Review(s) of Petal Pusher

[kgp]

Stumbled upon this one from This Book Is For You a few days ago.

[nowwesayitoutloud]

Stumbled on this one while Googling "lindeen review petal pusher":

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly (April 9 ... sorry if already posted)
Starred Review. Sharp and sensitive, stoned silly and serious, all in the right places, Lindeen's account of her life as guitarist and songwriter for Zuzu's Petals is a love song (played really fast) for the postpunk or Amer-indie scene of mid-1980s Minneapolis, when bands like the Replacements and Soul Asylum had yet to move from cult heroes to major-label artists. It was also the time when Lindeen, a music-loving, four-time college dropout with multiple sclerosis, could guilelessly decide to "start a band and make that exciting life of song and guitar feedback, travel and intrigue, carousing and cavorting our own." What Lindeen finds at first is fulfillment and self-confidence on stage, and at the end a hard cycle of "drive, eat, go to a bar for sound check, hang out, play" that leads to her breaking up the band. In between, along with some touching scenes from her youth, Lindeen skillfully details great and not-so-great gigs, horrible hotels, wonderful (if weird) fans, boyfriends and all sorts of strange events and locations ("The walls are covered with black Astroturf"). After paying her dues, Lindeen finds love and marriage in ex-Replacements leader Paul Westerberg, which brings it all back home for her—and her readers—in what is a truly wonderful book about life in rock music.

[Placemat]

So, I do all my book shopping at a local Mom & Pop store (rare breed nowadays). I'm always pre-ordering stuff & put "Petal Pusher" on my list of wants.

I got a call yesterday that another book I ordered was in, & when I stopped by to pick it up "Petal Pusher" was also waiting.

Surprising since I thought the release date was June (at least that's what the copyright says). I'm about half way through, & so far I'm really enjoying Laurie's book. Tough gal.

I did skip ahead to the epilogue; "Paul and I are married." Guess that finally answers that.

[kgp]

I pre-ordered it from Borders and it has the release date as May 31st. I think Amazon listed it as May 7th.

[Placemat]

So I finished it a couple days ago & liked it a bunch. Pick it up if you haven't yet.

I do have to say, the Paul parts sorta made me feel like a creepy stalker.

[nowwesayitoutloud]

placemat said:

So I finished it a couple days ago & liked it a bunch. Pick it up if you haven't yet.

I do have to say, the Paul parts sorta made me feel like a creepy stalker.

Now if the Paul parts made you feel like a creepy nubile stalker, that would be different.

[nowwesayitoutloud]

Capital Times (Madison, WI)Copyright 2007 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
May 23, 2007

Section: FRONT


A MADISON ROCK 'N' ROLL STORY
Doug Moe
THERE IS a lot of Madison in Laurie Lindeen, which means there is a lot of Madison in her new memoir, "Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story," a work Publishers Weekly touted as "a truly wonderful book about life in rock music."

Lindeen, 45, who now lives in the Twin Cities, grew up in Madison, worked at Ella's Deli, ate and drank at the Plaza and caught live music at Headliners. She lived in a house here with Butch Vig (she was dating his brother). Vig's Garbage bandmate, Steve Marker, gave Lindeen her first guitar.

Lindeen had enjoyed a front-row seat to the rock 'n' roll life without actually being in the rock 'n' roll life. She enjoyed it so much she found herself six years into her four years at UW-Madison without really knowing what she wanted to do.

Actually, she did know, she just hadn't articulated it yet. Lindeen and a buddy, Colleen Elwood, a Madison West grad she met in the UW dorms, had taken to playing music in the basement of their Franklin Street apartment. They played "Wild Thing" so often that when the police showed up, the cop said the neighbors didn't necessarily want them to stop playing, but requested they at least learn another song.

Lindeen had spent her college summers waiting tables on Martha's Vineyard, and in the summer of her 24th year, the entire left side of her body became nearly paralyzed. The diagnosis was multiple sclerosis. She came home to get better, and she did make a remarkable recovery. Still, it was a wake-up call. Life is short, and you never know.

