Book Review

Love is a Mix Tape

Author: Rob Sheffield

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Cost:Rs. 620

    Part memoir, part music history and part tragedy, Rob Sheffield’s first book Love is a Mix Tape is a  piece of art. The first thing to strike you as unique in the book is the way it is structured. With names of chapters like Rumblefish, Love makes me do foolish things and Glossin’ and flossin’, you are already coaxed to sit up and take notice but what really grabs your attention is the entire playlist of mix tapes that precedes every chapter. With a detailed Side A and Side B list, these are actual tapes that Rob Sheffield and his late wife used to make for each other. As he later says, “Every mix tape tells a story. Put them together and they add up to the story of life.”

           A rather simple story of boy meets girl and how their love for music brings them together, despite inherent differences in their personalities, gets a poignant rendering in Rob Sheffield’s hands. He gives interesting and real details of their courtship and marriage when they were vibrant, young souls with little money in their pockets but with lots of love in their hearts, for each other and for music. Renee Crist, Sheffield’s “real cool hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl” wife didn’t have a long life as she died at the age of 31 of pulmonary embolism. All she left for her husband were lots of memories in the form of mix tapes. Sheffield then gives an account of how his life changed after Renee’s sudden death which left him floundering as he says, “I had no voice to talk with because she was my whole language.”

             You would expect a very sappy tone to continue in the book but that’s where Sheffield’s genius lies. Instead of being self-indulgent and depressing even for a moment, he opts for a exalted and refreshing tone. In very simple words, all he wants the readers to know is how awesome his wife Renee was, how much we would have enjoyed her company just as he did and how music is the only thing through which he can relive her time and again. “She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss. Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!” John Keats in his poem Ode on a Grecian Urn explained that immortality can be achieved when captured through works of art. This is exactly what Rob Sheffield does. He pays an excellent tribute to his wife through this book.

               The only let down in this book might arise if you do not share the knowledge of the bands and singers Sheffield talks about in his book. You might miss the excellent nuances he places all across the book like Easter goodies which you’ll delight to find. But the book is so engaging that I can bet you would be tempted to follow up and listen to all the tracks that are there on Sheffield’s mix tapes. And when you put down the book it will also be tough to resist the strong urge to make someone you love a mix tape yourself.