THE BOOK NOOK

Shepard fan. Former Rolling Stone editor Greenfield is pursuing a brilliantly enigmatic, mythmaking subject that was elusive – even to himself. Sam Shepard wrote a lot, he wrote very well, and a lot of what he wrote was somewhat biographic. There are times when it seems like Greenfield gets lost in the weeds of distinguishing himself from his predecessors by pulling back the curtain on every last bit of myth behind the man.

At its best, the book captures the dazzling variety of moments of opportunity and collaboration that shaped Sam Shepard’s career. A fiercely brave and excavating American playwright in the tradition of Samuel Beckett, a musician who collaborated with the likes of Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, an iconic yet vulnerable actor who held his own opposite Ellen Burstyn, Diane Keaton and Jessica Lange, Shepard was an extremely talented man.