Promise and Lies of America!

Dwight Garner writes about his trusty companion, Greil Marcus' "Mystery Train."  When I hitchhiked across America I carried a rumpled copy of  "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" in my backpack. That was my constant companion.

Recently I read Garner's tribute to "Mystery Train," in the New York Times, and it compelled me to pull my copy off the shelf and re-read it. I'm about halfway through, and the 2nd time around is deeper, more profound, revelatory. What didn't hit me the first time around, hit me this time. I always thought it was good book, but now every sentence seems to hit some bullseye deep in my solar plexus.

Now the theme of America's "promises and lies" totally hits home. Maybe because I've lived more? And the idea that Robert Johnson, Harmonica Frank, The Band, Elvis, Sly Stone and Randy Newman are in the same company as Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and F. Scott Fitzgerald seems completely self-evident. And don't forget those mythical figures that hover over and haunt us all - Huckleberry Finn and Ahab.

I am not the same person I was when I first read this book. The person I am now, totally, really understands and embodies the story of America's promises and lies, successes and failures, myths and realities. The dreams and the nightmares of our American thing. 

"Mystery Train," is a wise and enlightening book about America. And myth. And music. It is a great, great piece of work. And everything it says has relevance right now. Maybe more so than when it was written. At least for me. Which if you think about it is truly an amazing thing.