Chronicles

Volume One

By: Bob Dylan

Narrated by: Sean Penn

Bob Dylan's Chronicles: Volume One explores the critical junctions in his life and career. Through Dylan's eyes and open mind, we see Greenwich Village, circa 1961, when he first arrives in Manhattan. Dylan's New York is a magical city of possibilities: smoky, nightlong parties; literary awakenings; transient loves and unbreakable friendships. Elegiac observations are punctuated by jabs of memories, penetrating and tough. With side trips to New Orleans, Woodstock, Minnesota and points west, Chronicles: Volume One is an intimate and intensely personal recollection of extraordinary times.

Revealing, poetical, passionate and witty, Chronicles: Volume One is a mesmerizing window on Bob Dylan's thoughts and influences. Dylan's voice is distinctively American: generous of spirit, engaged, fanciful, and rhythmic. Utilizing his unparalleled gifts of storytelling and the exquisite expressiveness that are the hallmarks of his music, Bob Dylan turns Chronicles: Volume One into a poignant reflection on life, and the people and places that helped shape the man and the art.

©2004 Bob Dylan (P)2004 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Biography/Memoir, 2005
• 2005 Quill Award Nominee
• Grammy Award Nominee, Best Spoken Word Album, 2005

"Volume 1 of Dylan's memoirs was pretty cool to begin with. But to have it read by Sean Penn on audio takes it to a new level: the most talented songwriter of all time as performed by the most talented actor of his generation. Mr. Penn clearly has a blast inhabiting the role and navigating Dylan's jagged, impressionistic prose." (The New York Times)

Brilliant storytelling with excellent narration

Brilliant storytelling, written by the master. Excellent narration in a voice that evokes Dylan's own.

Great but why abridged!?

there must be a good reason for why they record a bridge version of books but I don't get it. if you're going to offer it why not off for the whole thing

Stunning narration of a remarkable story

Sean Penn reads this book with such conviction and authenticity, I often felt like Dylan was reading it himself.
The prose almost sounds like poetry. Which makes sense, given who Dylan is.

interesting and revealing!

Bob's words are graphically revealing. His in depth narrative is rivetting. I very much enjoyed the book.

Great book, shame about the abridgement

Dylan proves to be every bit the poetic force that he was in his seminal recordings but the abridgement makes it feel so scattershot that it leaves you wondering why they couldn't have done more.

Sean Penn was perfect

Was curious how anyone could deliver Dylan’s words and Sean was a home run. Highly worth it.

excellent

One of the best audiobooks that listen to in a long time. Even if you're not a Bob Dylan fan this is a great book

Authentic.

Incredible insight. I enjoyed this very much and Sean Penn did a great job. Thanks!

If you enjoy Dylan, You'll love Chronicles

I first saw Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in the summer of 1963 and have followed his songs and career with great interest. May be hard to believe but the book is easy listening and superbly read by Sean Penn. You begin to understand the many levels of music, both creating and performing, and the man behind it.

I can?t wait until we get ?Volume Two?.

very Dylanesque

If you want to know Bob Dylan, if you've seen Don't Look Back but felt that it scratched the surface and you wanted more, if you want to see how Mr. Dylan saw his relationship to the folk scene, his roots, the milieu that the artist tapped into for creative inspiration and how he responded to it, check out Chronicles Volume 1. It's at one time, a fluid, lucid account, written in as imaginative a style as his most dreamlike work, which may not appeal to some, and at the same time, a disparate journey through the mind of the artist. Almost as much can be learned about him by how he says it, as by what he says. A candid account that strikes a questioning note when you think about the paths he took to get where he wanted to go, and the alternate routes he needed to take to avoid those paths that others wanted him to take and be who others wanted him to be. Do Moon River and polkas really provide the inspiration he says? Or is he still creating that alternate Him, still hiding out? A Dylanesque look into the source of his imagery, fortitude, passion. While I'm not clamoring for the Old Him, I happen to be one of those fans that never made the transition to Mr. Dylan's later works, post John Wesley Harding, but when Volume 2 comes out, it will be high on my list.