The Passionate Eye:: The Collected Writing of Suzanne Vega (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Solitude stands by the window..." (more)
Key Phrases: bad wisdom, David Bailey, New York, James Sullivan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Catapulted into the limelight after her song about an abused child, "Luka," hit the airwaves in 1987, Suzanne Vega has become the minimalist poet of popular music. With five albums and a recent greatest hits collection behind her, the artist has put together a medley of writings spanning a 30-year period that provide an engaging counterpoint to her spare lyrics, many of them also reprinted here. Vega has chosen to organize the material thematically rather than chronologically, a tactic highlighting the motifs she has pursued since childhood: solitude, desire, war and "the stuff that you knew too early that you shouldn't have known." Like her music, Vega's prose is studded with precise images that prove her a keen observer of the world around her: for instance, in "Plain," she writes, "I am nothing more/ Than grain in the wood/ And rust on steel./ A town you went through once/ Then forgot./ A girl on a step." While this cascade of images is Vega's signature style, the collection's longer pieces flesh out the experiences that inspired her lyrics: selections from Vega's journal, an interview conducted by Leonard Cohen and the tender "Hunger Strike," which shows a young woman dealing with lost love by abusing her body. Although this volume will speak strongest to longtime fans of Vega's music, there is a poignant mixture of toughness and fragility in Vega's work that will resonate even with readers who've never heard her sing. Major ad/promo.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

This collection of song lyrics, poems, essays, and personal anecdotes may unveil Vega's unique artistry for the first time to those who are unfamiliar with her music. But those who have long been aware of her musical gifts will not find any surprises here. Vega still delivers the same passion for diminutive detail in the same simple way, intermingled with the same grace. Engaging in themes that encompass childhood innocence, adulthood insecurities, and everything in between, Vega unreservedly speaks of some of the most intimate moments of her life. Although in some cases she selflessly unfolds hitherto unseen layers of her personality, she still keeps that familiar distance?as if she were allowing the reader to get closer only as long as her shelter is unthreatened. With this delicate yet broad-minded collection, Vega proves that her lyrics can be flowingly transformed into poetry that conveys both thoughtfulness and wit. Strongly recommended for large music and poetry collections.
-?Mirela Roncevic, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380788829
• ISBN-13: 978-0380788828
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,073,956 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The impersonal nature of personal revelation, October 31, 2001

By	Robert H. Nunnally Jr. "gurdonark" (Allen, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Suzanne Vega's Passionate Eye effectively points up some of her ideas in a fresh, readable and consistently interesting format. She uses her song lyrics, poems and prose both recent and juvenile, and a centerpiece radio interview of Ms. Vega by Leonard Cohen (the most "human" part of the book, as Mr. Cohen alternates between simple friendliness, quick wit, deep insight and good, old-fashioned flirtatious play to "illustrate" Ms. Vega's contradictions and the themes of her music through a spirited dialogue).

As in her songs, Ms. Vega writes in veiled themes. She tries to illustrate that one can own the artist's revelations without owning (or needing to know) anything about the artist herself. She quotes passages to support her idea that her particular muse stems from childhood experience, and that she is merely saying the same things she thought at nine. She repeatedly makes the point that it is the elusive (and by inference, the allusive) that appeals to her. As Ms. Vega points out, the communication medium of a songwriter includes in large measure the lyrics of her songs. Yet this is not a mere fanzine piece, but instead a well-done arrangement which highlights her ideas without descending into morose autobio. Although her spare, dark sense of humor peeks through the covers a time or two here, the book perhaps suffers from yet another Vega trait--her consistent effort to maintain a sort of "high seriousness" about her proceedings. I would have liked, perhaps, to see the lyrics of Christine Lavin's Vega parody "Mysterious Woman" arrayed beside Ms. Vega's own lyrics. Ms. Vega shows the reader that she understands the limitations in the persona she created, but we do not quite see what persona she wishes we had seen instead.
Still, I left this book convinced that Suzanne Vega remains a complex and interesting artist, wishing for fame, but disliking the toll it can take on the part of the artist which is not the public persona. Thank goodness this is not a morose "pity me, I'm famous" piece, but a set of images and wordplay, well worked out. Read this, even if you are not a "Suzanne Vega fan".

I left this book feeling that I understood a thing or two about the public person Suzanne Vega seeks to portray, and that I need not know anything more about Suzanne Vega herself. I believe this is what Ms. Vega wants the reader to feel, and therefore she has succeeded admirably.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A creative inner view, April 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writing of Suzanne Vega (Hardcover)

When you first pick this book up and you have no other knowledge of the writer of lyrics, a clear mind, then you will experience the very edges of the emotional scale, the realistic and the absurd, the sad and the ecstatic, the lonliness of the world and how great it is to be with other people. This book is a must for any who wish to travell the road less travelled. These are not glitzy love stories but words showing our inner lives that few dare to express.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Suzannes Wonderful Work, June 10, 2000

By	J. McAllister - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writing of Suzanne Vega (Hardcover)

When I began to read this book, I soon found I couldn't put it down. Being a fan of her recorded work, I am used to the gentle, beautiful voice of the singer. Quite how she was fashioned from the childhood and other events in the book I'm not sure. Events such as her being in fights as a child with three people at once, I find it hard to reconcile that sort of early environment with the beautiful music she has created. It's beautiful writing. If you want to know a little bit more about what makes Suzanne tick, I think you'll find some insight here.

I recently atttended a concert of hers where she read passages from the book. Her reading added a lot to it. I had the chance to meet her, and I suggested to her that she record some of the stories from the book, which she seemed to think of as a good idea, so if we're lucky we may see an audio work in the future ( vega.net would be the place to get further details ). It's gorgeous work, and I strongly recommend it.