Looking For a Good Book

This is one of the older books in my ARC queue, but I’ve seen Neil Young in the news recently and it reminded me that I had this book to read.

Author/biographer Sharry Wilson looks back at the formative years of Neil Young’s youth.  The book title is not just a pun on the musician’s name, Wilson’s biography is focused on Neil Young’s youth and upbringing – from his birth in 1945, through the years of education and to the very beginnings of his musical career.

The very earliest years, as Wilson reports, seemed to be happy ones. Idyllic even. Though things change when his parents divorce and Neil is raised by an alcoholic mother and his father lives some distance away (Toronto). And, not surprisingly, his later school years are turbulent as he discovers the joy of music and song writing and performing and his school work suffers as his musical talent excels. It would be the very rare family that would be happy to have a child pursue an art form while falling behind in school.

I was honestly a little scared to tackle a nearly-500 page biography – and one that only focused on the early life – of any individual. I anticipated a hard read full of dates and minutiae.

This was NOT what I anticipated.

Sharry Wilson’s writing is very approachable and hits just the right blend of being informative and conversational.  She also manages to provide a great deal of background about Neil Young’s early bands and growth in songwriting, but is able to avoid being technical. Since most of reading this are likely not technically proficient in music, this was appreciated.

The book is full of photos. I personally really like seeing ‘big name’ artists practicing their art in their very early days (when anything was still possible and fame was still ahead of them). And I don’t know why, but seeing fellow band mates, who did not pursue music the way Neil did, was also really interesting. These people played with him, encouraged him, probably frustrated him, helping to pave the way for him to break out.

Wilson is clearly a fan of Young and I wonder why she chose to focus on just these early years, though reading the book, it makes sense.

I have listened to a lot of Neil Young, though I wouldn’t call myself a ‘big fan’ – maybe I have two CDs or vinyl albums and maybe he comes on some of my Spotify stations – but I recognize his music brilliance and I enjoyed this look at his early years.

Looking for a good book? Young Neil: The Sugar Mountain Years  – a biography of Neil Young’s early years by Sharry Wilson – is a very approachable, interesting, and informative childhood biography.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Young Neil: The Sugar Mountain Years

author: Sharry Wilson

publisher:  ECW Press, Canada

ISBN:  9781770411869

paperback, 470 pages