All Sides Now

There's a little-noted new Joni Mitchell memoir--in the form of lengthy conversations with a writer--that reveals amazing (and often depressing) details about the demons she has faced, some we knew about, others not, going back to childhood polio, young unwed mother and missing daughter, stalking, various very difficult illnesses down to the present day, disgust with American culture, and on and on. 

She lost her drive and doesn't follow projects through to conclusion. She's forgetful and can't remember what she just said, Marom writes.

If she's out walking and has a thought she wants to remember but no notebook, she won't remember when she gets home.

"There are times when it's directly attacking the nervous system, as if you're being bitten by fleas and lice. It's all in the tissue and it's not a hallucination. It was eating me alive, sucking the juices out. I've been sick all my life."