I remember when I watched ‘Twin Peaks’ for the first time years ago, I immediately fell in love with the characters and the atmosphere of the show. Intrigued to know who had created this world, I looked up David Lynch and realising that I’d already seen ‘Mulholland Drive’ and ‘Eraserhead’, both of which are fascinating movies, I was willing to find out more about him. Fast forward to autumn of last year, when just by chance I picked up this book in a museum in Maastricht of all places, I thought that this was a biography worth reading for several reasons.
First, although I never read biographies, Lynch’s mind is something that I thought would be an entertaining thing to explore. Second, this is not a standard biography, since it is written in quite a unique way. Every ‘chapter’ of Lynch’s life is divided into two parts, with the first part told by McKenna who provides a very succinct and a somewhat objective account of the main events that took place, as well as adds the perspectives of Lynch’s friends. The second part is written by Lynch himself and, as one would expect, it is more chaotic, but this is where the charm of it lies, since Lynch’s biography is therefore also is told in his own words, with his favourite stories thrown in.
The balance that this approach strikes immediately made me like the book. Although at first it might seem repetitive, since essentially the reader has to read about the same time in Lynch’s life twice, there is not that much overlap, since the style of writing of the two is so very distinct and also because Lynch focuses on very different aspects of the same stories.
Because I have never reviewed a biography before and don’t ever read any, I didn’t really know how to approach this review, since I can’t exactly critique someone’s life story. What I can say, however, is that reading about artistic, creative personalities is always interesting, whether it is in fiction or in the form of a biography, and Lynch’s tenacity in pursuing every possible artistic endeavour under the sun (from film to music, to furniture design among other things) certainly makes it an exciting read. More than that, his need to be involved in these projects and the ideas that he is able to come up with are truly impressive feats. A quote which I think best describes this, as told by one of his friends, goes as follows:
We were once shooting a commercial at Point Dume in Malibu, and the call time was six in the morning […] David and I drove out there together and arrived a bit early and the sun’s not up yet. David wanted the sand flat and very organized, so these PAs are out there raking the sand, and David runs out and starts raking the sand with them! There he is, the director, raking the sand in the dark. It was so David, so about who he is, and his respect for other people, and his love for that homespun filmmaking experience. What I’ve learned from him about life and filmmaking and how to treat other people is something I can’t put a value on.
My only critique of this book is quite ironically also linked to the reason why I liked it so much. While I truly enjoyed having the double-perspective approach, the fact that Lynch was involved in producing this book, also means that there is very little in the book that can be seen as unfavourable towards him, which as a result creates the impression that Lynch is the greatest human being who has every lived. That might be the case, since it is quite a subjective assessment, but it doesn’t really make the book very realistic, since every single person has their flaws. And the only one which was really touched upon was Lynch’s many affairs, and even that was hardly mentioned as a flaw, rather it was portrayed more so as a character trait.
Nevertheless, I really liked this biography and would recommend it. It is very long, but if you are familiar with even a fraction of Lynch’s work, you are bound to enjoy it, since it is full of stories which would make anyone laugh and it can be a great source for motivation because his resilience and constant desire to pursue his creative dreams are truly inspirational achievements. To conclude, here is one of my favourite stories from the book, this one being about a show that Lynch did, because I think it perfectly encapsulates both Lynch’s way of telling his stories and also his outlandish artistic pursuits:
Part of the show was this skinned deer played by John Bell that was twelve or thirteen feet tall. He’s got big antlers and he’s on stilts that are wrapped in rubber that looks like skin and he’s got hooves at the bottom of the stilts and he doesn’t have any fur because he’s a skinned deer. The people I worked with there made all this stuff. It’s un-fuckin’-real what they did! Two hospital gurneys are strapped together, and at the opening of the show the skinned deer is lying on these gurneys. […] John Bell was a stilt-walker and he’s playing the deer, so he’s inside this costume lying down and it’s warm in there. All of a sudden there’s a point in the show where these workmen wearing hard hats come rushing out with these yellow light bulbs that they’re waving and twirling around the deer, who comes to life and stands up. And he’s huge. The deer starts walking and little Mike is down there with a searchlight lighting him up, so the guy on stilts has this blinding light shining in his eyes and the blood rushing from his head because he’s been lying there for a long time, and he starts tilting forward and falling into the orchestra pit. The guy on the snare drum caught him. Half the audience thought this was horrible, and the other half thought it was part of the show. So it’s time for the second show, and the fuckin’ deer won’t come out of his dressing room.
I give this book four out of five wine bottles.
Books and wine. 