A review by cdale8
Boys in the Trees by Carly Simon

2.0

I really wanted to like this, but instead of the interesting stories that the author could have elaborated upon, being given so much in the way of experiences and resources as a privileged young child in a progressive household, she tended to fill her pages with a lot of name dropping and confused angst. I realize that everyone, rich and poor, has their challenges, but I almost shelved it before she made it to college. The narrative got better as the early career stage of her life came into play, and she described (but did not explore, save one large and relatively famous attack at one concert) her issues with panic disorder, but I was somehow left with the feeling that she still really doesn't understand that someone that doesn't have to bother thinking about money while living in Manhattan in their 20s -- even back In the 1960s and 70s -- is actually wealthy. She kept writing about the family fortune being swindled long before she made it as a solo artist, and complaining that people thought she had money when she did not, but how did she get over to London to play around in a recording studio as a new unsigned artist, take a sabbatical from school in Nice, eat and party it up in midtown -- she certainly didn't elaborate on the employment woes of a struggling artist other than one summer as a youth camp leader... She could have used her experiences with sexual exploitation as a child to talk about society and its evolution in that respect -- how did she protect her own daughter, given her experiences? I really wanted to like this but I'm afraid that I just found most of it fairly shallow, and her revelations of various dalliances a little too TMZ for my taste.