I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive
On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $26.99
Publisher Description
A moving and essential exploration of what it takes to find your voice as a woman, a survivor, an artist, and an icon.
The first time Lynn Melnick listened to a Dolly Parton song in full, she was 14 years old, in the triage room of a Los Angeles hospital, waiting to be admitted to a drug rehab program. Already in her young life as a Jewish teen in the 1980s, she had been the victim of rape, abuse, and trauma, and her path to healing would be long. But in Parton’s words and music, she recognized a fellow survivor.
In this powerful, incisive work of social and self-exploration, Melnick blends personal essay with cultural criticism to explore Parton’s dual identities as feminist icon and objectified sex symbol, identities that reflect the author’s own fraught history with rape culture and the arduous work of reclaiming her voice. Each chapter engages with the artistry and impact of one of Parton’s songs, as Melnick reckons with violence, misogyny, creativity, parenting, friendship, sex, love, and the consolations and cruelties of religion. Bold and inventive, I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive gives us an accessible and memorable framework for understanding our times and a revelatory account of survival, persistence, and self-discovery.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Melnick (Refusenik) delivers a riveting blend of cultural criticism and memoir in this paean to Dolly Parton, "an icon of feminine strength." Melnick first heard Parton at age 14 in 1988 while she was checking into a drug rehabilitation program. Recounting Parton's "Islands in the Stream," Melnick writes, "the multifaceted clarity of her voice hooked me instantly." Two decades later, Melnick found herself in search of Parton again, while vacationing at Parton's theme park, Dollywood, and working through the "retraumatiz" brought by a book she'd recently published about her trauma (including surviving rape as a child). Though belittled on account of her looks, the multitalented musician and savvy businesswoman's songs, Melnick argues, reckoned with hard-hitting themes—from a response to patriarchy and rape culture in "Jolene" to a meditation on the pain of poverty in "Coat of Many Colors." In contemplative prose, Melnick movingly recalls how Parton's words shepherded her through life: "The Grass Is Blue," for instance, conjures Melnick's struggles to protect her preadolescent daughter, while "Little Sparrow" gave her the strength to deal with the return of an abusive ex. In her quest to "be more Dollylike, rising again and again from the embers of expectation," Melnick offers a gorgeous story of survival and self-discovery. Die-hard Dolly fans won't want to miss this.
Customer Reviews
Bad
More focus on author than on dolly. Waste of money.