Chasing Down The Dawn: Amazon.ca: Jewel: Books

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A Night Without Armor: Poems

by Jewel

3.4 out of 5 stars (407) CDN$ 12.56

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

This highly personal collection of essays, anecdotes and spontaneous statements accompanied by sweet, primitive drawings deals with Jewel's atypical childhood in Alaska, her struggling-musician days and her eventually successful music career, characterized by constant touring and putting up with the consequences of fame. Similar to Jewel's bestselling book of poems (A Night Without Armor), this compendium of prose exhibits a clear, direct, purposefully poignant and, at times, indulgent writing style. Jewel recognizes artistic quality when she sees it and often brings up names and their associations (touring with Bob Dylan, thinking about Italo Calvino's "If" before taking the stage), perhaps in an attempt to connect with them, and to show her admiration. Certainly, Jewel has talent and integrity, and, when she abandons a self-conscious posture, she can offer insights that are fresh and luminescent ("For me, the real beauty of singing is learning to play the instrument I've been given"). Unfortunately, her descriptive writing suffers too frequently from a surfeit of sentiment ("Do I like the dream I've dreamed or have I begun to feel like a prisoner of the dream?"). Jewel's name will carry this book a long wayAas will the catchy cover, an alluring photo of the poet/ writer on horseback. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

You've heard Jewel's music (her debut disc, Pieces of You, sold ten million copies). You've read her first novel, A Night Without Armor (it went into 15 printings). Now it's time to catch up on her poems, essays, and stories.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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First Sentence
It is nearly winter. Read the first page

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Concordance

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

35 Reviews

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

4.1 out of 5 stars (35 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Jewel's Life and World, Jul 14 2004

By	I ain't no porn writer (author, "Crippled Dreams") - See all my reviews

This is a sort of autobiographical journal by Jewel. She talks about growing up in Alaska, her early beginnigs as a singer, songwriter and musician, and her life on the road on tour. Many personal anecdotes in here which Jewel fans will find interesting. You'll get a good sense of how Jewel thinks and feels about her rise to fame, and just about things in general, including past events and memories which she recounts from her life. And yes, she's very intuitive and thinks a lot. The book is illustrated throughtout with Jewel's simple and delightful little drawings. There are also lots of beautiful photos in this book.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

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2.0 out of 5 stars Chasing Down The Dawn, Mar 1 2004

