Published in hardback by Bloomsbury Circus, priced £18.99 (ebook £12.26)
Manhattan, 1966. Socially awkward, music and Beats-obsessed teenager Richard Goldstein lands a (barely paid) job with the Village Voice as a rock critic, which turns out to be a passport to fame and influence, meeting stars from the Beatles to the Beach Boys.
This memoir picks through Goldstein’s memories of the drug-enhanced hope and sourness of Sixties America and is particularly effective as his job put him in the centre of the youth movement. Unsurprisingly, it’s very well-written, though veers into self-indulgence as the author recounts his struggles with bisexuality, indoctrinated racism and craving for attention.
Names are dropped on every other page, but the confessional tone means it’s hard to feel more than a smattering of sympathy as Goldstein relates their lives and deaths. He wishes he could “wring the juice” of his Sixties experience to reach a profound message, like in the film Almost Famous, but real life is more interesting, though less satisfying – rather like this book.
Book Review: Another Little Piece Of My Heart – My Life Of Rock And Revolution In The ’60s by Richard Goldstein
