Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit

This is my first book review and I decided to write a little something because this book made me feel so happy, and I think it will make someone else happy too.I have been reading many books on LA rock early 1970's, and then I came upon this little TREASURE. It captured me immediately, and I really hope that Catherine will write another book, because she brought joy to me, and through the thick and thin she remained spiritual and asked and she received! I think this book gives more than just insight to the wonderful days of English rock stars and American poets (which is what intrigued me in the first place), it is inspiring and gives you courage to see the good in any situation.I hope you pick it up, you may just want to read it again and again.

Can you imagine a fictional story about a woman who marries a man who she knows is a closet transvestite, then discovers that her estranged father, who was a macho race car driver, has also turned into a closet transvestite and then into a transsexual? And how about the glamous but psychotic and perennially drugged wife of this race car driver who routinely feeds her children only rotting food laced with tabasco sauce and treats them sadistically in so many other ways, in her Beverly Hills home. Can you then imagine that the paternal aunt of this woman was a Miss American runner up and a Zeigfield girl who couldn't keep a string of husbands for more than 2 years each, and ends up making a dependent impotent alcoholic mama's boy of her son, as the only constant male in her life. An impossibly contrived plot, right? Well, once again, reality is more unbelievable than fiction, according to the author, Catherine James. This is quite a readible account of a bizarrely improbable life, with a very twisted start, but then with a series of mentors related to the pop music business, who gave her a shot at a more normal life. I would have liked some thoughts on what might have caused her mother to be the extreme monster reported. Apparently, she had beauty as well as many talents, including being a compulsive cat burglar. But this was a wasted drugged life, in which she regularly dished out sadism and jealousy toward everyone. Was she probably just born to be such a monster, or were there events in her young life that soured her attitute toward others? Surely, Catherine could have absorbed some evidence from her grandmother. In a similar vein, perhaps she could have offered some explanation for her father's transformation from a macho race car driver into a transsexual. Nor does she offer(as I did above) a plausible explanation for her aunt Claire making a disfunctional mama's boy out of her son Blake.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I have not seen it in my local bookstore as of yet. It is an extremely moving book (especially the end).I had taken an interest in her story after I had read another book with an excerpt about her in it. I truly was not dissappointed with this read.

Here's a plug for someone I've never met in the form of a book review. It's a newly released autobiography called "Dandelion" by Catherine James. Her style is similar to her compatriot groupie Pamela Des Barres, but less fluttery. Its plainer style actually serves her content well, for this isn't just the tale of amusing sexual encounters among the paleontological dig-sites of the usual 60's dinosaurs, but one of real, live, actual survival. When you see photographs of her, even now, you'll note the incontestibility that Ms. James has always been a stunner in the looks department. Her family albums of film stars and singers show this was clearly inherited as well as polished by her own self-maintenance and style. However, she was not only the product of the gorgeous genetics of a Hollywood, entertainment-enmeshed family, but also of absolutely off the charts family dysfunction, so vile that it seems part Charles Dickens and part Edgar Allen Poe, hardly something you'd associate still happening in the 20th century of her childhood. The journey away from horribleness remains the heart of the story, no matter what era. I found a strange, personal recognition in her tale of the Mother From Hell, insofar as it showed me even if my own troublesome family had been as creative in the arts as hers, there still would have been the same friction: toxic is toxic, and unconstrained selfishness in parents is poisonous to children. Reviewers seem to be divided on this book, some contesting that it may be lightweight in tone by someone of not overwhelming accomplishment. Others note that's it would be a fascinating read even without the name-droppy stuff. Its subhead is "Memoirs of a Free Spirit," and the tabloid-esque encounters she found as both pursuer and pursued in the heady days of the 1960's was a solution that suited her in her escape from horribleness. Metaphorically thrown into the deep end of the pool to drown, she instead learned to swim quite well enough to fashion her own happy ending. I claim take "Dandelion" for what it is, an unusual person's unusual tale of survival, with her journey attaining quite a torrent of enlightenment about family dynamics and personal relationships, for herself or for any other reader.

When I bought "Dandelion", I wondered why the title? After reading the book I realized Catherine's story is a lot like the little dandelion plant, it's beautiful flower on a long steam and a strong resilient foundation. The dandelion also possesses the ability to flourish in almost any environment, hostile or nourishing. Catherine's story is very much like the dandelion she survived the hostile environment of her childhood; she flourished and sprang forth as a beautiful flower. This is a wonderful book, filled with inspiration from a triumphant spirit. Even if she had left out the famous faces scattered among the pages this would be a book well worth the read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am going to buy a few copies to give for Christmas.