Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Willie's

Kiri W screaminblue88@hotmail.com
Wed, 14 May 2003 03:02:05 +0000


Hello, Brigitte, Jeff and p'workers,

I agree with Jeff on several points, I too think the book was very well 
written.

The non-chronoligical order of events is a great way of writing, it is 
rather like sitting down with an old friend and reminiscing.

I guess everyone has their own way of interpreting things, when I saw Bones' 
answer to the last song question... I slowly closed the book and cried 
quietly.

Cheers All, enjoy the read.

KW

BTW, Jim has a great singing voice.

>From: Brigitte Mounier <bmounier@sympatico.ca>
>To: powderworks@cs.colorado.edu
>Subject: [Powderworks] Willie's
>Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 16:07:59 -0500
>
>Well I have just finished " Willie's bar and grill "  (a 3 hours easy
>read) and overall I'm disappointed. But perhaps my expectations were
>too high.
>
>The book tells about the places they went and gives a ton of
>anecdotes, political, cultural and others. (which failed to interest
>me much, although whether that's my fault of the author's, I don't
>know). So the avalanche of anecdotes and tangentes ends up drowning
>the main flow of the book. Of course, maybe it will be of interest to
>Aussies. As for me, I have lived in the States, been to a lot of the
>cities mentionned, followed the aftermath of 9/11 on American TV
>channels so it's nothing new, nothing interesting and it rather bores
>me.
>Another crucial fault, which I have seen in an awful lot of travel
>logs, is the lack of human interest. Reading about places can be very
>dry. What saves it is the human interest in it. We, as humans, are
>naturally interested and drawned by other human beings and their
>story. Although Rob talks a bit about the band, crew and some
>characters met along the way, he fails to ever brush a complete
>portrait of anybody. We cannot close the book and say : " Oh, so this
>is what X is likeŠ " We don't get a feel for anybody, in my opinion,
>and that leaves us hungry. I noticed the same dryness in " Strict
>rules ", all about giving information, precious little about the
>human aspect, the characters and personalities. Perhaps it's an
>Aussie thing.
>I was expecting a funny book and Rob definitely tries his hand at
>humour. I suppose Rob and I just don't have s similar sense of humor.
>I laughed at loud several times while reading, but every single time
>it was at a Bones' quote.
>As for fans, well, we don't really get a better sense of who the band
>members are, what they are like or what they are thinking. Perhaps
>life on the road is really not very eventful, perhaps Rob is more
>gifted as a songwriter than a author. Where did we see that it
>explained a bit more about Pete's decision? It doesn't. Not a word.
>By the way, there's  a sure difference between American and
>Australian, as languages, which do make the reading a bit more
>arduous for me.
>
>So that's just my clumsily stated opinion. If some others thought it
>was brilliant, I'm curious to hear about it, I welcome different
>point of views.
>And I'll bait those who haven't read it : the book ends on Rob
>wondering what should be the last song they should play if they did a
>farewell show. Bones answers and that answers is so funny and so
>typical of him I'm still laughing and it's the perfect ending to the
>book.
>
>brigitte

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