Book Review: 'Cash: The Autobiography' by Johnny Cash

✰✰✰✰  When you pick up this book, set aside your preconceived idea of what it is like to be a celebrity. Here, Johnny Cash tells his story in his own words. He doesn’t sugarcoat much, but instead tells it like it is. Cash has been everywhere and done it all. This book is a roller coaster ride full of life's ups and downs with thoughts about the wisdom of life on the road and a sprinkling of religious undertones. Cash openly shares what life both on and behind the stage was really like. 

The Bottom Line: Recommended for fans of Johnny Cash and country music in general. This book features short chapters that are easy to read, and the black and white photos offer a glimpse into Cash’s life.

Book Club Notes: Our spring meeting was a much smaller group this time around. Maybe we are just getting tired of Zoom, and are looking forward to in-person meetings. Reviews for both the book and the movie mirrored the current weather here in Chicagoland, dreary. Both received a rating of 3.9 on a scale of 1 - 5, with 5 being the highest. Members commented that the book was realistic and didn’t paint a pretty picture. Some liked the diary-like style while others did not appreciate it. However, we agreed that Cash was open to being vulnerable in his words and seemed down to earth. Additionally, the book reads like a who’s who in country music. Meanwhile, the movie, Walk the Line, is entertaining; however, it only shows part of Johnny Cash’s life. Many details of his life were left out, and the scenes depicting his first wife, Vivian Liberto, may have unfairly put her in an unappealing light. We concluded there is probably a lot we’ll never know about the legend, the man, and the myth that was Johnny Cash. 

Discussion questions were not that easy to find for this book, but here are a couple of links: Docslib and BookRags. Recommended for book groups who enjoy music, biographies, and history about music.

Details: Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash with Patrick Carr. Paperback published by HarperOne in 1997. 320 p. ISBN: 978-0-06-0727-53-6