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A review by gabsalott13
A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston by Robyn Crawford
2.0
Welp.........
1. Loved her inclusion of different moments of musical history and song-based lessons she was a part of thanks to Whitney.
2. Robyn has an uncanny ability to use small experiences she remembered to show the larger destructive patterns many people in this story engaged in
3. However, while she is all too happy to share about the destructive patterns of everyone else in Whitney’s life, it sometimes feels like she is unrealistically casting herself as the “hero” of this story, and the only one who ever did right by Whitney.
5. There’s no use in speculating about someone’s sexuality from the grave, but Robyn’s story surely feels like the “I fell for a straight girl” narrative, except over several decades as opposed to the usual semester in high school/college. There’s clear animosity for both people’s partners, and I was just sad and uncomfortable for the both of them!!
6. THE DETAIL FOR STORIES SHE DID NOT HEAR IS TOOOOOO MUCH! At some points, especially in the later years, it feels like she was grasping at straws (mainly, secondhand stories from Silvia) to continue to tell Whitney’s life story in the years when they had drifted apart.
7. It’s partially clear that they drifted apart because honestly, in the later years, she has few encouraging things to say about Whitney—this seems particularly critical given their *joint* drug use for so many years!! For all Robyn’s concern about the leeches in Whitney’s life, her memoir portrays a similar lack of respect (and nuance) for Whitney in her later years. There is no real attempt to try and see some of the positive moments she may have had despite her struggles with addiction, and maybe this is just because Robyn was no longer around to witness those positive moments.
8. It is completely fine—perhaps even healthier for Robyn—that they’d gone their separate ways. I just wish she’d stuck to the 7-or-so-year run when it seems they were incredibly close, instead of reaching and regurgitating and hypothesizing to meet the page requirements of her book deal. It’s okay if she had a young adulthood with Whitney Houston, and not a life with her. However, I think this book falls flat in large part because Robyn refuses to acknowledge this distinction.
9. People can grow up in many ways, and I think Robyn was only able to see the negative ways Whitney grew, because she was not the same teenager she met in East Orange, the same person she had all these amazing memories with. In the end, Robyn’s biases against all of Whitney’s potential partners and her impossible longing for the “old Whitney” made it hard for me to respect much of this book.
1. Loved her inclusion of different moments of musical history and song-based lessons she was a part of thanks to Whitney.
2. Robyn has an uncanny ability to use small experiences she remembered to show the larger destructive patterns many people in this story engaged in
3. However, while she is all too happy to share about the destructive patterns of everyone else in Whitney’s life, it sometimes feels like she is unrealistically casting herself as the “hero” of this story, and the only one who ever did right by Whitney.
5. There’s no use in speculating about someone’s sexuality from the grave, but Robyn’s story surely feels like the “I fell for a straight girl” narrative, except over several decades as opposed to the usual semester in high school/college. There’s clear animosity for both people’s partners, and I was just sad and uncomfortable for the both of them!!
6. THE DETAIL FOR STORIES SHE DID NOT HEAR IS TOOOOOO MUCH! At some points, especially in the later years, it feels like she was grasping at straws (mainly, secondhand stories from Silvia) to continue to tell Whitney’s life story in the years when they had drifted apart.
7. It’s partially clear that they drifted apart because honestly, in the later years, she has few encouraging things to say about Whitney—this seems particularly critical given their *joint* drug use for so many years!! For all Robyn’s concern about the leeches in Whitney’s life, her memoir portrays a similar lack of respect (and nuance) for Whitney in her later years. There is no real attempt to try and see some of the positive moments she may have had despite her struggles with addiction, and maybe this is just because Robyn was no longer around to witness those positive moments.
8. It is completely fine—perhaps even healthier for Robyn—that they’d gone their separate ways. I just wish she’d stuck to the 7-or-so-year run when it seems they were incredibly close, instead of reaching and regurgitating and hypothesizing to meet the page requirements of her book deal. It’s okay if she had a young adulthood with Whitney Houston, and not a life with her. However, I think this book falls flat in large part because Robyn refuses to acknowledge this distinction.
9. People can grow up in many ways, and I think Robyn was only able to see the negative ways Whitney grew, because she was not the same teenager she met in East Orange, the same person she had all these amazing memories with. In the end, Robyn’s biases against all of Whitney’s potential partners and her impossible longing for the “old Whitney” made it hard for me to respect much of this book.