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To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse
Top of the pile
76
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
91/100Critics
60/100Scholars
Author:
Howard Fishman
Publisher:
Dutton
Date:
May 2, 2023
The mysterious true story of Connie Converseâa mid-century New York City songwriter, singer, and composer whose haunting music never found broad recognitionâand one writer's quest to understand her life.
What The Reviewers Say
Readers might reasonably wonder if such an artist merits a doorstop like this one.
Gripping and searching.
Fishman’s cri de coeur effort to piece together the puzzle that was Connie Converse, to make the case for her singular talent, and to bring her songs—at long last—to the attention of the broad audience Fishman believes they deserve.
The first biography of Converse, although biography is too tidy a word for this shaggy beast of a book. It’s a close study of Converse’s music, a patchwork memoir of Fishman’s own decade-plus obsession with the singer, and a piecemeal reckoning with the Converse family’s history of alcoholism, mental illness, and borderline incest. It’s also unabashedly a fan’s book, with all of the passion and chauvinism that implies.
