Customer Reviews

A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties

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Like almost all the reviewers so far I loved this book, and like some I was also in the same neighborhood as the events recorded in this wonderful book. In every instance where I knew someone or hung out at a place mentioned, the version here coincides exactly with what I remember but there is so much more I didn't know and so many people I only knew about second hand. This is a generous and kind book but also a starkly honest one. If you want to know what it was like then in Greenwich village in the 60s, then this is the best source I know of. Bob Dylan's persona in various documentaries comes off to many as arrogant but you will gain a new appreciation for him both as an artist and as a person from one who was closer to him than any other in his first years as an artist (1961 to 1964), when most of the events in the book take place. You will also understand what attracted him to Suze Rotolo. My memory of her was of a radiant smile and personality, but you will understand clearly from this book, as did Bob Dylan, that there was solid substance behind her wonderful smile.

I also want to recommend this book to today's generation, those under the age of 25 or so. There is a new spirit of idealism and creativity and I think you would find it profitable to read an account of an earlier era that also was pregnant with that kind of promise that had yet to come to fruition. As Suze Rotolo makes clear, it was a time when the exploding creativity and freedom of the sixties was still living within the husk of an older and much darker world. The old ways affected everyone, even the most bohemian denizens of Greenwich Village. There is great wisdom here about the conflicts and struggles that come when a young woman instinctively knows that conventional ways are limiting and stunting her as a person but there is no vocabulary and not yet the support of the nascent women's movement to help her.

If you have any interest at all in Bob Dylan, in Greenwich Village in the sixties, in the folkmusic revival of that period, in the struggles of politically and socially conscious young women in the immediate pre-feminist period or if you just want to enjoy yourself or learn some lessons for the present from experiences of the past you owe it to yourself to read this terrific book.

I have followed Dylan since 1964 and his music. This book is a refreshing, vulnerable essay of Suze's life with Bob Dylan for 4 years. It is intimate, respectful, sensitive [she speaks of tears listening even to this day of his early records as she was there and says today they accurately portray Dylan] and includes much never-before-read material that is helpful in getting to know the man Dylan. She gives us keen insight into her feelings about their relationship, friends and her family, with extensive history of her family as well as her life before and after Bob Dylan. She is as important in this book as Bob is. It is understandably obvious she still has emotions and maybe even wounds about this relationship. After reading this book (and I have read others on Dylan) I had feelings of nostalgia, and then feelings of satisfaction as the book concluded with a sense of completion. If I ever meet Dylan I feel for the first time I could relate to him as a man and not relate to him as a myth or icon. I just returned from the Village in NYC and Suze's description of it is completely accurate. I was there in the 70s and it is a completely different place today. I believe this book is vulnerable and complete enough to be the final word on Dylan as a person from the early years by someone who knew him better than anyone else.

I really enjoyed this book. I was born in '63 and can only hope to get a feel through bios and countless viewings of Woodstock, Dont look Back and others. I was emotionally slammed by this book as it shows Suze to be a strong, intelligent, progressive and sensitive woman waaay ahead of her time. The relationship with Bob now makes perfect sense based on their sensibilities and sensitivities. The info shared is deeply personal without being excessive or embarrassing. Dylan's character and emotional state is revealed while the progression of Suze and Bob's relationship brought me close to tears several times. The non-linear time format kept things lively and interesting. One of the gifts for me was Suze's attitude that Greenwich Village is essentially a state of mind and that we can recreate it in the present if the desire and creative elements are there. The book also offered me insight into my own parents struggles in this country as second generation European immigrants. I blasted through this book and as a result have had to cleanse my mental palate a bit (happily). Thank you Suze Rotolo for sharing after all these years and for some good advice for the present.

