A review by debz57a52
Resistance: A Songwriter's Story of Hope, Change, and Courage, by Tori Amos
2.0
Let me start by saying that I am only a mild Tori fan. I listened to her more back in the 90's, when she had a few hits, and I might have seen her at a festival show or somewhere, where I saw several people performing besides her. I don't think I've listened to any new music from her in the last two decades, though, nor seen her tour or really heard much about her in the media. But I enjoy songwriter memoirs, and I think I mostly agree with her politics, so I thought this would be a good one to listen to, read by her.
I'm not sure I was right about that, for me. The parts of the book where she talked about her life were my favorites - her childhood and how she started songwriting and touring, the important people in her life, her tour crew and their actions on various trips, even her perspective about current events (then current, not now-current in 2022). But often, she talks about her understanding of the spiritual, and although I understand she believes those things for herself, I don't believe them for myself, so it was hard to follow. She also takes a deep dive into explaining some big historical moments in the last 40 years which, while factually correct based on what we understand to be "the truth" now, seemed to go on in more detail than was needed to understand what Amos wanted to eventually say. Finally, she talks a lot about her songs - with almost poetry readings of the lyrics instead of re-records, like other songwriters' memoirs have included - and her philosophy around art and writer's block and creativity and politics. Those, while interesting to listen to and gather as one more viewpoint, also seemed to not be speaking to me, as our Venn diagrams related to creating art do not overlap very much.
Overall, while I was in the middle of the audiobook and driving around, I felt no real reason to stop mid-listen to DNF the book, there were lots of parts when I would have abandoned the book or skipped entire sections if I were reading a physical copy or an ebook. I suspect Tori fans would enjoy it far more than I did.
I'm not sure I was right about that, for me. The parts of the book where she talked about her life were my favorites - her childhood and how she started songwriting and touring, the important people in her life, her tour crew and their actions on various trips, even her perspective about current events (then current, not now-current in 2022). But often, she talks about her understanding of the spiritual, and although I understand she believes those things for herself, I don't believe them for myself, so it was hard to follow. She also takes a deep dive into explaining some big historical moments in the last 40 years which, while factually correct based on what we understand to be "the truth" now, seemed to go on in more detail than was needed to understand what Amos wanted to eventually say. Finally, she talks a lot about her songs - with almost poetry readings of the lyrics instead of re-records, like other songwriters' memoirs have included - and her philosophy around art and writer's block and creativity and politics. Those, while interesting to listen to and gather as one more viewpoint, also seemed to not be speaking to me, as our Venn diagrams related to creating art do not overlap very much.
Overall, while I was in the middle of the audiobook and driving around, I felt no real reason to stop mid-listen to DNF the book, there were lots of parts when I would have abandoned the book or skipped entire sections if I were reading a physical copy or an ebook. I suspect Tori fans would enjoy it far more than I did.