"I decided I was going to go for it," Lindeen was saying Tuesday.

"It" was rock 'n' roll stardom of her own. She moved from Madison to the Twin Cities. She was looking for a big city but not too big a city, and it didn't hurt that Minneapolis in the late 1980s had a thriving music scene. Her friend Colleen Elwood had moved to Chicago, but Lindeen coaxed her up to Minnesota. The two women added a third, Linda Pitmon , and took a name, "Zuzu's Petals," from a classic Jimmy Stewart line in "It's a Wonderful Life."

The band worked hard, toured constantly and built a following. Asked about those days this week, Lindeen gave a short response that speaks a universal truth about the young artist's reward.

"We felt so free," she said.

T he early reviews indicate Lindeen has captured the adventurous spirit of those years in her new memoir.

Cmeron Crowe , t he film director and Rolling Stone magazine alumnus, calls Lindeen "an author who knows how to put her musical soul on every page of this wonderful book. It's a road trip, a diary and a beautiful dance through the elixir-filled rooms where music is made, greatness is courted."

In 1992, Zuzu's Petals put out a well-received album titled "When No One's Looking." It sold a more-than-respectable 40,000 copies. When the band came through Madison, Ben Karlin , a writer who would go on to produce "The Daily Show" for Jon Stewart , wrote in Rhythm of its connection to Madison and noted: "While other all-women outfits have carefully crafted images to go along with their music, Zuzu's Petals has focused on well-written, often beautiful songs with an agreeable edge."

But that lack of a readily definable image may also have hampered the band commercially. A second album, recorded before the songs were really ready, was less successful, and the band broke up. "I was really tired," Lindeen said. "It had become a grind."

She married - musician Paul Westerberg , famous as a member of the Replacements - and had a child. In 1999, not long after her son was born, Lindeen began writing both a novel and the book that became "Petal Pusher."

She credits a fifth-grade teacher at Elvehjem Elementary School in Madison with getting her started writing. (Lindeen later attended Sennett Middle School and La Follette High School.) She wrote many of the highly praised Zuzu's Petals songs. A book, of course, was more daunting. She took creative writing courses at the University of Minnesota and unknowingly used that never-published first novel as what she now calls "my practice book." Having learned her craft, she was ready for "Petal Pusher."

Lindeen gets back to Madison now and again. Her mom, Carol Lindeen , works as a housemother for a Langdon Street sorority. Laurie will be here next month when she signs copies of "Petal Pusher" June 22 at the west side Borders.

She also still plays music, usually solo. Not long ago, Lindeen played a place called Java Jack's in south Minneapolis and was quite taken with the young folk singer who also played that night. His name was Jonathan Delehanty , and he was from, of all places, New Holstein. Lindeen told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Delehanty "has all the bravado, talent and swagger needed to weather the music industry storm."

Laurie Lindeen, having weathered that same storm, would know.

[Wolfdog]

I thought Jodi had posted a review here, but I can't find it.

But here's the link to the one she wrote for Largeheartedboy.com

[mrblasty]

wolfdog said:

I thought Jodi had posted a review here, but I can't find it.

But here's the link to the one she wrote for Largeheartedboy.com

Wow!
Cool review, Jodi! Congratulations on getting it posted on Largehearted Boy. Looks like you've finally hit the big time!

[Smoo]

Congrats, Largehearted Queen.

I felt much the same about the book. Terminating a pregnancy is a horribly personal decision and I didn't like the way she danced around it. She should have probably omitted it if she didn't want to get so personal. But I guess it is her book, her world.
On the other hand, the reason she gets a book deal is because of the band, so dealing with its breakup is the least she could have done. Throw us a bone here.

That being said, I did like the book.

[scoOter]

i just bought the book. it has some pages with words on them. and a hard cover. at first glance, no pictures.

