2008 Woodie Awards
Sheffield's 'Mix Tape' rocks the heart
Book Review: "Love is a Mix Tape" by Rob Sheffield
Becky Korpi
Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: Entertainment
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When I was a junior in high school, my friend Sam gave me my first mix tape. It was an actual cassette tape full of lyrics and voices I had never heard before, and it ensured that I wasn't totally clueless when we listened to music at Sam's house. Someone else taking the time to share the soundtrack of their life with you is a feeling that rock critic Rob Sheffield hones in on in his debut novel "Love is A Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time."
A "shy, skinny, Irish Catholic geek from Boston," Sheffield finds company in music from a young age, and not just the songs that were popular while he was growing up in the '70s. His penchant for underground music, specifically the American rock band Meat Puppets, leads him to Renee.
A "warm and loud and impulsive" West Virginian, Renee proves to be Sheffield's stark opposite. But through long drives in the country and a mix tape for every occasion (including falling asleep), they fall in love - "I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language," writes Sheffield.
Without really planning to, the two music junkies marry in 1992 and begin a new life together in a cramped box of an apartment with take-out fried chicken for dinner almost every night. After five poverty-stricken but strong years, it is May 11, 1997. Sheffield finds himself in the kitchen making cinnamon toast for Renee, who is sewing one of her many attempted projects in another room.
In a matter of seconds she rises, collapses and instantly dies of a pulmonary embolism that no one saw coming. With his soul mate abruptly taken from him, Sheffield learns to cope one day - and one song - at a time.
What made me like this book, before I even read the first page, was the way Sheffield introduced each new chapter with a list of songs from one of his mix tapes. From "Candy Everybody Wants" by 10,000 Maniacs to Weezer's "Undone (The Sweater Song)," these lists offer the reader an intimate glimpse at the music that defined certain moments in Sheffield's life. Considering I wasn't familiar with most of the music, it also illustrates how unconventional Sheffield's tastes are as well as how much of a mainstream girl I really am.
A "shy, skinny, Irish Catholic geek from Boston," Sheffield finds company in music from a young age, and not just the songs that were popular while he was growing up in the '70s. His penchant for underground music, specifically the American rock band Meat Puppets, leads him to Renee.
A "warm and loud and impulsive" West Virginian, Renee proves to be Sheffield's stark opposite. But through long drives in the country and a mix tape for every occasion (including falling asleep), they fall in love - "I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language," writes Sheffield.
Without really planning to, the two music junkies marry in 1992 and begin a new life together in a cramped box of an apartment with take-out fried chicken for dinner almost every night. After five poverty-stricken but strong years, it is May 11, 1997. Sheffield finds himself in the kitchen making cinnamon toast for Renee, who is sewing one of her many attempted projects in another room.
In a matter of seconds she rises, collapses and instantly dies of a pulmonary embolism that no one saw coming. With his soul mate abruptly taken from him, Sheffield learns to cope one day - and one song - at a time.
What made me like this book, before I even read the first page, was the way Sheffield introduced each new chapter with a list of songs from one of his mix tapes. From "Candy Everybody Wants" by 10,000 Maniacs to Weezer's "Undone (The Sweater Song)," these lists offer the reader an intimate glimpse at the music that defined certain moments in Sheffield's life. Considering I wasn't familiar with most of the music, it also illustrates how unconventional Sheffield's tastes are as well as how much of a mainstream girl I really am.
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