Never Broken

August 10, 2015
Jewel’s evocative and captivating how-to for living a full and creative life is her second nonfiction book (after 2000’s Chasing Down the Dawn). She aims to help others by honestly sharing her painful journey. Her history includes surviving abuse while growing up in Alaska, being
on her own at 15, and supporting herself through theft on her way to “keeping the good while being willing to see and let go of the bad.” The subtitle of her memoir is that “songs are only half the story” of the singer-songwriter whose 1995 debut album topped the charts. The other half is more than autobiography. Jewel’s writing is conversational poetry, filled with rich details, as she explores her heritage or explains what she taught herself about music, art, and the music business. She sleeps rough, hitchhikes, and survives by busking or living in her car, by turns experiencing money, fame and loneliness, betrayal by her mother, marriage, divorce, and the birth of a much-loved baby. Her book will delight her fans, but can also reach beyond that base to those intrigued by what it takes to be successful after years of plugging away. Jewel’s lyrics, generously included throughout, reflect her authenticity and generosity. This is a solidly good read.

August 15, 2015
A multiplatinum recording artist chronicles her life so far. When Jewel (A Night Without Armor: Poems, 1999, etc.) first broke onto the scene in 1995, few probably looked upon the golden tresses and ethereal beauty staring back at them from the cover of "Pieces of You" and thought: "hard-assed Alaskan hick." The cherubic voice on the recording suggested a rarified existence rather than the hardscrabbled reality the author actually endured growing up on the fringes of "the fishing village of Homer, Alaska." Jewel was the product of an often cruel and dispassionate father and eccentric and absentee mother. Rather than just focusing on her rise as an artist, her career highlights, or music business machinations, Jewel renders an intimate portrait of a young woman who, although immensely talented, has spent her life "surviving and recovering and problem solving since being a toddler." The autobiography is lushly descriptive, chronicling the author's earliest days on the old "homestead," singing in saloons, busking in Mexico, and later living out of broken-down automobiles while trying to make a living in the music business. The author mines her psyche for the benefit of both herself and anyone else embroiled in profound emotional crisis. Without being intrusive, selected lyrics and poems provide further insight into her worldview. Although critical of both parents, the author reserves the lion's share of her unresolved heartbreak for her mother, who skittered on the periphery of her daughter's autonomous childhood before eventually returning again as the de facto business manager who swiftly plunged the wildly successful singer and songwriter into crushing debt. "I would never get an apology," she writes. "I would never get a hug. And I would have killed for just a hug." A moving musical essay that should strike all the right notes with a wide selection of readers.

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Starred review from September 1, 2015
Alaskan homesteader, singer, and poet Jewel has lived a famous rags-to-riches story and now tells all the painful details of her turbulent life in this appealing memoir. Building off well-known anecdotes about her bar-singing childhood, she reveals years of abuse and abandonment at the hands of her damaged father and seemingly free-spirited yet actually epically manipulative mother. Fans will be impressed by the singer's tenacity and most likely shocked by the levels to which her mother sank to control her and her hard-earned fortune. Jewel spares no one here, most especially herself, as she chronicles her struggle to earn a living, regain control of her finances, and maintain her marriage to rodeo star Ty Murray. Throughout this compelling chronicle, she pauses to reveal the context of the creation of some of her most-loved songs and shares several new poems. Her determination to carve out a happy life in the midst of so much conflict is admirable, and her honesty is both bracing and appreciated. A soul is not a teacup, she writes. It is not a chair. It cannot be broken. Jewel's life is proof of that adage, and her story is sure to inspire.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)