Customer Reviews

PJ Harvey's Rid of Me: A Story (33 1/3)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First, some backstory: I'm a music FREAK! I have somewhere around 5,000 CDs, and a list of favorites that's quite extensive. I'd much rather listen than read, but I do like books about some of the more iconic artists; Hendrix, Dylan, Joplin, Cobain...just to name a few. I was kind of late to discover the 33 1/3 series, but I was ecstatic! Here...supposedly...was a series of books more focused, about some of the really ground-breaking albums of my time. I looked forward to hearing about the artists, and the ins and outs of recording that particular title.

I was so enamored by this series, that I had a tough time picking out my first few titles. I settled on Neil Young's Harvest, Jeff Buckley's Grace, The Replacement's Let It Be...and PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me. When they arrived, I decided to start with this one; so...imagine my disappointment!

I have no one to blame but myself; I should have read the reviews more carefully. I did recall that "some" of the books weren't entirely about the artist or the recordings; that some of them "included" works of fiction..."inspired" by the record...or personal reflections moreso than the artistic process. WoW; with no disrespect meant to the author...who I'm sure is a very nice girl, and a fan...I don't know how Continuum could publish this garbage under the guise of a narrative about PJ Harvey and/or Rid Of Me!

It's pure fiction...and drivel at that (it is, admittedly, the author's "first book of fiction"...lucky us)...that has only the inspiration of the album to lend it any connection whatsoever. I don't know how Continuum goes about choosing which if these to publish, or who to write them. But seriously; was there not a critic or engineer...anyone connected with PJ and/or the recording the album that could write with some real insight? Even a song-by-song analysis...by an "amateur" fan...even Ms. Schatz...would have been better than this.

Learn from my mistake; if you want fiction, you can do much better than this...and if you want a story about PJ or the album, just look elsewhere. As for the 4 and 5-star reviews, that balance out the average and don't throw up the immediate red-flag to avoid this title; I can only assume they must be friends of Kate's. One gal said she'd never listened to the album in question? If you've never heard of it, listened to it, and aren't a fan...why seek this book out to begin with?

A shame...and a sham! Continuum...and I mean this in ALL sincerity...next time check in with me. I could do a better job. Hey, it'll be my first work of non-fiction...but at least it'll be about the RECORD!

Kate Schatz has delivered a carefully crafted, mesmerizing tale of entrapment, flight and freedom that left this reader eager to read whatever she'll be writing next. As someone totally unfamiliar with the music of PJ Harvey, I read this story for its own sake and was not disappointed. Its two heroines, Mary and Kathleen, were each manipulated and confined by the men in their lives, one powerful in his own right, one completely powerless yet equally controlling. Their separate escapes and bizarre and frightening union made this reader question conventional notions of mental illness, crime and the redemptive powers of love.

After reading this book, I listened to PJ Harvey's "Rid of Me," CD for the first time, paging through each chapter during its related song. It was as if Mary and Kathleen were baring their souls and sharing their spirits! Thank you, Kate Schatz, for taking me where I would never venture on my own. It was a thrilling ride!

Rid of Me is the latest addition to Continuum International's 33 1/3 series, which takes seminal albums of the last 40 years and allows writers of various bents to write about, around, through and over the music that informs the books. Rid of Me takes its cue from PJ Harvey's album of the same title and appropriately veers away from its surface toward an unusual and fictive adventure into the irreverently dark psychology(ies) that made the album popular in the first place.

There is a tendency in reviewing an interdisciplinary project like this, to weigh the "derivative" text (Schatz's Rid of Me) against the original work (Harvey's Rid of Me), but it's been awhile since I was really into the album (even back then it wasn't one of my mainstays). Not to mention that to evaluate the book in this way would too readily presuppose that it is necessary to have some insider knowledge of the album in order to appreciate Schatz's book (which is, frankly, not true), and it also tends to overvalue the original album instead of considering the generative potential of the intermingling of creative forms.

Certainly, for the knowing reader, the lyrics are weaved into Schatz's text, but what is more interesting is the way that the story disembarks from the album through a detour into the troubled backstories of two "characters" (Mary and Kathleen) mentioned on the album. In Schatz's story, having struggled in a patriarchal world that disavows their subjectivity, both Mary and Kathleen are escapees bound together in their troubled pasts as much as in their desire to leave the world that traumatized them behind. As their histories and scarred psychologies are revealed to us through dream, hallucination, flashback and narration, I became increasingly unsure of the boundaries between reality and hallucination, between utopia and dystopia. I suspect this suspension of disbelief, evoked by the text, is meant to mimic in the reader the tenuous link between self and world that both Mary and Kathleen experienced in their lives, and continue to struggle with even in their escape. The implication is that one cannot really leave trauma behind, but can only watch it burn and "go on," and, in this sense, the story is as much about female love and reconciliation as it is about the violence and struggle of being a woman in a patriarchal world.

I haven't listened to the PJ Harvey album that inspired this book, but it isn't necessary - the story stands alone. Schatz's storytelling is vivid, layered, and intense. This novel is a love story, an adventure, and a magical realist fantasy. A really beautiful work.

i've read and enjoyed several other books in the 33-1/3 series ("Doolittle", "Loveless", "In Utero", "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea") -- they've provided interesting insights into the making of some of my favorite albums -- and, as a fan of "Rid Of Me", i was looking forward to this one. little did i know that, unlike the other books in the series, this one is not about the making of the album, it is a work of fiction. i suppose i should have read the description more carefully, 'cause i really have no interest in this.

I was ready to get into the book when I noticed this is not the typical 33 1/3 book about how the record was made, this is a fiction book which allegedly is based on the record. Why this wasn't clear on the product description I don't know. Believe me, I'm a huge PJ Harvey fan, and I could not get past page 30 of this....