Reckless, Chrissie Hynde
Reckless, Chrissie Hynde
2 Rating(s)
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

Reckless
My Life as a Pretender

Author: Chrissie Hynde

Narrator: Rosanna Arquette

Unabridged: 8 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/08/2015

Synopsis

From Chrissie Hynde, one of rock’s most iconic, alluring, kick-ass, and (let’s face it) sexy women, a brilliant, no-holds-barred memoir of a rock life lived to the hilt. Chrissie Hynde, the songwriter and frontwoman of The Pretenders in its various incarnations, has for thirty-five years been one of the most admired and adored and imitated figures in rock. This long-awaited memoir tells her life story in full and utterly fascinating detail, from her all-American Ohio fifties childhood to her classic baby-boomer seduction by the rock of the sixties to her sojourn in the crucible of punk that was seventies London to her instant emergence with her band, The Pretenders, in 1980 into stardom as a frontwoman and songwriter. She brings a fantastic eye for detail, a withering and sardonic sense of humor, and a fearless and sometimes naked emotional honesty to her memoir, and every line, every word of it is unmistakably hers. It is sure to be recognized as a classic of rock literature—and, man, is it fun to listen to.

About The Author

Chrissie Hynde is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known as the lead singer of the enduring rock band The Pretenders. Hynde released nine studio albums with The Pretenders, beginning with 1980’s Pretenders, which Rolling Stone called the #13 Best Debut Album of All Time. Most recently, she released her first solo album, Stockholm, in 2014. She lives in London.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Andy on September 19, 2015

Very disappointing. I really wanted to enjoy this as Hynde is one of my favourite rock stars. There are some great stories in here and an insight into a massive decade or so of rock history. But it's poorly structured, poorly written and fragmented. In short, it needs the firm hand of a good editor.......more

Goodreads review by StMargarets on July 16, 2019

How is this woman still alive? Why are: drugs random sex with strangers hook ups with friends the song-writing process transatlantic journeys the punk scene So boring? Honestly, the author name drops, tells it like it is without artifice, but it's just not very interesting. Very few people go from under......more

Goodreads review by Ed on November 17, 2019

Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll pretty much sum up what Chrissie Hynde's memoir covers. I like her music with the Pretenders and remember listening to their hits on my car radio while I was commuting to work. She writes with engaging prose, irreverent wit, and manic energy. In short, she delivers just......more

Goodreads review by Barry on September 22, 2015

For someone who wrote such precise and insightful lyrics in her songs and who has such a thoughtful and well-observed memoir it comes as a slight shock that Chrissie Hynde's opinion of her younger self seems to be a person who hadn't the slightest interest in writing, history, or education but was a......more

Goodreads review by Randee on July 21, 2021

I never cared for Chrissie Hynde or the Pretenders. Never liked their music and got the impression that she was arrogant and mean mouthed. (I love to read bios on people I love and people I dislike......either end of the spectrum...the middle is what bores me.) I will never like their music but my o......more

Quotes

Praise for Reckless:

“Chrissie Hynde’s autobiography, Reckless, out-rocks them all. You can read her book and wax nostalgic about band culture in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Or you can promptly check yourself into rehab. She wouldn’t care; as she writes in the prologue, 'I regret half of this story and the other half is the sound you heard.' .... Rock on, Chrissie.”
—Sibbie O'Sullivan, The Washington Post
 
“Chrissie Hynde serves up a hearty and satisfying meal in Reckless, writing with the sort of candor and humor rarely found in books by her male counterparts…. In the end, it’s understandable that Hynde has some regrets, but it’s also heartening that bad girls sometimes finish first.”
—Mark Shanahan, The Boston Globe
 
"Restless and emphatic... a tell-all memoir (and) given all Ms. Hynde has to tell, it’s sharp, posturing, moving, exposing, evasive and at times obtuse."
—Lavinia Greenlaw, The Wall Street Journal
 
"Reckless is the literary equivalent of a long set of bangs, obscuring a heavily shaded pair of eyes. As a portrait of an era, it's fascinating."
—Julia Feslenthal, Vogue.com

"'Chaos and disorder were to be ongoing themes for me with a mouth that flapped like a rag nailed to a post in a windstorm,' Hynde writes. That mouth, literally and figuratively, is what has made Hynde famous. It's the hole out of which that beautiful burr of a voice comes. And if she still has a tendency to shoot her mouth off recklessly, well, that's Chrissie. Maybe Reckless should come with a trigger warning: Caution: Violent scenes, lousy judgments, internalized misogyny and great rock 'n' roll ahead."
—Evelyn McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

"A sensitive and rowdy coming-of-age-story."
—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
 
“Frank and witty… Hynde’s story contains no shortage of eye-popping hi-jinx and hilarious missteps which, together, give the reader a stunningly clear idea of the character at hand.  Hynde's writing style might also be described as classically masculine. It's hard-boiled enough to suit Sam Spade, and her book snaps with wit.”
—Jim Farber, New York Daily News

“Rich and ragged .... The memoir is certainly candid; you would expect nothing less of the songwriter who laid down lines like 'I just feel pity when you lie, contempt when you cry.' .... [Hynde] writes just like she lives, and just like she makes music. She does it her way, which is an inimitable multiplicity of things: impulsive, untamed, ragged, proud, a little sad around the edges. This is her story.”
—Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Daily Beast.com

“If you think this rocker chick is special, so special, you’ll want to read this book.”
—Billy Heller, New York Post
 
"Fitfully entertaining, surprisingly well-written, Reckless is worth a read."
—Laura Malt Schneiderman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List