Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

by Nadine Cohodas

Nadine Cohodas is an exellent researcher that really takes her subject matter seriously. She must have ploughed through thousands of pages to strip them down to this condensed biography. She is also a decent enough writer.

However, there are quite a few issues I take with the text.

Firstly, it is void of any emotion - almost clinically so. Ms. Cohodas is obviously ambivalent towards Nina Simone's music. She does not overly judge her but does not really care about her. In the acknowledgement she thanks a couple of people for suggesting the topic to her. So, really, she didn't write this because Ms. Simone's life and carreer was something she wanted to learn and share. This shows on every page.

The notes start with the statement "All of the interviews are my own unless a specific publication is cited as the source" followed by a list of sources a mile long. Throughout the book I never had the feeling that she actually conducted any interviews herself. And no mention is made of any, either.

Topically, I missed information on Nina Simone's songwriting. It was mentioned on occasion that she did "her own songs" on certain records and refused to sing other people's tunes because they would get royalties. What we never learn is when she started writing her own songs and what those first song attempts may have been.

Also, Nina Simone was mentally ill. This doesn't come up until very late in the book. Some medical issues are mentioned on occasion but Ms. Simone is never given a pass for her erratic behaviour for most of the book, as if the mental illness only set in toward the end of her life. This makes her look mean, when really it is very tragic.

The bad and/or unfortunate performances get a lot of room but really good concerts are more or less skipped over. This is probably a bit unfair. I believe that if the scales of the quality of performances had really tipped so much to one side, Nina Simone would never have become the audience magnet she was. There must - at least initially - have been some stellar concerts to have that effect on people, no? If there were any, we hardly hear about them here.

On the whole informative, void of any emotion and not a single color photo (at least in my hardcover edition) of the sometimes extravagant stage outfits.

3/10