Firstly, Antidiva Is An Autobiography, By Carole Pope

Firstly, Antidiva is an autobiography, written by Carole Pope. Note: this book is not a biography. The key difference between a biography and an autobiography is that, in an autobiography, the author is telling a story about themselves, their own life. As opposed to a biography, where someone write an account of another’s life. Being aware this book is an autobiography is incredibly important if you consider the concepts of â€Å"truth† and reliable narrators. Antidiva is Pope’s account, memories, and research of her own life as she sees it and sees fit to tell (or is allowed to tell). Censorship, rights, lack of knowledge or simply not wishing to disclose certain things are all factors which may take some of the â€Å"truth† out of a story. Pope’s†¦show more content†¦beginning, middle, and end. Of course, being an autobiography, one would not expect a grandiose fictionalized story, but a borrowing the structure of narrative stories can ma ke an onslaught of facts and figures much easier to comprehend (Corrigan, 2012). Pope jumps from point to point in her life, making it very difficult to follow for a reader who is not extensively or obsessively familiar with her life. Even the indication of some form of timeline would add some clarification. Pope will explain the success of her band Rough Trade and hit songs and the aftermath of it all, then, much later in the book, explain how the songs were written and the band was formed. As the book stands, there is no sense of a coherent timeline. It is written in an almost volatile way: an expulsion of words and thoughts, attempted to be strung together on a page. The style of Antidiva seems as though Pope has narrated off the top of her head and haphazardly wrote it down. The tenses in the book shift with no discernable reason as to why, as everything Pope discusses is a past event. Noticeably the shift to present tense happens in the chapter â€Å"The Me Decade† and c ontinues to fluctuate for the remainder of the book between present and past tense (Pope, 2000). Although the structure of the book is akin to Pope’s character, chaotic and against the grain, it makes the book difficult to follow and comes across as sloppy writing and editing. That observation is strictly from a classical