Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be: A Rock and Roll Fairy Tale
by Jen Trynin
Published by Harcourt
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Reviewed by Karen Morse
The year is 1994 and Jen Trynin is the next big thing. Lawyers, agents, and records labels are all vying for her attention. Two albums and four years later she is just another has-been, destined to be the answer to an obscure music trivia question.
Jen Trynin's new memoir, Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be, is indeed a rock-and-roll fairy tale, only Trynin does not have the happily-ever-after that one would expect. In the real world--as opposed to "a land far far away"--Jen's happily-ever-after includes marriage to her prince charming and motherhood, not a career wrought with chart-topping multi-platinum albums.
Written with the 20-20 vision of hindsight, Everything I'm Cracked Up to Be is an insider's look at the music business with an outsider's perspective on "making it." The book follows Trynin's journey from obscurity and the "Sunday-through-Wednesday-night/ folk-acoustic-chick-band-wasteland"" to the dizzying heights of a bidding war and imminent stardom and back again.
Trynin's background in creative writing assures that the book is well-written, but its strength really lies in her honesty, both about the music industry and about her own shortcomings and mistakes.
Armchair Interviews says: This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to break into the music business.