Customer Reviews

Patsy Cline

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This is the best autobiography of Cline that has ever been written! Ellis Nassour, the author, came out with an edited version of this fine book in 1992 entitled "Honky Tonk Angel". In that version he cut out the guts and the meat that is in this book!!

This book chronicles Patsy's life from her humble beginnings to tragic end. With touching anecdotes from Patsy's contemporaries, most notably Dottie West and Loretta Lynn and others like Faron Young, Jan Howard, Jean Shepard, this version is prime reading stuff! THe author did an outstanding job here!! This is the version to purchase...not the mediocre, edited version from 1992.

This biography of Patsy Cline captures much of the feeling of the era in which its subject lived and grew up, as well as the state of the music industry of the time. The book has a more difficult time capturing the essence of its subject, Patsy Cline, the hard living, hard loving, country diva who would become known as one of the most emotive voices in the history of country music. In her too short career, cut prematurely in a plane crash, she managed to put together a notable roster of musical hits and was a crossover sensation, with hits in both the country and pop charts of the time.

The book is chock full of information, much of it interesting, if one is interested primarily in the music that Ms. Cline sang. One comes away from reading this book with a good appreciation of the music industry of the time and a great deal of information about the songs that were to propel Ms. Cline to stardom, as it is exceedingly well-researched.

As to the subject of this biography, the author has done little more than string together many quotes from those who knew Ms. Cline, with little or no analysis or insight in the mix. The author has also included some of Ms. Cline's personal correspondence. These reminiscences, while interesting, are sometimes repetitive, and the book could have benefited by more artful editing and better writing. Still, a portrait of the struggling artist with too little money and too many men emerges from the pages of this book. Die hard fans of Ms. Cline will gain some enjoyment from reading this book.