Before he became Anonymous, author of the political novel
Primary Colors, Joe Klein wrote this intelligent biography of
America's legendary folksinger-activist. Klein's first book may not
have created the fuss that Primary Colors did, but it attracted the
attention of no less a celebrity than Bruce Springsteen, who used
to cite it with respect during concerts before singing Guthrie's
most famous lyric, "This Land Is Your Land." Klein's unearthing of
two politically radical verses usually omitted from that song is
just one instance of the solid research underpinning his vivid
narrative of Guthrie's often tragic life (1912-67). Before Woody
turned 15, his sister died in a fire and his mother was committed
to an Oklahoma insane asylum with a mysterious disease he later
learned he inherited; Klein's chilling description of Huntington's
chorea is one of the book's strong points. Its heart is a full
rendering of Guthrie's restless wanderings across Depression-era
America, which fired his lifelong radicalism, and a scrupulously
unsentimental account of Woody's oft-sentimentalized personality.
He may have been a genius and a staunch advocate of the common
people, but Guthrie was also a bad husband, neglectful father, and
difficult friend, as Klein shows. He pays Woody's life and music
the tribute of assuming they need no sanitizing, and this biography
is all the more interesting because of it. --Wendy Smith
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