I've Had to Think up a Way to Survive : On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton / Lynn Melnick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Melnick, Lynn, author.

Series:

American music and musicians series.

American Music Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Melnick, Lynn.

Parton, Dolly--Songs and music--Selections.

Parton, Dolly.

Women country musicians--Biography.

Women country musicians.

Women poets--Biography.

Women poets.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

When everything fell apart for Lynn Melnick, she went to Dollywood. It was perhaps an unusual refuge. The theme park, partly owned by and wholly named for Dolly Parton, celebrates a country music legend who grew up in church and in poverty in rural Tennessee. Yet Dollywood is exactly where Melnick—a poet, urbanite, and daughter of a middle-class Jewish family—needed to be. Because Melnick, like the musician she adores, is a survivor. In this bracing memoir, Melnick explores Parton’s dual identities as feminist icon and objectified sex symbol—identities that reflect the author’s own fraught history with rape culture and the grueling effort to reclaim her voice in the wake of loss and trauma. Each chapter engages with the artistry and cultural impact of one of Parton’s songs, as Melnick reckons with violence, creativity, parenting, abortion, sex work, love, and the consolations and cruelties of religion. Guided by Parton’s music, Melnick walks the slow path to recovery in the company of those who came before her and stand with her, as trauma is an experience both unique and universal. Candid and discerning, I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive is at once a memoir and a love song—a story about one life and about an artist who has brought life to millions.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Introduction. Seven Bridges Road

Chapter One. Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That

Chapter Two. Steady as the Rain

Chapter Three. The Seeker

Chapter Four. Here You Come Again

Chapter Five. Jolene

Chapter Six. The Grass Is Blue

Chapter Seven. Coat of Many Colors

Chapter Eight. Islands in the Stream

Chapter Nine. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind

Chapter Ten. Will He Be Waiting for Me

Chapter Eleven. Down from Dover

Chapter Twelve. Silver Dagger

Chapter Thirteen. Don’t Think Twice

Chapter Fourteen. I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby

Chapter Fifteen. Little Sparrow

Chapter Sixteen. 9 to 5

Chapter Seventeen. Two Doors Down

Chapter Eighteen. Put a Little Love in Your Heart

Chapter Nineteen. Blue Smoke

Chapter Twenty. The Bargain Store

Chapter Twenty-one. The Story

Acknowledgments. I Will Always Love You

References and Resources

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2022)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781477326008

1477326006

9781477325995

1477325999

OCLC:

1330933174