Summer Reading (1)

"Cash"- Johnny Cash, Patrick Carr

The story behind the steady guitar rhythm and heart-felt lyrics of the late Johnny Cash is completely and satisfyingly unpacked in a compelling autobiography, which reveals the depth of Cash’s influence in American popular culture. Contemporary and friend of luminaries such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison, Cash retells his life story in a self-effacing and hopeful manner, showing a man who has been taught much about life through both good times and bad, set against the backdrop of two contrasting marriages. His battles with amphetamine addiction are unsparingly chronicled and many near brushes with death result from this. For example, we read about him walking into a series of dark caves with the sole intention of dying there, but after being met by "the voice of God", he credits this event as saving his life at that time. The untimely demise of his older brother Jack, while still a child, the result of a sawmill accident, is also a haunting backdrop to much of Cash’s life. Jack mysteriously visits his brother in dreams throughout his life and Cash is always encouraged that his brother has been growing older at a similar rate to himself, and, in these dreams, has achieved his childhood goals of becoming a preacher and a man of wisdom. Filled with often humorous recollections of life on the road, "Cash" is ultimately an uplifting read and as a whole is a fitting testament to the full life of a musical legend.