Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit by Catherine James
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Book Reviews of Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit
Book Review: Book review for "Dandelion"
Summary: 5 Stars
Here's a plug for someone I've never met in the form of a book review. It's a newly released autobiography called "Dandelion" by Catherine James. Her style is similar to her compatriot groupie Pamela Des Barres, but less fluttery. Its plainer style actually serves her content well, for this isn't just the tale of amusing sexual encounters among the paleontological dig-sites of the usual 60's dinosaurs, but one of real, live, actual survival.
When you see photographs of her, even now, you'll note the incontestibility that Ms. James has always been a stunner in the looks department. Her family albums of film stars and singers show this was clearly inherited as well as polished by her own self-maintenance and style. However, she was not only the product of the gorgeous genetics of a Hollywood, entertainment-enmeshed family, but also of absolutely off the charts family dysfunction, so vile that it seems part Charles Dickens and part Edgar Allen Poe, hardly something you'd associate still happening in the 20th century of her childhood.
The journey away from horribleness remains the heart of the story, no matter what era. I found a strange, personal recognition in her tale of the Mother From Hell, insofar as it showed me even if my own troublesome family had been as creative in the arts as hers, there still would have been the same friction: toxic is toxic, and unconstrained selfishness in parents is poisonous to children.
Reviewers seem to be divided on this book, some contesting that it may be lightweight in tone by someone of not overwhelming accomplishment. Others note that's it would be a fascinating read even without the name-droppy stuff. Its subhead is "Memoirs of a Free Spirit," and the tabloid-esque encounters she found as both pursuer and pursued in the heady days of the 1960's was a solution that suited her in her escape from horribleness. Metaphorically thrown into the deep end of the pool to drown, she instead learned to swim quite well enough to fashion her own happy ending. I claim take "Dandelion" for what it is, an unusual person's unusual tale of survival, with her journey attaining quite a torrent of enlightenment about family dynamics and personal relationships, for herself or for any other reader.
Book Review: Life with the Beverly Hell Bullies.
Summary: 5 Stars
Can you imagine a fictional story about a woman who marries a man who she knows is a closet transvestite, then discovers that her estranged father, who was a macho race car driver, has also turned into a closet transvestite and then into a transsexual? And how about the glamous but psychotic and perennially drugged wife of this race car driver who routinely feeds her children only rotting food laced with tabasco sauce and treats them sadistically in so many other ways, in her Beverly Hills home. Can you then imagine that the paternal aunt of this woman was a Miss American runner up and a Zeigfield girl who couldn't keep a string of husbands for more than 2 years each, and ends up making a dependent impotent alcoholic mama's boy of her son, as the only constant male in her life. An impossibly contrived plot, right? Well, once again, reality is more unbelievable than fiction, according to the author, Catherine James. This is quite a readible account of a bizarrely improbable life, with a very twisted start, but then with a series of mentors related to the pop music business, who gave her a shot at a more normal life.
I would have liked some thoughts on what might have caused her mother to be the extreme monster reported. Apparently, she had beauty as well as many talents, including being a compulsive cat burglar. But this was a wasted drugged life, in which she regularly dished out sadism and jealousy toward everyone. Was she probably just born to be such a monster, or were there events in her young life that soured her attitute toward others? Surely, Catherine could have absorbed some evidence from her grandmother. In a similar vein, perhaps she could have offered some explanation for her father's transformation from a macho race car driver into a transsexual. Nor does she offer(as I did above) a plausible explanation for her aunt Claire making a disfunctional mama's boy out of her son Blake.
Book Review: Inspiration
Summary: 5 Stars
I first found Miss James' story in a chapter of a "kiss and tell all" book about rock and roll groupies. Having been around the music business over half my life and being exposed to all of it's excess's, I was taken and intrigued as her story was much different than others portrayed. I was eventually led to this wonderful and inspiring book that I am writing about here.
Hers is definitely a story about one who found the inner strengh to persevere. Yes, some of the people throughout her life can be dazzling to read about, Mr. Page, Jagger, Eric Clapton, etc. But it's a lot like the old nursery rhyme "oh who are the people in your neighborhood"? She just happens to tell us who they were. For some music and rock and roll is lived vicariously through records, signatures, brief encounters in the back of the bus or a lonely hotel room, other's stories, and for some it is a part of life like breathing. It just is. There is no explanation really. Why they are treated different and accepted into the fold will always be a mystery. I think all the orphans of the world who find each other in the lifestyle Miss James found a safe haven in must come from the land of miss-fit toys. No one truly wants a "charlie in the box" so we find each other and in doing so comes solace.
If your looking for "heady" tell all stories about rock stars move on. If you are interested in a book that is truly human in context and real look no further. This is a story of a woman who found a way to succeed at all odds as a single parent in a time when it wasn't very popular to do so. We should all do so well.
I have a feeling the story is not over.
Michael Holt.
Book Review: Little girl found...
Summary: 5 Stars
I read this amazing book in two days...couldn't put it down! It is filled with hideous abuse, unbearable pain and soul soaring happiness. It is a book that gives testament to the indomitable human spirit, and the promise that hope and faith and sheer determination will save us from whatever hell is created for us by our parents.
Ms. James shares her world with us, a world she was lucky to escape...the horror show that was her beautiful, but absolutely evil, mother... her ineffectual, but charming and devastatingly handsome father, her crazy aunts and her saving angel, her preternaturally young and beautiful grandmother, Mimi, the woman who gave Catherine the strength and magic she needed to save her own young life.
After running away from the orphanage, where her wicked speed freak mother (and when I say mother,I use the term VERY loosely), Diana decided she should live, she lands on her feet running in NYC, and with a little help from some of her very famous friends (a young Bob Dylan, for one!!), carves out a life for herself that took her all over the world. A life that was fun, interesting, loving and really quite amazing given her hard knock youth...the most amazing of all was that she became a wonderful mother at the tender age of 16, giving up a career in modeling that was sure to take her to dizzying heights.
I stand in awe and admiration at the courage it took to write this book, and I thank Ms. James from the bottom of my heart for allowing us a look into her torturous past, and the extraordinary road she took to arrive at her beautiful future.
Book Review: Simply Incredible !! BUY THIS NOW!! :)
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is not *just* about Hollywood Royalty from the 30's and 40's , although her whole family hails from that golden era. It's not *just* about love affairs with Rock and Roll Legends, but you will find kisses from the likes of Denny Laine( Moody Blues & Wings) & father of her son), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones),and Jackson Browne have graced her lips. She counts Roger Daltrey (The Who),Pamela DesBarres,Patti D'arbanville amoung her closest friends.
However..This is NOT a book of casual name dropping. This is a memoir of a turbulent childhood, a peek at the demons that she faced,and the many legions of angels who have come to her rescue.
Catherine James takes you on a journey that is simply amazing. For those who don't "like to read", this book is SUCH an easy read. It's like sitting down with her and listening to her chat with you.
Catherine comes full circle and I enjoyed every single minute of it.
I look forward to the sequel.. and Catherine? maybe Diane Keaton can play YOUR double in the film version? :)
Pattie xo