Boys in the Trees

December 14, 2015
The queen of 1970s folk-rock songs about conflicted relationships revisits her own in this sometimes angsty, sometimes exuberant memoir. Simon's recollections include her parents' souring marriage (her father was crushed when her mother moved her much younger lover into their house), a lesbian encounter with a friend, episodes of child molestation (about which she has mixed feelings), and a parade of showbiz paramours including Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, one of the inspirations of her exasperated mega-hit "You're So Vain." (The morning after one late-night tryst with Beatty, she told her psychiatrist about it and was informed that his last appointment had also confessed to sleeping with the star the previous evening.) She also describes her initially rapturous marriage to singer James Taylor, which eventually dissolved in infidelity and coldness. Simon's memoir unfolds in long, florid, intensely observed scenes of flirtation, seduction, and disaffection that are at once charged with erotic tension and attuned to subtle undercurrents of feeling. Her writing is impressionistic, slightly boy-crazy, wonderfully evocative, and suffused with the warm voice and bittersweet sensibility of her songs. This is a very personal book, and along with bouts of heartache and neurosis there's a persistent sense of exhilaration and discovery. Photos.

Carly Simon exuberantly narrates her memoir, which reads like a history of rock and roll from the 1970s onward. Simon's warm and personal style sounds as if she's telling her story directly to each listener. She confidingly begins with her privileged but troubled childhood--recounting her parents' unhappy marriage, her molestation, her stutter and shyness, and more. Music--her own and others'--adds a magical energy. Her understated anecdotes of encounters with the biggest names in music keep her from sounding boastful. Most moving and interesting is her depiction of her marriage to James Taylor, where the book ends. Her pain over their divorce is still apparent. An upbeat-sounding epilogue brings things to the present, but music lovers will want her to fill in the gaps of her fascinating life. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine