"Storms" by Carol Ann

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by David

She's a lot cleverer than she paints herself in the book. In fact, I think she's a lot cleverer than Stevie.

I don't know if she's cleverer than Stevie, because Stevie can be quite clever, but Carol is smart.

She writes about the way she got Lindsey to cut his mustache and beard, using reverse psychology, telling him he looked like Bjorn, secretly knowing he'd loathe the comparison, but openly praising Bjorn's looks. I think she knowingly manipulates the audience as well, so that you're steered directly to a conclusion without ever even know you were guided at all.

I use the Rolling Stone cover example all the time not because it itself is important. It's quite insignficant in the great scheme of things. But it's one of the few things that can be directly contradicted and I think it's indicative of the very gentle, subtle steering and redirection that is going on throughout the book. Why say the cover was shot in her home, in her bedroom, when it wasn't? Seems to me she wants to contradict what Stevie and Lindsey recently said about the shoot, but without ever even acknowledging what they said or what she's denying. She reshapes the truth in very delicate, very small steps, so that it's not even clear that it's happening.

The one time she comes right out and says, "The rumors are wrong and what people claimed happened really didn't" is when she explains that she did not sleep with Dennis Wilson. In a way I thought that was one of the most honest passages in the book. I'm not saying I don't think she slept with Dennis, but the way she attacked the charge head on was a lot more staightforward than the bulk of the book, during which she is always making a point or a denial, but not revealing that that's what she's doing.

She tried to get her story out there for many years and it has evolved a lot from the Elvis Costello concert assault she described on Geraldo in 1992. I guess no one was interested enough for her to get published before. I'm glad she was finally able to be heard. I found the book entertaining, often hilarious, and certainly valuable to have, but even though I'm sure many things in it are true, I in no way consider it the truth. I don't even really think it's Carol's version of the truth. Meaning, I don't think she sees things herself the way she presented them to us in Storms. Hey, Bjorn's a great looking guy!

Michele