[mrblasty]

scooterboy said:

i just bought the book. it has some pages with words on them. and a hard cover. at first glance, no pictures.

Jodi should have mentioned the lack of pictures in her review. It could saved a lot of disappointment.

[scoOter]

mrblasty said:

scooterboy said:

i just bought the book. it has some pages with words on them. and a hard cover. at first glance, no pictures.

Jodi should have mentioned the lack of pictures in her review. It could saved a lot of disappointment.

everybodyeverybodyeverybodyeverybodyeverybodyeverybodyeverybodyeverybody... i... want my money back.

[zook]

That's awesome Jodi! And well done too - I thought you did a nice job of being constructive and honest while not being negative. Too often people take things the wrong way whenever something is written that is not all gushingly positive. But it is obvious that there were things that you both liked and disliked about the book and I respect that you were honest while also being complementary.

[Monkey]

Very cool review Jodi, nice work!

[A Regular]

what zook said.

its sort of fun to read a review of a review.

[Kathy]

I found an interesting review/article today, from The Daily Reader/Isthmus:

One of the nice things about writing a local book news column is that, more often than you might think, a book comes across my desk with a familiar name on it (e.g. Toby Cecchini’s Cosmopolitan, Judy Merrill Larsen’s All the Numbers) — someone I knew in college who went on to write and publish a book. In the case of Laurie Lindeen, it’s someone I went to grade school with. Lindeen has a big-time book out — Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story (Atria Books), a memoir concerning her years as a woman rocker and adventures in the indie rock world. From my point of view, it’s the story of how a young woman overcomes a youth spent as a La Follette High School cheerleader and goes on to start a rock band, but that’s another story. Actually, that is part of the story. Lindeen sketches her childhood and teen years on Madison’s east side with some spot-on observations of the 1970s, that miserable decade, then moves on to her UW-Madison years in the early ’80s, all in the context of breaking free from the strictures of same as the leader of the all-female indie band Zuzu’s Petals, based in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Much of Petal Pusher concerns the band and the adventures of touring with a low- to no-budget operation, but the heart of the memoir is about trying to find herself creatively amid family and health issues (Lindeen learned she had MS when in her early 20s). Of course, some readers may only be interested in the book because of Lindeen’s husband, singer/songwriter and Replacement Paul Westerberg.

And indeed, Westerberg is part of the story. While Lindeen says she’s more comfortable opening up personally in a public forum than her husband, "neither of us interferes with each other’s creative process." And all of what’s written here concerns events from a long time ago. Early on, Lindeen’s editor said that Westerberg either had to be developed more as a character or dropped altogether, “and that wasn’t going to happen,” she says, with him too much a part of the story to omit.

An English major at the UW-Madison, Lindeen eventually went back to school to get an MFA in creative writing, which she recommends even for older students or someone who’s already a writer, for the community, the lessons in sustaining a longer manuscript and a “couple years of editorial help.”

Certainly the book establishes Lindeen as a restless seeker. She’s currently working on two new books, a collection of narrative essays and something that may be a sequel to Petal Pusher — or what may turn into a work of fiction.

Lindeen will read from and discuss Petal Pusher June 22 at Borders-West.

[kgp]

Early on, Lindeen’s editor said that Westerberg either had to be developed more as a character or dropped altogether, “and that wasn’t going to happen,” she says, with him too much a part of the story to omit.

I agree with this. So the early drafts had him less developed? I think everyone understands that Paul is a very private person, but he's kind of a ghost in the book.

[nowwesayitoutloud]

The plot thickens. Or doesn't. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, "She was told by her editor she had to develop the characters of her parents and husband or cut them from the story":

Memoirs just another challenge for punk rocker

"Madison is a great place to grow up and an excellent place to leave. We've had enough of each other, Madison and me."
So says Laurie Lindeen, the former guitarist-singer-songwriter for the three-woman punk band Zuzu's Petals, in her new book. Now she's also a solo artist, a mother, the wife of Paul Westerberg of Replacements fame and a creative writing teacher. And she's done all of this despite -- actually, in spite of -- receiving the news in her early 20s that she has multiple sclerosis.

