Janis Ian

It's very easy to see (or, more appropriately, hear) why Janis Ian won an Audie and a Grammy for this audiobook. It's fantastically produced. I loved the snippets of her songs that she starts each chapter off with and sometimes includes within a chapter too.

Her life was fascinating and I loved listening to it. Much of the book, particularly the first half, read like a who's who of the music scene, with Janis dropping names like Bruce Springsteen, Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin, and Pete show more Seeger like they were old friends -- and it took a bit for me to realize, they actually were her friends. It was also fascinating to hear how the music industry changed over the decades.

But the book was far more than just a story of the music industry and Janis Ian's rise to fame. It was also about her path of self-discovery and self-acceptance. The hardest parts of the book to listen to were of her emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her ex-husband, and then later as she was taken advantage of by her therapist. I appreciated how frank, open, and honest she was on abuse and the mental and emotional toll that abuse does to the victim and the long path of recovery after.

The section of the book about her continued troubles with the IRS was riveting. I found myself walking around with my earbuds firmly in, ignoring everybody until it I knew she was okay, only to then get sucked into her battle with CFS. May you live in interesting times, indeed.

Before this book, I already liked Janis's music. After, I found I also liked her. She's lived a full, rich, and hard life, but I'm glad that she seems to have found herself in a good place in the end. I look forward to whatever she does next. show less

I've never been a rabid fan of Janis Ian, though I'm not unfamiliar with her music.I bought her first album back in 1966 and liked it well enough, but didn't buy another Ian record until "At Seventeen" hit the charts some years later. After that I lost track of her. Her memoir, SOCIETY'S CHILD (2008), is a rather sad story, much of it seeming joyless even. Her early success as a teen pop singer-songwriter certainly didn't bring instant happiness. In fact that first song, "Society's Child, " show more sometimes brought scorn and hate, dealing as it did with the taboo topic of interracial dating and love. But it did make her famous before she was even sixteen. Too much too soon maybe. But she did meet folks like Pete Seeger, Baez, Dylan, Tom Paxton and more. Her family life went south, however, when her parents divorced and she was left pretty much on her own. It didn't help that she was conflicted about her sexual identity. After a gay relationship, she was in an abusive marriage that left her fearful, broke and unhappy. And there was clinical depression and other serious health problems, including Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which plagued her intermittently for years. A couple failed relationships exacerbated her depression. Her music career had definite ups and downs, and a crooked accountant landed her in IRS trouble which took years to straighten out, and reduced her to abject penury. You see? Joyless stuff. And I almost gave up on it because of the unremitting sadness of her story. But there is a lot of interesting trivia about the music industry here that kept me reading. And she finally did meet a woman who loved her, and, as far as I know, they're still together, after nearly thirty years. As a writer, I find Ian only okay. (I cringed every time she misused lay, when she meant lie.) She only finished tenth grade, but claims to be an avid reader. A decent editor should have fixed that.

I was especially moved by her description of the final days of her mother, who suffered from MS. It brought back my own mother's last days. And her marriage to her longtime partner in Toronto was equally evocative, when she was surprised at how emotional and teary she became over this ceremony, considering they'd been together for nearly twenty years by then. I get it though. I felt the same way, renewing vows with my wife of fifty years. Got very choked up in fact.

SOCIETY'S CHILD was actually a pretty decent read. I hope Janis and Pat are still together, still in love, happy. Will recommend it highly to folk music fans, and even more enthusiastically to Janis Ian fans.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

I honestly have not heard enough of Ian's music to decide if I am a fan, or not. However, I had heard good things about this autobiography, so I dived in and am glad that I did. I am especially am glad that I chose this audiobook edition as a it is a true performance by Ian from snatches of guitar and singing to her own feelings surfacing in the narration be it from a poorly decided ménage à trois, dealing with a ruthless IRS, or the death of her mother. Starting a solo recording and show more performance career at 13, dealing with the pains of fame as a teen, and then needing to start over as a has-been by 20, Ian condensed multiple careers into her life. This includes being an early commentator about music downloads and a pioneer in internet auctions. Frank without being salacious, Ian shares her memories of her own relationships -- navigating her own bisexuality during her career -- and having her hard-earned wealth absconded. show less

This phenomenal singer-songwriter, Janis Ian, had some sort of dark cloud following her in her life. Perhaps it was the curse of being born with a genius IQ and the soul of an artist. The author narrated and her voice was mesmerizing. She is so open about her darkest moments and deepest struggles, both physical and emotional. She is intellectually voracious, brutally honest about her emotional life, and also shares her experiences in the music world, which are fabulous. Imagine sitting show more around jamming with Jimi Hendrix?! Having Ella Fitzgerald ask where you've been because she is waiting for some new music of yours?! This is an autobiography which is engaging, poignant, and inspirational. Strongly recommend reading or listening to it! show less