I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive : : On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton / / Lynn Melnick.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2022 English
• VerfasserIn: Melnick, Lynn,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: American Music Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (276 p.)

When everything fell apart for Lynn Melnick, she went to Dollywood. It was perhaps an unusual refuge. The theme park, partly owned by and wholly named for Dolly Parton, celebrates a country music legend who grew up in church and in poverty in rural Tennessee. Yet Dollywood is exactly where Melnick—a poet, urbanite, and daughter of a middle-class Jewish family—needed to be. Because Melnick, like the musician she adores, is a survivor. In this bracing memoir, Melnick explores Parton’s dual identities as feminist icon and objectified sex symbol—identities that reflect the author’s own fraught history with rape culture and the grueling effort to reclaim her voice in the wake of loss and trauma. Each chapter engages with the artistry and cultural impact of one of Parton’s songs, as Melnick reckons with violence, creativity, parenting, abortion, sex work, love, and the consolations and cruelties of religion. Guided by Parton’s music, Melnick walks the slow path to recovery in the company of those who came before her and stand with her, as trauma is an experience both unique and universal. Candid and discerning, I’ve Had to Think Up a Way to Survive is at once a memoir and a love song—a story about one life and about an artist who has brought life to millions.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction. Seven Bridges Road -- Chapter One. Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That -- Chapter Two. Steady as the Rain -- Chapter Three. The Seeker -- Chapter Four. Here You Come Again -- Chapter Five. Jolene -- Chapter Six. The Grass Is Blue -- Chapter Seven. Coat of Many Colors -- Chapter Eight. Islands in the Stream -- Chapter Nine. Do I Ever Cross Your Mind -- Chapter Ten. Will He Be Waiting for Me -- Chapter Eleven. Down from Dover -- Chapter Twelve. Silver Dagger -- Chapter Thirteen. Don’t Think Twice -- Chapter Fourteen. I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby -- Chapter Fifteen. Little Sparrow -- Chapter Sixteen. 9 to 5 -- Chapter Seventeen. Two Doors Down -- Chapter Eighteen. Put a Little Love in Your Heart -- Chapter Nineteen. Blue Smoke -- Chapter Twenty. The Bargain Store -- Chapter Twenty-one. The Story -- Acknowledgments. I Will Always Love You -- References and Resources