This was a fun and interesting read. Suze Rotolo writes well and simply and doesn't spout B.S. She's the real deal. No gossiping and defensive posturing, just the interesting stuff about her life in the Village in the '60s. She totally honors the people involved in the folk music scene and who contributed to Dylan's success. Don't expect a whole bunch of time spent on Dylan. This is really more about the scene and her history leading up to it - which is all really interesting. This is a major piece of American cultural history. It sure would be cool to go back in time and experience the music and talk and enthusiasm of the time. This gives a taste and I guess the rest we'll have to imagine..

Most people will probably be drawn to this book because they are fans of Bob Dylan. Others will be drawn to it out of an interest in, or nostalgia for, Greenwich Village in the sixties. Those were certainly the reasons that I purchased it. And I certainly wasn't disappointed. Like other reviewers I journeyed to the Village in search of freedom from suburbia, first as a commuter and later as a resident, albeit half a decade after Ms. Rotolo left it. Time and again as I was reading it I recalled places and feelings from those times, made alive once again by Ms. Rotolo's splendid prose. And there was plenty of Dylan, as seen through Ms. Rotolo's eyes, as well as many of the other figures, some famous, some not, that played a role in shaping the those times.
But what I was not prepared for was how intrigued I was by Ms. Rotolo's own story. And even more by her reflections on the events of those years. Through these pages she has transformed herself from "the girl on the cover" to an individual of profound insight and feeling. From her memories of growing up in a communist household during the McCarthy era to her days as a "slum goddess" she has her own fascinating story to tell.
Ms. Rotolo ends her book by noting that the Greenwich Village of which she writes is no longer physically there. But she goes on to remind us that the real Village is a state of mind where "A compelling and necessary idea will always find a place to plant itself. The creative spirit finds a way."
That creative spirit reveals itself in this book. If you are nostalgic for the past or hopeful for the future I urge you to read this book.

I've always had a fascination with the folk movement centered in Greenwich Village in the early 60s, especially the incredible rise of Bob Dylan in that milieu. So, when I heard that Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend from that era, had written a book about her experiences during that time, I quickly placed my order. My feeling on completing it was that she is too guarded and careful here. She admits she doesn't want to upset Mr. Dylan and I also think that she doesn't wish to reveal too much of herself. Not that I wanted more dirt. I just wanted to know more things like what it felt like to have your famous boyfriend write and record a song lambasting your mother and sister (Ballad in Plain D). Yes, we do learn she had "mixed feelings" about the occurrence but I kinda coulda guessed that. She is too understanding when she hears from a third party about Bob's career-enhancing affair with Joan Baez. Come on Suze, go ahead and call him a two-timing [...]! Ms. Rotollo is careful to focus mostly on her life and not Bob's. Even though she has not achieved anywhere near the kind of things Dylan has, this could have worked if she had bared her soul. She describes some wacky dead ends she's taken (e.g. macrobiotic diet) but she does it with out tying it back to any flaws of her own. Suze seems like a lovely person, reminiscent of many of my best friends over the years. Fanatic that I am, I'm not at all sorry for having read her book and would suggest the same to like-minded folks. Just don't expect too much. Not to compare, but Dylan's own memoir "Chronicles Part I" stands on its own for anyone to read. Suze's book is for interested parties only.

Unless (like me) you are more than a casual fan of the music of Bob Dylan, the name Suze Rotolo is unlikely to mean anything to you. Yet there she is, striding next to Dylan on a cold winter's day on the cover of his second, brilliant album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, not a model hired by the record company but someone closely connected with Dylan at the time. A native of Queens, Rotolo was only 17 years old when she met Dylan shortly after his arrival in New York City in 1961, but her own recent migration to the neighborhoods of Greenwich Village was the result of a precocious, independent and artistic spirit and a maturity stimulated in no small part by her unusual childhood.

