Woody Guthrie

Joe Klein's biography of the renowned folk singer Woody Guthrie, a major influence on Bob Dylan, is a world away from Klein's later political novel of the Clinton White House, PRIMARY COLORS. The Guthrie of A LIFE is a far more complex figure than his outwardly simple Okie manifestation conveyed, a man beset by the horrific hereditary disease Huntington's chorea, a degenerative illness with symptoms of mental instability, which eventually killed him. His songs, written with the hard-bitten simplicity of first-hand experience, reflected the tough lives of his working-class contemporaries and the grasping, corrupt nature of their bosses and the capitalist system they represented. Klein atmospherically portrays Guthrie's gradual political awakening, which coincided with his burgeoning songwriting ability, and the nomadic songwriter's eventual discovery by the music world at large. But this is only the tip of the iceberg of Guthrie's epic journey through the politically and socially turbulent landscape of America from the Depression to the early 1960s. Klein's penetratingly detailed depiction of the complex inner workings behind the songwriter's socially conscious exterior make WOODY GUTHRIE: A LIFE a magnificent, revealing study of one of the most influential folk musicians of the 20th century. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.