Chasing Down the Dawn: Stories from the Road [Paperback]

Jewel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2001

AIready a legendary performer in the music industry, Jewel has been writing poetry, short stories, and prose since she was young. She's also a bestselling author, poet, and actress. Now this uniquely talented artist opens the pages of her most intimate journals to give readers, fans, and friends a glimpse of her magical, turbulent life.

Drawn from life on the road during her Spirit World Tour, Jewel captures unforgettable moments from her childhood in Alaska, her beginnings as a struggling artist, and her challenges as a daughter, sister, and woman. With acutely observed, eloquent depictions of the musicians, lovers, bikers, strangers, celebrities, and characters that inhabit her world -- and illustrated throughout with candid, never-before-seen photos of Jewel and her own photojournalism and drawings -- Chasing Down the Dawn is more than a collection of vignettes, observations, and stories. It is a finely wrought mosaic in prose and poetry, set to the rhythms of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This highly personal collection of essays, anecdotes and spontaneous statements accompanied by sweet, primitive drawings deals with Jewel's atypical childhood in Alaska, her struggling-musician days and her eventually successful music career, characterized by constant touring and putting up with the consequences of fame. Similar to Jewel's bestselling book of poems (A Night Without Armor), this compendium of prose exhibits a clear, direct, purposefully poignant and, at times, indulgent writing style. Jewel recognizes artistic quality when she sees it and often brings up names and their associations (touring with Bob Dylan, thinking about Italo Calvino's "If" before taking the stage), perhaps in an attempt to connect with them, and to show her admiration. Certainly, Jewel has talent and integrity, and, when she abandons a self-conscious posture, she can offer insights that are fresh and luminescent ("For me, the real beauty of singing is learning to play the instrument I've been given"). Unfortunately, her descriptive writing suffers too frequently from a surfeit of sentiment ("Do I like the dream I've dreamed or have I begun to feel like a prisoner of the dream?"). Jewel's name will carry this book a long wayAas will the catchy cover, an alluring photo of the poet/ writer on horseback. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

You've heard Jewel's music (her debut disc, Pieces of You, sold ten million copies). You've read her first novel, A Night Without Armor (it went into 15 printings). Now it's time to catch up on her poems, essays, and stories.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: It Books (November 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061051403
• ISBN-13: 978-0061051401
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #351,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING, October 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Down the Dawn (Hardcover)

Let me tell you this first. I am a huge Jewel fan. But to put it lightly i really did not care for her last book. When I went to the bookstore to purchase this book I was questioning my motives for buying it. I started to look through it before I bought it and decided it looked OK and there were some cool pictures and drawings so I decided to buy it. Well much to my surprise it is amazing. I love it. Jewel captures so much emotion in her words. She describes the memories of here childhood in Alaska with such beauty that I now want to go on vacation there. She also writes about here experiences with crazed fans and the feeling she gets before, during, and after concerts. There are even some very funny moments in the book. It is somewhat of an autobiography but more a glimpse into the mind of a very talented and deep thinking artist. A++++ I recomend this book if you are a fan of Jewel's or not. Go buy it even if you did not like the last one as I did not. You will not be let down!

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Visionary For Our Time, October 20, 2000

By 

ardent_lover "ardent_lover" (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chasing Down the Dawn (Hardcover)

Once again Jewel amazes me with her wonderful tales and poetic expressions. This new book of hers, Chasing Down The Dawn, is full of memorable stories and anecdotes from her life. The pictures of her self and her family are a kind of home photo album that bring you closer to the artist's heart. On reading this book I had the feeling that I was sitting in Jewel's living room with her and she was telling me stories about her childhood and her success as an artist. As always Jewel manages to lay bare her soul in a most entertaining way - I believe this is a book well worth any readers attention, even if they're not a total Jewel fan. There's much insight into human nature in its pages. And I feel better off for having read it.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book from a insightful person., March 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Chasing Down the Dawn (Hardcover)

Serious Jewel fans have always known that there is a mind of great compassion and intelligence behind the media hype surrounding this wonderful performer. Unfortunatly she often gets sterotyped as a "pop star", a position that she never tried to acheive, but has nevertheless been thrust upon her. It is too bad, because she has much more in common with Bob Dylan and Janis Ian then she has with Madonna.

I was ignored her when she first came out precisely because of the pop star image. Then when I was suffering from a severe depression brought on by the suicide of a close friend, I discovered her second CD "Spirit", I'm usually not too big of a folk music fan, but her gentle, and optimistic attitude toward life were just what I needed to hear at the time.

Reading this book, I realized why her music is so moving, she is a person who has really suffered in life. Growing up in abject poverty, living with an abusive parent, and being made to feel inferior because she had a learning disorder, these experiances have shaped a very strong, beautiful and determined soul. She also comes across as a very cultured person who knows a great deal about art, philosophy and literature. This is an astonishing achievement, considering the fact that, given her background, she must be largely self-taught.

I have to wonder about the people who wrote negative reviews, one of them says that this book is bad poetry, which means that they must not have read it, because it in fact contains very little poetry. Another implies that Jewel fans are uneducated, well I'm a honors college student, and I adore her, and I know of one Harvard graduate who has put up a web page of her quotes, because he admires her. You can look it up on Yahoo. In other words these people do not know what they are talking about and, therefore, should not be taken seriously. People who are conforable with themselves do not nurture obsessive hatreds of celebrities.

Actually, the only flaw in this book is the occasional bursts of overly flowery prose, but this is common with first time published writers, and there is no reason that Jewel should be held to a higher standerd then the rest of us in this regard.

I urge everyone to take a look beyond the MTV-manufactured hype surrounding this amazingly multitalented artist, and I want to thank Jewel for sharing herself with us.