Jen Trynin

I came to Jen Trynin backwards, falling in love with her second album (_Gun Shy Trigger Happy_), and then realizing that, oh yeah, I've got that other one she did too. Turns out that I completely missed the absolute pandemonium around Trynin before and after the release of that debut, _Cockamamie_. No need to worry: _Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be_ covers -- in Trynin's own words -- the story of her meteoric (and painful) super-rise to stardom and free-fall to earth, before she pulled the show more plug shortly after the release of her second album. Those of us who seriously considered careers in the music industry have heard stories like this before, but there's something about this first-hand account (with names of most of the criminals and victims changed to protect the [not-so-]innocent) that makes this a page-turner. We know how it turns out -- Jen hasn't recorded any new music since 1997. But the fact that you KNOW there's a flame-out coming adds weight to every bass-ackwards action or asinine comment from a record exec that much more harrowing. Or painful. Trynin's casual prose style reminded me very much of the writing of a particularly talented blogger -- and in this case, that's great praise. It was just the right tone for the topic. show less

I found this book in a second hand shop and picked it up because the author's name rang a bit of a bell in the back of my brain. I almost put it back again after seeing it was a People magazine "Great Read", (I mean really, how "great" a read can something be if it's loved by a magazine not really known for it's thought provoking itellectual content?) "Oh what the hell," thinks me, "It's only 2.99..." into the cart it went.
I remembered Jen Trynin was a Boston performer who participated in show more an all female Boston rock compilation in the early 90's, I didn't particularly care for the song on the disk so I didn't check her out any further, I guess the song ("Everything is different now") stuck in my brain because it was highly repetitive and although it didn't, and still doesn't exactly light my fire, I am so glad that nugget stayed in my brain as this book was absolutely delightful and I loved reading it.
A light read that won't ever find itself on The Atlantic's list of "great reads" but for what it is, a charming rock and roll memoir, it's remarkably well writen. Fast moving, fun and flirty with a very happy ending that makes me want to hunt down her disks and find out what I might have been missing out on by not investigating her further way back when. show less

A time trip back to 1994, circa Nirvana. Long before American Idol, X Factor, and the Voice, singers had to make it on their own. Jen Trynin had the attention of the record execs and was poised to be the next big thing in music until overnight no one would touch her with a ten foot pole. The story itself is interesting but Jen herself is not a very likable person. She cheats on her boyfriend with her bass player, is not very kind to her fans, and when things go down the drain her band is show more dumped without a second thought. Reading the story twenty years in the future from when it happened is actually quite amusing at times like how Jen is repeatedly confused with some new girl singer Alanis Morissette. Neil Gaiman's muse Aimee Mann also features into the story. For the sake of her child I hope Jen has matured since her failed music career. The story could have been trimmed of about 100 pages of Jen's self absorbed musings but in the end it is a good cautionary tale about how to be gracious when you are top of the world because you never know when you will be back on the bottom. show less

I thought this was a really interesting and fun book to read.

If you are somebody who was at all familiar with the music scene in the mid-90's - or even better if you were in Boston at the time - you will get a kick out of reading Trynin's account of her quick dip into stardom.

As a person - Trynin doesn't always come across as a sympathetic protagonist - she has a giant ego that peeks out again and again and she has a slippery hold on her personal life that made me uncomfortable for her on show more more than one occasion.

Over all though - her writing is lively and detailed and her's is story unlike any I have ever read before. show less