Reckless Daughter

A Portrait of Joni Mitchell

By: David Yaffe

Narrated by: Xe Sands

Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Joni Mitchell is a cultural touchstone for generations of Americans. In her heyday she released 10 experimental, challenging, and revealing albums; her lyrics captivated people with the beauty of their language and the rawness of their emotions, both deeply personal to Mitchell and universally relatable to her audience.

In this intimate biography, composed of dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, David Yaffe reveals the backstory behind the famous songs - from her youth on the Canadian prairie, her pre-vaccine bout with polio at age nine, and her early marriage and the child she gave up for adoption, up through the quintessential albums and love affairs, and all the way to the present - and shows us why Mitchell has so enthralled her listeners, her lovers, and her friends.

Yaffe has had unprecedented access both to Mitchell and to those who know her, drawing on interviews with childhood friends and the cast of famous characters (Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, and more) with whom she has crossed paths and influenced, as well as insightful analyses of her famous lyrics, their imagery and style, and what they say about the woman herself.

©2017 David Yaffe (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Narrator Xe Sands adopts an intimate conversational tone that not only supports Yaffe's intent but pretty much sums up the era in which Mitchell shone the brightest. Sands alternately speeds up and slows down her delivery, but that only serves to keep our attention and makes it seem as though she is speaking only to us." (AudioFile)

Still waiting for her biography

If you want to know all about Joni's music, this book has all the details and more. Sprinkled in with this are short bits about her lovers. For myself, I'm interested in her beyond the songs and that's what wasn't there. That's the reason for my rating. For instance, Joni said that art is first in her life and music second, but the author says almost nothing about her paintings. Joni is a very private person and I doubt in her lifetime anyone will want to offend her with an in-depth, critical look.

A rich, heartbreaking book!

As a Joni Mitchell fan for 40 years, through every phase of her career and album, I thought I knew all about her. Wrong! This book has a ton of new and fascinating information. It's written in a lively, first-person style that centers on the author's multiple interviews with Mitchell, and the narrative structure is shaped around album releases. Yes, Yaffe IS a sycophant, as many here and elsewhere have observed, but Mitchell IS a true genius. And he allows others (Larry Klein, for example) to fill in details about her more complicated, less admirable personal qualities. The trajectory from revered singer-songwriter goddess to "runaway from the record biz" is pretty heartbreaking, but Mitchell's amazing contribution lives on and will only grow in stature over time, and listening to this book got me to cue up ALL of her work once again, even the stuff I tend to listen to less.

As for the narrator, Xe Sands has a lovely voice, but uses this "hip," world-weary intonation in ways that are irritating and sometimes silly. Also, in the beginning to the book especially, she tends to drop off at the ends of sentences. For the first two hours, I was driving with a friend and we kept turning to each other and saying: "What did she say?" About the third hour in or so, I got used to is and just went with it.

Overall, a GREAT listen.

Worst narrator I’ve heard on Audible.

Almost unlistenable. Terrible, grating, affected reader. Excellent writing, great biography. But this is an audio book.

Interesting description of the LA Music scene

Good book and respectful towards Joni Mitchell and her career. The narrators style takes a little while to getting used to but then it is actually fine.

Great Story, Somewhat Aggravating Narrator

Wonderful details and story, worthy of the terrific subject.

At first, the narrator seemed perfect for the text, capturing something of Joni's speaking style and being cooly listenable. As the performance went on, however, her gravelly vocal fry became monotonous and irritating, and eventually it seemed affected. I don't know why the same delivery style was used for every character and situation, but it wore thin quickly.

I'll give the narrator kudos, though, for not mispronouncing names or words--a first in my experience with audiobooks. (If she did mispronounce a word, it didn't stay in my memory, so egregious are most narrators' mispronunciations.)

Overall, this is a very well researched and extremely interesting book about a fascinating person.

I'm going to miss this story

I had no idea Joni was my mother too, until I read this book. I wish I could thank her, and the author too. The ending was beautifully executed.

Chances

Life presents its opportunity, sometimes you hestitate,sometimes you take a chance,either way you learn something.

Adequate telling with no spectacular insight

While this is a good way to stick your toe in, it’s no real swim.

Best at slower speed

Great book, but the narrator's phrasing is grating. If you want to enjoy it better, listen to it at .75 speed and it sounds better. A little trippy, but better.

Joni Mitchell in all her glory!

A must read/listen for all Joni fans. A brilliant and honest portrayal of a genius poet, singer, songwriter, and artist