Tuesday, October 28, 2014

REVIEW: Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg

by Cyrus Webb

When you reach a certain comfort level with someone you are willing to tell them things you wouldn't share with just anyone. That's because you wouldn't let your guard down to someone you weren't sure had your best interest at heart.

In JERRY LEE LEWIS: His Own Story Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Bragg definitely had the trust of Mr. Lewis because he allowed him to see and the very essence of who he is not just as an entertainer but a man---and we as readers are all better off because of it.

Lewis once told Bragg that he "had been lucky at everything, except life", but I think once you begin this book you will see that blessed more aptly describes the live that Lewis has lived, and it began at an early on. You see, Lewis knew that he had been given something special when it came to music. In the book we learn that while the world was experiencing war, Lewis realized that "his own world was just too small". He had to make a move, and by 1943 music was really his everything.

He started to actually visual success, though he didn't call it that or even know it to be that, and he shared those thoughts with one of the women that would later become his girl. There was so much I learned about Lewis in this book that I had never known. I never knew how his beginnings impacted the man he would grow to be. I never thought about the responsibility of being called the King by Elvis himself, and then living up to that. And then there was his private life that would become public, long before the 24-hour news cycle and the internet---and how he railed against it. Bragg writes this: "He really believed there were things in life that were the world's business and things that were his business, like the things that happened between a man and his wife. He believed it."

Experiences would teach him, however, that that was not the case. That no matter how much he achieved there would always be things that would create barriers that he would have to overcome---and he did overcome them, becoming wise and more seasoned along the way.

A true testament to what is possible captured by a writer that knows the possibilities of the human spirit, this book is sure to inspire you to keep on keeping on as long as you can.

JERRY LEE LEWIS: His Own Story is available now on Amazon. Get it for yourself here.



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