biography is meticulous in its facts, often citing many different sources to describe one incident. Written with a journalist's words and the emotion of a true fan, Janis's life is told with sometimes painful honesty. Echols shows the vivid, yet not unusual, pain Janis endured during life. A most interesting aspect is the great detail used to describe the underground social scene of the 1960's. This is a crucial part of Janis's own psychology even if it does interfere with the narrative of the main subject: Janis. Despite this occasional wandering, Scars of Sweet Paradise is wonderful at bringing a reader in a new century hurtling back into the 1960's. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||