Boys in the Trees

 

Boys in the Trees by Carly Simon (2015) 376 pages

A deep dive into the life of Carly Simon reveals a non-idyllic life for a girl who felt that something was wrong with her because her father didn't like her, a girl who constantly compared herself to her beautiful older sisters. She indicates that she was sexually abused by a neighbor during the summers when her family would stay at their second home in Connecticut. She began to stutter, and felt ridiculed at school, but her mother suggested that she try to sing rather than say what she wanted to convey.

The Simon family also spent a few weeks per year on Martha's Vinyard, which is where Simon first met James Taylor when they were still young

The Simon family dynamics became quite strange when their mother moved a young man into their home, a college football player half her age who was intended to be a role model for Simon's younger brother Peter, but who apparently became their mother's lover. Simon wonders why her father didn't send the guy packing, comparing this issue to her own, when she and James Taylor were married and their relationship was stalled (or worse).

This memoir is filled with names; so many famous people get to know each other when recording with each other or opening shows for each other. It's a compelling read, and shows that in spite of Simon's early advantages regarding her family's resources, that doesn't mean that she was always in a place where she could enjoy storybook outcomes.