Composed

Rosanne Cash pens a thoughtful memoir about growing up Cash and finding her own road.

I was inspired to read Rosanne Cash’s memoir, Composed, after listening to a moving NPR interview by Michele Norris (Rosanne Cash: Her Life, “Composed”), and I was just enthralled. Cash is an amazing writer—honest and eloquent. In her memoir she offers an unflinching look at moments that deeply affected her with insight into her relationships with her parents (Johnny Cash and Vivian Cash Distin), marriage and divorce, the births of (and her awe at) her children—not to mention the ups and downs of her musical career, the temporary loss of her voice and brain surgery. All of it is written beautifully—sometimes with resignation, contrition, or even with a wicked sense of humor (such as in the hours leading up to her surgery when she told the nurse she was in for liposuction)—and often reflecting the lingering grief over the loss of so many important people in so little time between 2003 and 2005—June Carter Cash, Johnny, her stepsister Rosie Nix Adams, and finally her mother Vivian on Rosanne’s fiftieth birthday. This is a fascinating and moving read.