 Before
he became Anonymous, author of the political novel Primary Colors, Joe Klein wrote
this intelligent biography of America's legendary folksinger-activist. Klein's first book
may not have created the fuss that Primary Colors did, but it attracted the
attention of no less a celebrity than Bruce Springsteen, who used to cite it with respect
during concerts before singing Guthrie's most famous lyric, "This Land Is Your
Land." Klein's unearthing of two politically radical verses usually omitted from that
song is just one instance of the solid research underpinning his vivid narrative of
Guthrie's often tragic life (1912-67). Before Woody turned 15, his sister died in a fire
and his mother was committed to an Oklahoma insane asylum with a mysterious disease he
later learned he inherited; Klein's chilling description of Huntington's chorea is one of
the book's strong points. Its heart is a full rendering of Guthrie's restless wanderings
across Depression-era America, which fired his lifelong radicalism, and a scrupulously
unsentimental account of Woody's oft-sentimentalized personality. He may have been a
genius and a staunch advocate of the common people, but Guthrie was also a bad husband,
neglectful father, and difficult friend, as Klein shows. He pays Woody's life and music
the tribute of assuming they need no sanitizing, and this biography is all the more
interesting because of it. --Wendy Smith |