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A Cave Full Of Ghosts. Billy Bob Thornton, Kinky Friedman (2012)

by Billy Bob Thornton(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0753541114 (ISBN13: 9780753541111)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Virgin Publishing

review 1: I chose this book because: 1. I needed a book to read 2. It was on the library shelf 3. I had heard it was good and funny 4. I live in ArkansasActually the book was very entertaining despite not expecting to enjoy it. I would have given it another star but the profanity in it kept my rating down. He sat down with a tape recorder and talked into it rather than the usual way of writing on a computer. It made it more personal but not as professional. He covers his childhood, struggles breaking into his profession, and his movies. Some is very entertaining and some wasn't as much. Truth being I should have given him 5 stars for keeping sex out of it!!! He only touches on his marriage to Angeline and his current girlfriend. The other 3 marriages are left out and he ... moreonly talks about three of his children never mentioning the first daughter. He's on the strange side but I guess most 'artistic' people are!
review 2: I was hoping for more. Is Billy Bob interesting? Yes. Has he lived a varied life? Absolutely. Do I see strains of the southern style in his stories? Definitely.However...however...he just stops halfway through a story and then says "I'll never forget it." Or it's equally annoying counterpart "I'll always remember." Then BB moves on to the next anecdote. And I can see why Hollywood types or non-southerners would find this interesting. The stories are unusual. I just want more from them. I want to wring all the details out of them like Woodrell does when he writes of the Ozarks. Perhaps BB thinks his style is folksy and southern. Billy Bob is wrong. It's bad story telling. If one says, "I'll never forget playing with those guys." The story shouldn't end there. It should be followed with visceral description of the smell of cigarettes, the taste of cheap beer, the late-night, dangling conversations in which musicians outline their dreams, and the vision which drives them to make the music. THAT makes a scene unforgettable. I have dated young musicians. You can't shut those fuckers up. I realize that stylistically, this is supposed to be southern story-telling. But I've read To Kill a Mockingbird and the best southern stories meander down a road and take a turn to visit Aunt Bee. Then there's a trip to the cousins who live down the road and who are related to someone famous in The War of Northern Aggression and who can maybe trace their roots to the first settlers of Jamestown; but in any case they ended up in whatever southern town in which the action takes place and they are characters. There may be a point buried in the narrative but it won't be realized until the next anecdote/visit/bloodline is being elucidated. No one can ever accuse a southerner of not taking the time to explain. It's what makes northerners roll their eyes, wave their hands and mutter about getting to the point.I wanted more of that from Billy Bob. If Harper Lee and William Faulkner can do it, so can he. Plus. Saying fuck and shit a lot doesn't make you edgy. You can be edgy without ever uttering a profanity. Conversely, you can use profanity for effect and not as a substitute for adverbs, prepositions and punctuation. Just sayin' less

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