sonia_reppe's reviews
1293 reviews

In this case "Dresser" is wardrobe person. When Smith was 17, he got a job as a dresser for the Stratford Shakespeare festival in Stratford, Connecticut, and he got to meet some big stars like Katherine Hepburn. But what this memoir is really about is how the beauty of Shakespeare's plays and poetry helped him through a troubled childhood. His younger sister was born crippled with cerebral palsy and when the mother was overwhelmed (which was often) it was his job to take care of his sister and change her messes. He loved his sister and anguished over her. It was a sad situation.

40 yr old divorcee teaches private violin lessons in an L.A. music shop. I would give this 5 stars but it's too short, and maybe a little too caustic, even though a lot of what it says about musicians and music teachers (the ones who teach in studios, not public schools) is right on.

This title is misleading. I assumed there was going to be some Jazz-as-metaphor-for-life sort of thing. He only mentions jazz in like one sentence, and what he says is wrong. Actually, jazz does resolve, it just has sophisticated harmonies that might sound unresolved in some cases, (like if you're talking about be-bop). This book of essays was just ok. I gave it 2.5 stars because Miller means well and I agreed with the overall message; but the book was not as funny as I thought it would be; it was actually putting me to sleep by the end. But let me say that I think it would've been a four star book if I had read this when I was twenty or younger. Maybe. I was expecting a spiritual memoir and this is more of a self-help spiritual book and than I thought it would be. And way duller than the title implies.