Book by: Jann S. Wenner | Book Review by: Marlene Caraballo.
Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner delivers a candid diary of his quite out-of-the-ordinary life of seven decades in his memoir, Like a Rolling Stone.
Get ready for the real deal. I found Wenner’s writing style to be straightforward and shockingly honest: He hasn’t taken the easy road by glamorizing his life in the public eye. Instead, he retells his life and times with little prose or flourish, and certainly without the lens of rose-colored glasses. Reading this quite-thick book is never dull for a single page because Wenner’s life, as he tells it, was anything but common or boring!
This memoir takes us through his life from the very beginning, with childhood memories that shaped the foundation of who he was, to the birth, long life, and grief over what I believe was his greatest love, Rolling Stone magazine.
Wenner’s lifetime reads as a truthful narrative with excerpts about his personal choices, stories about the behind-the-scenes world of popular culture, music, and politics, and numerous experiences involving sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
His 70 years of adventures include all the ups, downs, loves, and losses one would expect in a lifetime. I think Wenner has had dozens more of each of those than the average person, making for an unusual and especially memorable tell-all book!
He chronicles his encounters and relationships with Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Bill Clinton, Bono, John Lennon, Annie Leibowitz, Jackie Onassis, Bruce Springsteen, and many more. Wenner writes of the political scene and cultural shifts that happened over the decades and how those influenced the music scene, his personal life, and how he ran and edited the magazine.
This book would make a great gift for the music lover on your shopping list, especially those who are longtime fans of rock and roll or Rolling Stone magazine.
