This is a kind of a weird, partial autobiography of Bob Dylan. Weird compared to other (auto)biographies, but if someone told you Bob Dylan wrote one and you maybe knew some things about Bob Dylan, then you'd probably bet it looked something like this.

Four major chapters are included, representing different eras of Dylan's life. They do not follow chronologically, which brings an interesting twist to the whole thing. I'm not exactly sure why, but it works. He talks a lot about his beginnings, trying to make it as a folk singer in his late teens, when he moved from Minnesota to New York City, trying to land gigs in folk music pubs, sleeping on people's couches ... Then switches to much later on, when he already has a family and is a big star, describing the process of making a record, reinventing himself and his style ... Interesting stuff.

Somewhat expectedly, he talks more about other people than himself. The book is full of names of the people he meets and who make an impression on him, and also full of song, album and performer titles, because he talks about the music he listened to and that influenced him quite extensively. Though this sometimes gets a bit overwhelming, I particularly enjoyed the quite frequent sections where he describes the unknown, un-lauded folk singers playing in dingy clubs of New York and Minneapolis, some of whom were outstanding musicians that influenced Dylan greatly, as well as colorful characters.

Like his songs, he sometimes slips into a stream of concioussness mode, where he jumps around wildly in thought and time, making it difficult to follow him. Especially when talking about people, he also likes to associate freely, describing them with poetic monikers, sometimes several in a row.

Weird stuff, but it's all good, would not expect anything different from Dylan.

( )