Stephanie S. reviewed on 3/7/2021 + 168 more book reviews

I broke my own Cardinal Rule of Reading with this book. My cardinal rule is, I give any book 50 pages, and by then I had better be enthralled, or else. Well, at page 50, I was not enthralled at all. I found his wording ponderous, tedious and very self-absorbed. He rambled, often sinking into a thick Scottish brogue of sorts which I found difficult to navigate. I was done, I thought.

But something---I am not sure what--told me to give it another chapter, and I did, and from then I became interested. His fame and success came quite meteorically. He was a rambling and homeless (by choice) teenaged minstrel one month, and then an almost overnight superstar along side the Beatles and Dylan the next. I enjoyed reading about the peaceful message he longed to convey in his songs. He claims the term Flower Power was coined in a review of one of his concerts.

This book spans only the first 24 years of his life. By 24, he was ready to walk away and raise a family. I wished he would have let us readers in on a little of how he eventually evolved or changed as he grew older and, presumably, wiser. The book basically ends in 1970 and that's 50 years ago now, and was even still 35 years in the past when the book was published in 2005. There must surely have been more to tell!

As a Donovan fan, I felt compelled to read the book. If you are not a fan, you might find the pages rambling and dreamy and very self-indulgent. You will decide...

** 1/2 Two and a half stars!

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