(Chicago Review Press)

www.chicagoreviewpress.com

This book, originally published in 1981, has been updated twice; in 1993, following a resurgence of interest in Cline due to the singer's biopic, Sweet Dreams, and this current edition, which features a new afterword. Author Ellis Nassour's elicited the cooperation of many who knew Cline - family, friends, fellow musicians - and has constructed a detailed portrait of this complex and contradictory artist.

Cline was a veteran of the school of hard knocks, and, sadly, never got to fully enjoy her hard won success before her tragic death at age 30 in a plane crash that also claimed the lives of her manager and two other country stars, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas. She was also a vibrant, colorful personality, and Nassour takes care to present both sides of controversial areas. Such as her marriage to Charlie Dick, which some say was laden with domestic abuse, something largely (though not completely) denied by Dick. Or the extent of her affairs; there are conflicting views on whether or not she was ever romantically involved with her last manager, Randy Hughes (the pilot of the plane that fateful night). Controversy continues to this day; the new afterword discusses the various lawsuits that have flown among family members in the last decade, as well as speculations about who Cline's true father may have been.

Unlike other biographies of musicians, Nassour covers Cline's music as well, though he's occasionally gushy in his critiques. He also uses a lot of reconstructed conversations, which come off as self-consciously stagy, and overall, the other major Cline bio, Margaret Jones' Patsy, has much smoother prose. Still, Honky Tonk Angel is a decent introduction to Cline, her music, and a look at how country music eventually breached the mainstream - due in no small part to Cline's music. GILLIAN G. GAAR