As Rotolo explains in "A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties," she grew up as a "red diaper baby," the daughter of parents who were both active in the Communist Party and the labor movement from the 1930s through the 1950s, when her father died. Rotolo offers fond memories of her father, who did some work as a commercial artist and clearly served as an inspiration to his daughter with his overall commitment to a kind of cultural radicalism (including an affinity for music), even in the darkest days of the postwar Red Scare. The youngest of two daughters, Susan - who adopted the name Suze after migrating to the Village - found her home life increasingly stressful after her father's death as she was subjected to her mother's depressed mood swings and a somewhat bossy older sister. Striking out on her own, Rotolo carried with her an innate and strongly-held commitment to social justice and a proto-feminist consciousness that would grow stronger as time went on.

Until now, most of what we knew about Rotolo was the result of the work of Dylan biographers seeking insights into the nature of their relationship during Dylan's first two years in New York. The most common interpretation has assigned Rotolo the role of Dylan's most important early "muse," a woman who inspired his great political songs through her own passionate commitments to justice and peace and who also frustrated Dylan through her unwillingness to stay with him, a story Dylan told in his bitter "Ballad in Plain D," a song released in 1964. The key missing element in this research, however, was Rotolo's own voice. Until recently a very reluctant interview subject, Rotolo tells us she has always been an intensely private person and also wanted to protect Dylan's privacy, especially as his fame escalated far beyond the neighborhoods of downtown New York and became oppressive to both of them.

Rotolo's narrative takes us through her childhood, her education, her move to New York City and her relationship with Dylan, and her life after splitting with Dylan to the end of the 1960s when she left the Village for Italy. Along the way we learn about her efforts to forge an identity as an artist, working in the areas of illustration, theatre production and jewelry design while supporting herself in more mundane jobs. Once she relocated from Queens to Greenwich Village she adopted a bohemian lifestyle and became fast-acquainted with the people and places that made up the folk music scene, a process much-accelerated after she began her relationship with Dylan in 1961.

Rotolo confronts the "muse" interpretation both directly (by dismissing it) and indirectly, telling several stories about people in the New York folk music scene who viewed her in such terms and who demanded she continue to serve so their increasingly popular goose would continue to lay golden eggs. To her credit, Rotolo does not pretend to understand the mysteries of the songwriting process and refuses to cite herself as an influence on Dylan's songs during his early years. Yet simply by telling the story of their life together from 1961 to 1963 and of her own interests and activities it is clear Rotolo was a critical source for Dylan's work; and by refusing to subordinate herself to Dylan as his fame grew and as pressures to do so increased around her, she emerges as the kind of heroic outsider that Dylan has always tried to be while at the same time rejecting the sexist strictures of her time.

Rotolo is at her best when telling her own story, and she has a real flair for the economical use of detail when describing a scene or an event. Her several accounts of time spent with the musician Dave Van Ronk and his wife Terri Thal are among the most interesting sections of the book, providing new insights into these well-known figures of the Village. As the narrative reaches the dissolution of her relationship with Dylan, she exercises much restraint in recounting a painful time, which included Dylan's open affair with Joan Baez and an unwanted pregnancy that Rotolo ended by abortion. In an effort to provide some context for her story, Rotolo frequently inserts passages to give us a capsule history of the era but these are the weakest parts of the book: cluttered with cliches, they distract from the central narrative.

Without a doubt, "A Freewheelin' Time" is an important contribution to the already massive amount of material on Bob Dylan, having the special advantage of Rotolo's unique firsthand perspective on Dylan's early career. More than that, however, it's a plain-spoken, compelling memoir of a time and place too often obscured by mythology and media hype. It's good to have Suze's story in her own words.

I loved this book. The story of a proto-feminist red-diaper baby artist who migrates to the post-beatnik Village is a story worth hearing--Suze Rotolo's re-telling of her role in publicly disobeying the Cuba travel embargo is alone worth the price of admission. But, while there are a few major revelations and Rotolo's sustaining respect for Dylan's privacy is admirable, I wanted more, more, more about the guy huddled-up next to the author in the famous photo. I look forward to sister Carla's memoirs.

