Willie Nelson: An Epic Life: Inside Ravensbruck: Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women - Hardcover

Joe Nick Patoski

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316030236 ISBN 13: 9780316030236

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company, 2008

Synopsis

From his first performance at age four, Willie Nelson was driven to make music and live life on his own terms. But though he is a songwriter of exceptional depth - "Crazy" was one of his early classics - Willie only found success after abandoning Nashville and moving to Austin, Texas. "Red Headed Stranger "made country cool to a new generation of fans. "Wanted: The Outlaws "became the first country album to sell a million copies. And "On the Road Again" became the anthem for Americans on the move. A craggy-faced, pot-smoking philosopher, Willie Nelson is one of America's great iconoclasts and idols. Now Joe Nick Patoski draws on over 100 interviews with Willie and his family, band, and friends to tell Nelson's story, from humble Depression-era roots, to his musical education in Texas honky-tonks and his flirtations with whiskey, women, and weed; from his triumph with #1 hit "Always On My Mind" to his nearly career-ending battles with debt and the IRS; and his ultimate redemption and ascension to American hero

About this title

Review:

Compelling . . . [Helm] has painstakingly sought out many survivors and talked to them herself. The results are devastating . . .What one is left with at the end of this momentous book is a sense of the power of human nature, both for good and evil (Independent on Sunday)

A profoundly moving chronicle (Observer)

An epic feat of scholarly investigation (Spectator)

Where Helm's history excels is in her refusal to reduce any of the people in her history to stereotypes. Complexity is respected. She pays attention to the specificities of people's lives, including their religious beliefs, political aspirations and dreams. Even when discussing brutal female guards, Helm avoids demonisation (Joanna Bourke Telegraph)

Helm has done us all a great service in this compelling, magisterial volume . . . Read this book. Be appalled. Be moved. And be angry that so little action was taken to help, or to remember, until it was nearly too late. Read it, and weep (Jewish Chronicle)

A sense of urgency infuses this history, which comes just in time to gather the testimony of the camp's survivors . . . meticulous, unblinking . . . [Helm's] book comes not a moment too soon (The Economist)

Splendidly researched and tremendously moving . . . Helm's book, based in part on interviews with survivors, is a model of sensitivity and seriousness (Sunday Times)

Sarah Helm's momentous uncovering of Ravensbruck (Rachel Holmes Guardian)

A groundbreaking chronicle (Nicholas Shakespeare Telegraph)

It not only fills a gap in Holocaust history but it is an utterly compelling read (Taylor Downing History Today)

Book Description:

Why does Willie Nelson keep going down the road, steady as a mountain stream, creating an illusion for the millions that sit in awe of him as he sings the same repertoire night after night?

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0316030236
• ISBN 13: 9780316030236
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 944