The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writing of Suzanne Vega Review

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(More customer reviews)Suzanne Vega's Passionate Eye effectively points up some of her ideas in a fresh, readable and consistently interesting format. She uses her song lyrics, poems and prose both recent and juvenile, and a centerpiece radio interview of Ms. Vega by Leonard Cohen (the most "human" part of the book, as Mr. Cohen alternates between simple friendliness, quick wit, deep insight and good, old-fashioned flirtatious play to "illustrate" Ms. Vega's contradictions and the themes of her music through a spirited dialogue).
As in her songs, Ms. Vega writes in veiled themes. She tries to illustrate that one can own the artist's revelations without owning (or needing to know) anything about the artist herself. She quotes passages to support her idea that her particular muse stems from childhood experience, and that she is merely saying the same things she thought at nine. She repeatedly makes the point that it is the elusive (and by inference, the allusive) that appeals to her. As Ms. Vega points out, the communication medium of a songwriter includes in large measure the lyrics of her songs. Yet this is not a mere fanzine piece, but instead a well-done arrangement which highlights her ideas without descending into morose autobio. Although her spare, dark sense of humor peeks through the covers a time or two here, the book perhaps suffers from yet another Vega trait--her consistent effort to maintain a sort of "high seriousness" about her proceedings. I would have liked, perhaps, to see the lyrics of Christine Lavin's Vega parody "Mysterious Woman" arrayed beside Ms. Vega's own lyrics. Ms. Vega shows the reader that she understands the limitations in the persona she created, but we do not quite see what persona she wishes we had seen instead.
Still, I left this book convinced that Suzanne Vega remains a complex and interesting artist, wishing for fame, but disliking the toll it can take on the part of the artist which is not the public persona. Thank goodness this is not a morose "pity me, I'm famous" piece, but a set of images and wordplay, well worked out. Read this, even if you are not a "Suzanne Vega fan".
I left this book feeling that I understood a thing or two about the public person Suzanne Vega seeks to portray, and that I need not know anything more about Suzanne Vega herself. I believe this is what Ms. Vega wants the reader to feel, and therefore she has succeeded admirably.

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