Stations of the Cross

I finished the third of three autobiographies in the past month:  Carole King, Frank Langella and now Greg Allman.  I find myself asking this question:  “What am I looking for that can’t be found on Wiki?”

I mentioned in my Langella review that I preferred the writer sorting his or her life by impact rather than chronology.  Greg falls into the latter category.  If you follow ABB like I do, you know the origins and changes to band members.  Celebrity headlines, whether you avidly follow those kinds of magazines or not, have bombarded the public with tales of his marriages and substance abuse.  So what did I want to find in the book?

Personal insight.  Especially when the person writing about his life is at least 60, some reflection and self-assessment, if not wisdom, should come across:  why did I do these things, who got hurt in the process.  Greg’s last paragraph:  “I must have said this a million times, but if I died today, I have had me a blast.  I really mean that – if I fell over dead right not, I have led some kind of life.  I wouldn’t trade it for nobody’s, but I don’t know if I’d do it again.  If somebody offered me a second round, I think I’d have to pass on it.”  That tells me nothing.  Is it just post liver transplant that Greg doesn’t have the physical strength to party hardy.  No one could probably live the same life, but he has no inkling of how to avoid the crises without giving up the successes perforce.

Furthermore, I am left unsettled to how much of the book Greg actually wrote.  A couple of times, he protests about being smart, a "valedictorian" in either grammar or junior high school. (huh?).  His co-author is a man named Alan Light who wrote for Vibe and Spin and is an Ivy League grad.  Which way does the scale tip for you?

Greg plays with one of his song titles for the book, naming it My Cross to Bear, whereas the song is It’s Just Not My Cross to Bear.  His sins are heavy, pride being the greatest unacknowledged one.