I've been a Dylan fan since the early seventies and have followed his career through all of its many ups and downs, the good albums and the bad (yes, there have been more than a few clunkers), and along the way I've also read many of the books that have been written about the man. Most have been utterly forgettable; some have been insightful; and a rare few have truly been enlightening.

Suze Rotolo's A Freewheelin' Time is, to say the least, enlightening. More than just the story of a life -- or in this case two lives, Rotolo's and Dylan's -- it is an insider's account of an America imbued with an innocence and an optimism that had yet to be undone by assassinations, war, and the nexus of corporate and government greed. For Rotolo, it turns out, was more than just Dylan's teenage girlfriend, featured on one of the most iconic album covers of the 1960s; raised by radical, working-class parents, she was also a young woman who was thoroughly steeped in the counterculture ethos of the early Civil Rights and Anti-War movements that Dylan ultimately gave voice to. In fact, fascinating though her insights into young Bob Dylan are, this book is often at its best when Rotolo focuses on her own efforts to define herself as a woman in pre-feminist America, and with her struggle to remain a non-conformist in a country that even then valued conformity above all else.

Finally, I don't know why Publishers Weekly took Rotolo to task for having described Dylan as a genius who at heart is less than honest--as if it isn't possible for someone to be both brilliant and dishonest. Give me a break. This isn't the first book to suggest that Dylan has often been less than decent (to say the least) in dealing with others. Stories about him putting people (often old friends) down in public are both ubiquitous and legendary. And you only have to listen to some of his more caustic songs -- Positively 4th Street for example!!! -- to know that the man can wield a song like an ax when he really wants to hurt somebody. But that's all part of what makes Dylan -- the man of many masks -- so fascinating. Right? I guess some people (the reviewer from Publishers Weekly for instance) just prefer having their heroes depicted cookie-cutter neat and minus any defects.

Bottom line: This is a fine book that will be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about Bob Dylan, about American on the verge of social and political upheval in the early 60's, or who might simply enjoy reading about a young girl who survived a prolonged encounter with greatness and came out all the stronger for having experienced it.

This is a really good read--whether for a look back at the early folk scene in Greenwich Village (starring Bob Dylan, of course) or for a casual history of that still important time that spawned the "youth movement" in the U.S.
The hook to read this book is that it is written by Bob Dylan's girlfriend during his early career. But soon into the book, the reader realizes that it is not going to be a tell-all about the famous singer with anecdote after anecdote exposing Dylan's life at this very crucial stage. So, should the reader continue? I wasn't sure if it would be worth the time investment to hear Suze Rotolo's story. I did continue on and am I glad I did. What we have here is the story of the '60's by a remarkable, sensitive, intelligent,loyal girl who refused to be swallowed up by the cult of celebrity worship so prevalent in our society today. Yes, it was certainly alluring for her to be Dylan's girlfriend--with all of its glamour and power-- but she knew that she would lose her soul and never discover her own self-worth if she were to remain with him, despite being in love with him (and he her).
Rotolo writes in a breezy style with the vernacular of the early sixties. She captures well what is like to be a teen/young adult during any epoch and adds the specifics of the turbulent sixties. A long list of characters(most from the folk and music scene) make an appearance in this story: Dave Van Ronk, Ian and Sylvia, Joan Baez, Trini Lopez, Phil Ochs, John Hammond, Jerry Rubin, Raul and Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Ramblin Jack Elliott to mention a few.
My favorite anecdote in the book is a short one that reveals a most endearing quality of Rotolo. Speaking to an audience in Cuba just after the Revolution, she tells them that she is alienated with the constant use of the terms the proletariat, blue-collar workers stating that she was the only one among the American speakers who was actually from a blue-collar background. "My father,who had worked in a factory, never referred to himself as 'a proletariat'."
Highly recommended for those who were young during this period, or anyone interested in the genesis and milieu of the young Dylan and his art.