By	Karen Unglaub (Lebanon, ME USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Chasing Down The Dawn (by Jewel Kilcher) Reader Review
Harper Entertainment, 2000
Reviewer: Karen Unglaub from Noble High School, North Berwick, Maine.
The autobiography Chasing Down the Dawn, by Jewel Kilcher, is notes and paragraphs about Jewel's life from when she was 10 until she was 18. It tells about her parent's divorce and how it was a total shock. How she and her 2 older brothers and her dad moved far away, leaving there mother standing sobbing. All to start a new life, and get on with the old one. She and her father would go into clubs and sing together a few times a week. Jewel met a few, lot of unusual people, but they helped open her eyes to the variety of life. She would talk amongst the men and women, and they gave her respect, because she was a very mature young lady. She writes a lot of short poems that are separate from the usual text; she includes a lot of her own drawings in the autobiography too.
She encounters first love, and leaves him. She always needed more than just a boyfriend to pretend to love her. She thought she was in love with him. She was only in love with the idea of being in love, and had to leave him to find her real prince in shinning Armour. (She has also a book of poems, A Night Without Armour) Her father began going to bars quite frequently to sing and meet ladies. She would accompany him and sing by his side on stage. Her father protected her from ridicule.
Not until she was sixteen, that she ventures out into bars all alone to sing and earn her way out of poverty, for just one day. She made just enough money to cover her bus tickets food and then she kept the left over few dollars, and used it for what she had to. Her father trusted her and knew that she was very mature, and allowed her to go out on her own and experience club life of her own. She got gigs, because she was cute, refreshing and had a folk style that was different than the grunge that was in that era. Her name finally was spreading around the cities, and she was signed to a label to make an album, and go on tour. She now was getting noticed in the street, while she was trying to write in peace and quite. It would frustrate her; she had pressure from the label to keep writing all of her new songs. She liked to write about people, so she would watch people on the street, and jot down poems and phrases. It got so hard once she was getting recognized, because she lived to stay in the hidden and watch from the sides. Now she couldn't look at them secretly, because they were already looking at her!
She would go back home to Alaska, and feel very uncomfortable; her father would want her to join the village's hot shower outside. That was held at her house. They made a shower. She would not join. She would go after. They also had to share a phone line too. She would share it with 7 different families, and she felt that they were always eavesdropping. Also of the other hand, she felt most relaxed at home after she felt the most relaxed at home, in her fathers many acres. She was free to write and not be noticed by anyone at all, except the cattle. She got accustomed to famous life, and was thankful. The autobiography leaves off with her talking about life. "Life is all about rhythm... And Time is not a line, it's a loop."
Strengths
This autobiography is very detailed and had many poems that provide a deeper insight about her life. The book does what it should; it invites you into her life, shows you around and lets you out with a goodbye. This book has many photographs. It shows the good and the bad. Life on the road without makeup after being awake for 20 hours. And her in a field laying in the grass with one of her many horses. She shows pictures of life in the city, and life in the country. It shows random people, and her most loved ones. She includes a lot of her own art in the book too. She draws pictures of naked women, that are bearing their souls, nothing to hide and completely honest and pure.
Weaknesses
The autobiography is not in chronological order. It bounces from thought to thought, as her mind does. She questions herself, and contradicts herself quite often, and left me still to wonder how she is feeling. The only feeling I can conclude is confusion, much like I was when I read the book. She touches on subjects that she never went back to, but it kept you wondering, much like life does. Aside from the normal text, I liked the format of the book. The font was big enough to read, and wasn't boring. It had a different look to it; you didn't feel like you were reading a "boring book for English class". But the format was also mixed up; it would jump from a chapter to a whole bunch of pictures in the middle of nowhere, but an interesting experience. Looking at the experience of reading this, I think that it mad me look more at the world and what feelings that I am going through, and that everyone is different, but more the same.

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5.0 out of 5 stars --- Explore Jewel ---, Dec 16 2003

By	Secretgardener - See all my reviews

I'm sorry if my English is not as good as yours, I'm from Germany, but I have the english version of this premium book.
If you don't know Jewel I'd rather say you: don't buy this book. It describes Jewels life on tour, her homeland, Alaska. It's not as cold as many people think, it's a nice, natural piece of earth, at reading it I fall in love with it a little.
In this book there are some very nice pics of her family (all seems to be cowboys) and Alaska.
It also describes the bad sides of her life. For example what happened to her teenage love, I had to read it again to be sure. Or the lose of her best friend Jacqui, which had a explanation of the religions of the world that is the best I ever heard.
There are too some paintings of Jewel that are pretty sweet.

It's good that you have the original version of her books. I have the book "A night without armour" in a version English, german. And that's sometimes really bad translated.

If you really want to know something about Jewel BUY IT!
And if you think: Great woman, forget it! Her boyfriend is a rodeochamp.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully intimate...
When I purchased the video "Jewel: A Life Uncommon," I was disappointed. However, I found what I was searching for in her book "Chasing Down the Dawn. Read more

Published on Jun 20 2003 by S.R.W. Phillips

3.0 out of 5 stars nothing special, but somewhat interesting
Reading the reviews about this book, I found most to fall into two categories: 5 star reviews by people who like Jewel, and 1 star reviews by people who do not. Read more

Published on Mar 25 2003 by Joe Sherry

5.0 out of 5 stars Showing She's Only Human...
I have just recently finished this book; I think it is just amazing how a person can choose to be so open and honest about the positives and the negatives in their life. Read more

Published on Mar 4 2003 by John D. Leonard

5.0 out of 5 stars Showing She's Only Human...
I have just recently finished this book; I think it is just amazing how a person can choose to be so open and honest about the positives and the negatives in their life. Read more