Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

One of the things I love about pop-culture critical writing is that sometimes it can make you care about an artist or genre or piece of art that you may have neglected or even disparaged throughout your life prior to reading. For me, Joni Mitchell is an artist with whom I'm relatively unfamiliar. I know the big hits ("Big Yellow Taxi," "Both Sides Now"), but I wouldn't say I'm really into her other work, just by virtue of never really being interested in it. But I found this book at a local Goodwill and decided to give it a try because it seemed to offer an intriguing premise.

"Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell," by Katherine Monk, offers a unique critical evaluation of the singer-songwriter and her work and life, while making connections between Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and (surprisingly) Friedrich Nietzsche on how each has influenced Mitchell either personally or creatively. Mitchell emerges as a unique artist whose muse has led her to create some evocative music and artwork over the years, and secure her place as a major artist in the music world. Monk, a Canadian writer and journalist, does a great job of covering Mitchell's artistic development, stemming in no small part from the trauma of contracting polio when she was a girl and surviving what could've been a death sentence. Mitchell rebounded from her bout with illness to express herself in song, and she has continued to create in her own individual way over the course of a career that has lasted some fifty years.

Monk writes about Mitchell's life, not as in-depth as a more conventional biography might but revealing the connections between her personal life and her art (the many romances she's had, the daughter she gave up for adoption, the feuds with Dylan and "Rolling Stone" magazine, etc.). Through it all, Mitchell emerges as a force to be reckoned with, and a creative voice unbound from the demands of popular culture to bend to the whims of public fashion. Monk uses Mitchell's artistic journey to illustrate an essential aspect of humanity: our desire and need to create separates us from the other creatures of the earth.

"Joni" helped me to see why Joni Mitchell matters in the story of popular music, in a way that I hadn't considered before. And that's really something that makes this book worth reading, whether you're a Joni super-fan or someone who's only heard "Big Yellow Taxi" on the radio. Because Katherine Monk will make you care about Mitchell's work and life in a way that you may not have considered before.