Like Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Neil Young has become “unstuck in time.” In his long-awaited memoir, Waging Heavy Peace: A Hippie Dream, Young is transported, seemingly at random, through significant moments of his life. The recollections, although tangential, are rooted in the moment by Young’s concerns at the time of writing: his toy trains, the electric Lincoln Continental he has been building for years, a planned reunion with Crazy Horse and a new platform for music that promises to deliver studio-quality sound to the consumer. Young writes, “you may have noticed that a lot of my time is spent tying up loose ends, getting closure, and completing things.” And, yes, the reader does notice. In what might be the most ambitious cross-promotional effort in recent popular culture, Young has spent the latter part of 2012 promoting the book, plugging the Pono music system on network television and touring with Crazy...
Mark D. Dunn, a musician and poet, teaches writing and music history at Sault College. His most recent book is Fancy Clapping (Scrivener Press, 2012).
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