The Fiddler Is a Good Woman

by Geoff Berner

A biography that doesn’t quite exist, about a violinist who can’t be found, as told by people who don’t agree on much.


Novelist Geoff Berner has been tasked with writing a biography of DD, a mysterious, charismatic, chimerical musician who has, it seems, dropped off the face of the earth. In the course of his search for DD, Berner interviews her friends, ex-bandmates, ex-lovers, and others. They paint such variable portraits of her that each successive attempt to describe her casts doubt on the previous testimony. As his project is taken over by the lively, infuriating, entertaining tales, a wounded, gifted, and complex DD starts to emerge from all the eyewitness accounts and swear-to-God true stories.


Who is DD? Where did she go? And why didn’t that book get written? Travel through a world of knockabout musicians and chancers, on the trail of an inimitable artist who truly lives in the moment, for better or worse.

• ISBN10: 1459737083
• ISBN13: 9781459737082
• Publish Date: 21 December 2017 (first published 14 October 2017)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: CA
• Imprint: Dundurn Group Ltd
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 232
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Set up as collected series of interviews, snippets, letters, and recollections, this book is an oddly put together memoir and mystery.

The titular fiddler DD is at the center of a constantly shifting cast of varied characters who want to mother her, protect her, exploit her and/or sleep with her. All of them want something from her. In the end, she disappears off the face of the earth and the author tries to find her later, hence the interviews and stories.

It's an interesting twist to a memoir. It left me feeling quite sad about the level of exploitation and debauchery the author attributes to the traveling musicians on the folk/country circuit. I don't doubt some of the stories and incidents in the book have some vague factual basis, he certainly writes very convincingly. I've read a number of reviews (after reading the book) from folks who were horrified about the things related in the book. If graphic descriptions of drug use or sex or generally disreputable and irresponsible behavior upset you, it's not the book for you.

I found it sad, but very well written and worth reading. It did make me laugh out loud several times, kudos for that.

Four stars

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.