Brief Description
An analysis of Bob Dylan fandom that shares insights into the music artist's influential role in American culture, contrasting the activities of particularly devout fans against Dylan's intensely private nature.
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A joyous and poignant exploration of the meaning of fandom, the healing power of art, and the importance of embracing what moves you, The Dylanologists is juicy artfully told and an often moving chronicle of the ecstasies and depravities of obsession (New York Daily News).
Bob Dylan is the most influential songwriter of our time, and, after a half century, he continues to be a touchstone, a fascination, and an enigma. From the very beginning, he attracted an intensely fanatical cult following, and in The Dylanologists, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Kinney ventures deep into this eccentric subculture to answer a question: What can Dylan s grip on his most enthusiastic listeners tell us about his towering place in American culture?
Kinney introduces us to a vibrant underground: diggers searching for unheard tapes and lost manuscripts, researchers obsessing over the facts of Dylan s life and career, writers working to decode the unyieldingly mysterious songs, fans who meticulously record and dissect every concert. It s an affectionate mania, but as far as Dylan is concerned, a mania nonetheless. Over the years, the intensely private and fiercely combative musician has been frightened, annoyed, and perplexed by fans who try to peel back his layers. He has made one thing perhaps the only thing crystal clear: He does not wish to be known.
Told with tremendous insight, intelligence, and warmth, entertaining and well-written The Dylanologists is as much a book about obsession about the ways our fascinations manifest themselves, about how we cope with what we love but don t quite understand as it is a book about a musician and his nutty fans (The Wall Street Journal)."
About the Author
David Kinney is the author of The Dylanologists and The Big One. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, his writing has appeared in newspapers around the world, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.
Review Quotes
1. "Fascinating . . . Illuminating . . . Deeply reported."--John Dickerson, "Slate "
2. "By getting his subjects to talk about the moment, often years past, in which they were swayed by Dylan's music, Kinney humanizes the archetype of the pop junkie. . . . Most of the fans that Kinney talks to aren't fools or stalkers. They have simply developed an usually strong affinity for an artist and his music. . . . Kinney's own fandom seems to have lapsed a bit into skepticism, yet he never mocks the continued devotion of those who still believe."--Ian Crouch, "The New Yorker "
3. ""The Dylanologists" is about people who care deeply about Bob Dylan--some obsessively, following him, studying him, as a central and powerful touchstone of meaning and guidance in their lives. Their fixations might seem quaint, even absurd, but David Kinney allows these people their genuine and hard-earned profundity. As we learn about their lives and thoughts, we also learn about Dylan's, with insights that are compassionate, good-humored, troubling and revelatory, and that feel humane and accurate. This is a valuable and original contribution to the essential literature about a valuable and original artist. It's also an absolutely pleasurable read."--Mikal Gilmore, author of "Shot in the Heart "
4. ""The Dylanologists" is a wonderful book--well written, insightful, and smartly reported. In chronicling Bob Dylan's fans, David Kinney provides a clear-eyed portrait of the artist and the country that created him."--Jonathan Eig, author of "Luckiest Man "
5. "We have come to the metafictional stage of Dylan historiography--books not so much about the man as about his fans, his sources, his very relics. Kinney's is fascinating, from his portrait of a pharmacist who has schemed to purchase not only Dylan's childhood home but his high chair, to fans who somehow appear in the first row at every show. These are spooky sketches of a fringe culture in the twenty-first century, a world that could only exist because of Bob Dylan."--Daniel Mark Epstein, author of "The Ballad of Bob Dylan "
6. Fascinating . . . Illuminating . . . Deeply reported. --John Dickerson, "Slate ""
7. By getting his subjects to talk about the moment, often years past, in which they were swayed by Dylan s music, Kinney humanizes the archetype of the pop junkie. . . . Most of the fans that Kinney talks to aren t fools or stalkers. They have simply developed an usually strong affinity for an artist and his music. . . . Kinney s own fandom seems to have lapsed a bit into skepticism, yet he never mocks the continued devotion of those who still believe. --Ian Crouch, "The New Yorker ""
8. "The Dylanologists" is about people who care deeply about Bob Dylan some obsessively, following him, studying him, as a central and powerful touchstone of meaning and guidance in their lives. Their fixations might seem quaint, even absurd, but David Kinney allows these people their genuine and hard-earned profundity. As we learn about their lives and thoughts, we also learn about Dylan s, with insights that are compassionate, good-humored, troubling and revelatory, and that feel humane and accurate. This is a valuable and original contribution to the essential literature about a valuable and original artist. It s also an absolutely pleasurable read. --Mikal Gilmore, author of "Shot in the Heart ""
9. "The Dylanologists" is a wonderful book well written, insightful, and smartly reported. In chronicling Bob Dylan s fans, David Kinney provides a clear-eyed portrait of the artist and the country that created him. --Jonathan Eig, author of "Luckiest Man ""
10. We have come to the metafictional stage of Dylan historiography books not so much about the man as about his fans, his sources, his very relics. Kinney s is fascinating, from his portrait of a pharmacist who has schemed to purchase not only Dylan s childhood home but his high chair, to fans who somehow appear in the first row at every show. These are spooky sketches of a fringe culture in the twenty-first century, a world that could only exist because of Bob Dylan. --Daniel Mark Epstein, author of "The Ballad of Bob Dylan ""
11. The Dylanologists is about people who care deeply about Bob Dylan some obsessively, following him, studying him, as a central and powerful touchstone of meaning and guidance in their lives. Their fixations might seem quaint, even absurd, but David Kinney allows these people their genuine and hard-earned profundity. As we learn about their lives and thoughts, we also learn about Dylan s, with insights that are compassionate, good-humored, troubling and revelatory, and that feel humane and accurate. This is a valuable and original contribution to the essential literature about a valuable and original artist. It s also an absolutely pleasurable read. --Mikal Gilmore, author of "Shot in the Heart ""
12. The Dylanologists is a wonderful book well written, insightful, and smartly reported. In chronicling Bob Dylan s fans, David Kinney provides a clear-eyed portrait of the artist and the country that created him. --Jonathan Eig, author of "Luckiest Man ""