"I take on impossible challenges," says Lindeen, 45. "I'm really attracted to them."

And this self-described Madison townie, who now lives in Minneapolis, has written the rock life piece of her story in a new book, "Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story." Her book is filled with unvarnished tales of her life from a nascent basement band to international tours.

Yes, there's plenty of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. But there are also insecurities, mistakes and failures, plus loads of hilarious and bizarre encounters.

The city of Madison unfolds like another character as she grapples with leaving behind her home life and split family to move to Minneapolis.

Take, for example, this description of her East Side neighborhood: "I grew up in a neighborhood inhabited by sulking makers of strange casseroles with inappropriate crunchy things sprinkled on top to divert our attention from the hamburger/cream of mushroom soup goulash that lurked underneath."

Lindeen cites Turner Gymnastics, Sennett Middle School, Kollege Klub, Killdozer and Slichter Hall. As a child growing up on the East Side, she played "Don't Step on Otis Redding" with her friends swimming at Olbrich Beach. (Redding died when his plane crashed into Lake Monona in 1967 and a predominant Madison urban myth was that his body had never been recovered.)

Few last names are given, but it's not hard to figure out that her former roommate, "the Midwestern Warhol" Butch, is

Butch Vig

of Garbage. Or that the "shy, kind, quiet" Steve, who gave Lindeen her first guitar as "something to do" while she struggled with MS, is Vig's bandmate and Smart Studios partner Steve Marker.

She writes of jealousy between bandmates -- which included another Madison native, Coleen Elwood, who Lindeen describes when they meet as having been "a cheerleader at a rival Madison high school (with) a reputation for excessive peppiness," adding, "I went to the bong-hits-before-the-game high school." (She attended La Follette.)

Was it tough to share intimate details?

"For some reason, no," says Lindeen. "The good thing is all of it happened so long ago. There's a whole lot of space. And when you write about something it's clinical -- it becomes freeing."

But not everything in the book came easily. She was told by her editor she had to develop the characters of her parents and husband or cut them from the story. (Her mother, Carol Lindeen, is a housemother to a Langdon Street sorority and works at a Hilldale clothing store.) "Clearly I was hedging," she admits. "These are my three most complex, confusing relationships."

And writing about Westerberg elicits feedback from his fans, some of whom view him as a cult-like icon. Often those reactions are not so friendly. "People like their rock 'n' roll fantasy and here I am deconstructing it," guesses Lindeen. "They don't want to see the guy who snores and leaves his socks all over the house."

Interestingly, she hasn't drawn complaints from anyone for her confession, tantamount to blasphemy in these parts, that she hates the Green Bay Packers. And those negative vibes she had when abandoning the city of her youth have actually come full circle.

"Now I'm really romantic about Madison. I see it as the best place ever," says Lindeen. "I love it and I come back five or six times a year. I even think, from time to time, of moving back."

She'll next visit on June 22, when in addition to eating a Buck's pizza and meeting friends at the Edgewater Pier, she'll read from "Petal Pusher" at Borders, 3750 University Ave., at 7 p.m.

You can ask about the time Carly Simon picked her up hitchhiking, being the opening band on tour with Adam Ant or even her severe stage fright that she says made her intolerable before her gigs.

But go to see Lindeen, not her hubby. "I'm coming by myself. He'll be home doing the child care."

[kgp]

"People like their rock 'n' roll fantasy and here I am deconstructing it," guesses Lindeen. "They don't want to see the guy who snores and leaves his socks all over the house."

I would have been fine with Paul snoring and leaving his socks all over the house. I think she underestimates the fans. Most of us know there's a real guy in there, separate from "Paul the rock icon." I would have been okay, too, with Paul completely out of the story, if it would have made it a better book.