Reading THE BESTSELLERS

Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell

By David Yaffe

Harper, 2017. 448 pages. $21.99 (e-book $11.99, audio CD $41). Browse at Books. Google.ca

ALBUM BY ALBUM, song by song, this book takes readers through Joni Mitchell’s life, documenting her journey from Canadian Prairie girl to musical icon. Author David Yaffe captures the stories behind her art, music and lyrics so readers come to better understand her – who and what influenced her, whose lives and music she influenced. Overall it paints a sweeping picture of Joni Mitchell’s development as a musician and her singular need for creative control both in the studio and on tour.

Despite adversity Mitchell kept moving forward. Polio at ten led to the open guitar tunings that later characterised her music.

Pregnant in her early 20s, Mitchell gave up her daughter for adoption and didn’t see her again until she was an adult with children of her own. Two failed marriages, cocaine addiction, a four-pack-a-day smoking habit and numerous affairs influenced Mitchell’s life choices and were fodder for her lyrics.

Yaffe writes, “To tell the life of any person, especially a complex and multifaceted one, is to accumulate other stories and other lives.” His accumulation included extensive research and interviews with over 50 people (Mitchell included). Notably missing in these stories, and perhaps understandably, is the voice of Joni Mitchell’s daughter Kilauren. Perhaps that is a chapter yet to be finished.

Reckless Daughter reveals Yaffe as one of Mitchell’s biggest fans. His appreciation, even adoration, of her has resulted in a biography that will appeal to anyone wanting to better understand who Mitchell is and how she rose to be a Canadian music icon. –DANA ANTAYA-MOORE