Faithfull

Rating:
Summary: A great memoir by a powerful woman
Review: Faithfull follows the life of Marianne Faithfull from the mid-60s London rock scene through the 1980's punk scene. She tells her side of her love affairs with Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. Each of them are portrayed with sincerity and honesty. You can feel the love she had for each of them in her descriptions of their times together. Her descent into years of drug addiction takes up most of the book. To hear her description of it it is surprising that she survived. So it is a miracle that she has been able to live to tell the tale so well. There is a wonderful account of her comeback musical career in the 80s. The book is full of the famous sex, drugs and rock n roll of the period. Yet Faithfull doesn't dwell on the details of any of these three. I came away with the image of a strong woman who talks honestly and directly of a life that took a sad turn into drug addiction.

Rating:
Summary: A great memoir by a powerful woman
Review: Faithfull follows the life of Marianne Faithfull from the mid-60s London rock scene through the 1980's punk scene. She tells her side of her love affairs with Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger. Each of them are portrayed with sincerity and honesty. You can feel the love she had for each of them in her descriptions of their times together. Her descent into years of drug addiction takes up most of the book. To hear her description of it it is surprising that she survived. So it is a miracle that she has been able to live to tell the tale so well. There is a wonderful account of her comeback musical career in the 80s. The book is full of the famous sex, drugs and rock n roll of the period. Yet Faithfull doesn't dwell on the details of any of these three. I came away with the image of a strong woman who talks honestly and directly of a life that took a sad turn into drug addiction.

Rating:
Summary: Unique insights into an idiosyncratic life
Review: For many people, Marianne Faithfull is best-known as Mick Jagger's ex, the woman who stated publicly that she had slept with three Rolling Stones. But for those of us who were born after the mid- to late 1960s, Faithfull is better known for her classic EP "Broken English", which represented her return to the music world from what had appeared to be the oblivion of drug abuse and the perhaps equally devastating oblivion of being the former girlfriend of a major rock star. "Faithfull" is not a new-age style testimony of rediscovering the self, though it might be interpreted in these terms. More than this, the book is a number of things which combine to result in a compelling evocation of a journey through a set of experiences that most of us will never be able to imagine; "Faithfull" is winsome, meditative, wise, reckless, spontaneous, insightful, hedonistic, wild and melancholy. Don't expect to find a weighty moral conclusion at the end of this - Marianne seems far too smart to suppose that her experiences are yet conclusive, or that this kind of conclusion can be conveyed in a single book. But don't expect this book to be a disposable collection of 60s sexual and drug anecdotes either: one of the most fascinating things about the way this book is written is the way it combines the flaky and the heavy, the sensational and the mundane, the seedy and the glamorous, the intellectual and the instinctual.

Rating:
Summary: surprising intellectual depth among the lunatic fringe
Review: having spent much time in england during the sixties,i can't say marianne's experiences shock me. what is rare is her ability to bring forth the self analytical sobriety to tell it. i enjoyed this book immensely....and i too found it in the used book section of my library. i know i will read it again, perhaps because she speaks to much of the collective experience of those of us who also said "sure, why the hell not!"

Rating:
Summary: Rock's Fairy Tale Princess
Review: I became interested in 'Faithfull' after reading the odd and crazy 'Backstage Passes: Life on the Wild Side with David Bowie' book by Angela Bowie. I liked 'Faithfull' A LOT better, though. Marianne Faithfull is a very interesting person to read about, because if you think about it, it sounds like a fictionous story. This book is inspiring for a story of fiction as well. You look at Marianne Faithfull from the 1960's and see an image of innocence which is just as innocent looking as Emma (aka 'Baby Spice') from the Spice Girls. Behind that mask of innocence, though, is the well known 'sex, drugs, and rock and roll' plot. It's a great book and I wouldn't mind reading it again at all! I wish it'll turn out to be a movie sometime like Tina Turner's 'I, Tina' (which I didn't read, because I was only four when that came out, but I did see 'What's Love Got To Do With It') did! Just imagine who could be suitable to play the role of Mick Jagger! : )

Rating:
Summary: rock mythology by rock's own persephone!!!!
Review: I bought this book when I was fifteen (in 1994). I knew nothing about her life or music. I was just visiting a local bookstore with my mother, and I remember being so struck by the cover of the original hardback. An image of ruined beauty, grace, anger, addiction. . .

I devoured this book at once and have reread it many times. I became a huge fan of her music and wit. My next Marianne venture was Broken English. And the rest is history.

I recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of music. I also recommend it to anyone who is a fan of an uncompromising muse, artist, devine whore, brilliant lyricist, accomplished musician, or just of a courageous, true heart. Marianne is all of these with incarnations to spare.


Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book by a fascinating woman
Review: I dont quite know what to write. I want to say the right thing because I've always found Marianne Faithfull intriguing and beautiful and I want to do her book justice. It was a wonderful read which is surprising for me because i usually don't read autobiographys but when I saw it was hers I just had to read it.Mariannes story was wonderful,it could have been a novel.I was so pleased to find that it was beautiful and truthful and not at all spiteful or trashy.I have a CD of her music and it is so gorgous. Her voice is world weary but romantic,I think she must be the most romantic woman of all time.I saw her in Hamlet and she was so wonderful in it, everytime I read the play she becomes Ophelia. I know it was a bad time in her life but i loved reading about her romance with Mick Jagger and her description of "swinging London." Although Iam guilty of idealizing her one of the things I like best about her is that she is someone you can relate to and she doesnt try to hide behind a mask. Another thing I really like about her is that she has excellent taste in books. Oscar Wilde is also my favorite author.This is a lovely book and its a shame that its out of print. Faithful is an intriguing,fascinating woman with a wonderful sense of humor.

Rating:
Summary: mind candy
Review: I found Marianne's autobiography extremely well written, captivating, and honest. Her sense of humor comes through beautifully. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in her, the Rolling Stones, or the 60s.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I found Marianne's autobiography extremely well written, captivating, and honest. Her sense of humor comes through beautifully. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in her, the Rolling Stones, or the 60s.

Rating:
Summary: Salacious But Entertaining
Review: I never knew about the existence of this book until I inadvertently read a brief excerpt on a Stones site. It's probably one of the most revealing books written about Mick Jagger. More specifically, a specific aspect of the relationship between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Highly recommended for Stones fans, though the more close-minded might want to avoid it. If you love tabloid trash, you will enjoy it, though you'll never look at Jagger and Richards the same after reading it. It also, of course, details Marianne's relationships with Mick, with Keith, with Brian, with Anita Pallenberg, and many men and women she spent some "quality time" with in the '60s. But the portrayal of the sublimated (or possibly not-so-sublimated) relationship between Jagger and Richards is what stays in the mind. I've never read of this elsewhere, and it Marianne makes it seem very poignant.