Travels with Loreena McKennitt: My Life as a Friend Paperback – 31 Mar 2007

It always amazes me how slender some people's writing skills need to be before they consider themselves writers, and no doubt this cynically titled book, Travels with Loreena McKennitt: My Life As A Friend is just one of thousands of self-published efforts destined for the grungy end of the dustbin.

As a self-avowed Buddhist and "capitalist hippy", Ms Ash's writing career can be summed up in the three books she's written, of which the last two are self published or, as they say in some quarters, "vanity press" affairs. Her first book follows her travels in Tibet, and is adequately written; those who have never been there would find much of interest in it. But her subsequent two books, sadly, read like the work of someone obsessed with others' celebrity-hood. She may be somebody's true and loyal friend, but you'd never know it from these works.

In her last two books, she revels in her connections with the rich, famous and well-known: the Bee Gees, Leonard Cohen, Irving Layton, Moses Znaimer and Bob Dylan. The kiss-and-tell salacious accounts in her previous book Travels With My Daughter, like her latest, can hardly be considered anything close to serious literature or worthy of critical review. Its pretext is the notion of travelling with her daughter, but soon the real intention is known: in short, Ms Ash knows famous and accomplished people and wants you to be impressed by the company she keeps. And like a peacock looking for an audience for which to strut its feathers, she betrays those friendships when her own talent fails her. While it is clear she has little respect or regard for other people's reputations, she has even less for her own.

In Travels with Loreena McKennitt, unsuspecting fans of Loreena McKennitt are lured into believing they are about to get the real goods behind a woman who is renowned for her generosity and desire for privacy. The reader is then taken on a tedious account of Ms Ash's life on the road, her self-aggrandising view of her importance to McKennitt's career and her grievances with the artist - all common features, it must be said, of the self-serving accounts of hangers-on of the famous. Indeed, Ash's particular grievances -- real or, as one eventually suspects, largely imagined -- take up the last weary hundred pages of a 327 page book ending with her version of a falling out which arises over Ms Ash' partner's employment by the singer and then over some money she loaned them to buy a house.

Ultimately, this reader would prefer to watch paint dry. This isn't the first such extended back-stab disguised as a book, and it won't be the last, but it's hardly compelling fare whether you are a fan of Loreena McKennitt or not. Certainly creativity has not been well served, unless it has been the disingenuous manner in which Ash feigns being a friend while doing an awfully good impression of a vengeful parasite. If you ever suspected that behind every successful person lies a few jealous hangers-on carping behind his or her back, here's another bit of proof.

Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that this work is written by someone who piously states that the singer could count on Ms Ash for her "unqualified loyalty", while displaying anything but. To readers who think they are going to get an insightful, balanced and interesting view of the woman whose music they love, it proves to be a testimony to the adage "don't ever loan money to friends ... or hire them." Especially if they purport to be writers.

With a keen eye on the capital Ms Ash can derive from using McKennitt's name in the title and quite possibly written under the careful tutelage of legal friends, this is a thinly veiled exercise of vengeance. Reader beware! If you want to learn about Loreena McKennitt, you won't find what you're looking for here. Stick to the records.

It pains me to think that a living tree died to create this trash I would not even use as toilet paper if I were absolutely desperate.

I'm glad Loreena McKennitt won the privacy suit against Ms. Ash. The book was poorly written, redundant, and an utter waste of time. I wish I could sue Ms. Ash for the hour and a half it took me to finish while in a doctors office. Thank god I didn't pay for this thing or I'd be really upset.

This book is nothing more than a long, tedious romp down Ms. Ash's own petty ego of broken dreams and leech-like clinging to those with fame. Its really sad how far some people will go to suckle at the crumbs of others - and how vicious they can be when they are cast off like the parasites they are.

I'd advise any true fan of Ms. McKennitt to avoid this bit of rubbish. It is nothing you'd care to waste your time on. Instead, buy Ms. McKennitt's new CD "An Ancient Muse" on sale here at Amazon. It is a MUCH nicer way to spend time with the legend herself!

"Ash says she cannot afford to pay the court costs and will declare bankruptcy. Alternatively, she is considering filing an appeal, on grounds that the proceedings were unfair. McKennitt was represented at trial by lawyers affiliated with Carter-Ruck, one of London's most prestigious firms. Ash had used up a £100,000 libel insurance policy preparing for the case and was forced to represent herself at the hearing." -- The Globe and Mail.

Tee hee!

If you don't understand why I think it is shameful for Amazon to list this book, please go to Loreena Mckennitt's website and read the UK Privacy page. It will make clear that not only was this book written in a spiteful and untrue way, but the actual AUTHOR of the book has agreed not to publish it again or ever to talk about her relationship with the author. It's a real shame that some people won't let talented musicians have a private life and I'm very disappointed by Amazon for even listing such a horrible book.

How many of us have come to know and even befriend people for whom we'd hate to work, or to whom we'd hate to be indebted? This is a moving story about friends who did business together and discovered the hard way that business and friendship can be a recipe for disaster. In this case, financial power and a false sense of her own stardom make a monster of McKennitt, allowing her to self-righteously break spoken promises and friendly understandings with a rare viciousness. This book portrays the Celtic harpist (known for her lyrics of peace and friendship) as a hypocritical primadonna. She consistently abuses then attacks her closest friends with a blind ire, shockingly pursuing them with an intent to ruin not only their lives but their livelyhoods. Irking is the way the narrator allows herself to be trampled over, as if too caught up in the afterglow of her friend's stardom to draw personal boundaries before things get out of hand.
This book mixes in elements of travel narrative which bring a richness to the tale, invoking many natural and cultural wonders that reflect subtly back on the relationship between the two women. At times, this can conjure the sense that they are involved in a relationship as beautiful and yet as dangerous as the exotic climates and cultures they are exploring. Also, one is struck by the sense of innevitablity as these friends are torn apart by economic forces and forces of status that, in the past, have divided some of the countries they visit like Berlin and Ireland. It seems as if a subtext permeates the travels, always bearing some relevance on the relationship; it's as if the seductive vibrancy of Morocco equally describes the beauty of their friendship, while comparisons between Berlin and Amsterdam indirectly depict the two faces of McKennitt.
Overall, this is a very interesting read. I did find myself skimming through certain less interesting chapters and passages, but it is a rare book that holds my attention throughout. The crux of this book seems to be the growing gap between people as their lifestyles drift apart as a result of widening financial disparity. It is a sad testament of our helplessness in the face of the corruptive power of money as it nurtures an inflated and self-righteous sense of one's own importance.
Perhaps more unsettling is the fact that McKennitt has, in the past, legally pursued another author who wrote only good things about her in a book called "Celtic Quest". That book is now unnavailable (a collector's item indeed) ... I wonder how long this one will remain on the shelves.