Reckless

My Life as a Pretender

By: Chrissie Hynde

Narrated by: Rosanna Arquette

From Chrissie Hynde, one of rock’s most iconic, alluring, kick-ass, and (let’s face it) sexy women, a brilliant, no-holds-barred memoir of a rock life lived to the hilt.

Chrissie Hynde, the songwriter and frontwoman of The Pretenders in its various incarnations, has for thirty-five years been one of the most admired and adored and imitated figures in rock. This long-awaited memoir tells her life story in full and utterly fascinating detail, from her all-American Ohio fifties childhood to her classic baby-boomer seduction by the rock of the sixties to her sojourn in the crucible of punk that was seventies London to her instant emergence with her band, The Pretenders, in 1980 into stardom as a frontwoman and songwriter. She brings a fantastic eye for detail, a withering and sardonic sense of humor, and a fearless and sometimes naked emotional honesty to her memoir, and every line, every word of it is unmistakably hers. It is sure to be recognized as a classic of rock literature—and, man, is it fun to listen to.

Candid, compelling and no pretence

What made the experience of listening to Reckless the most enjoyable?

Rock bios so easily slip into self-indulgent pondering and rose-tinted reminiscence, but Chrissie Hynde avoids both of those traps, delivering a book that’s honest, compelling and direct.Reckless has been one of the most enjoyable rock bios that I've read or listened to. But I was still left waiting for more. Chrissie leads you on a compelling journey through her early years of drugs and hopelessness in Ohio, through the excitement of 1970s London up to the second album, global success and the loss of half of her band. But there's a whole career's worth of stories yet to tell, and I hope she has another volume planned.

What about Rosanna Arquette and Chrissie Hynde ’s performance did you like?

Rosanna Arquette was a good choice of narrator; her voice is not as deep as Chrissie's, but she has a confident edge that suits the book. But while Arquette is a good reader, she's also the one problem in the audiobook: If you're British, you're going to have trouble ignoring her criminally painful assaults against British accents. We all know foreign place names and accents can seem weird to Americans, but to hear Rosanna Arquette struggle to mimic a London, Birmingham or Welsh accent is an agonising distraction. I'd rather listen to a cat in a liquidiser than hear Ms Arquette impersonate Sid Vicious again.

Good story, not so great narration voice.

While I do like Rosanna Arquette, I felt her sing song voice didn't work for Chrissie Hynde's deeper, rock and roll sound, which at times was too distracting and I had to take a break.
Loved the back stories and have been a big fan forever.

Thank you, Chrissie!

and Roseanna. I loved every bit, especially the honesty and unsweetened history. beautiful written and read.

Great Read - Accurate Title

I always loved the Pretenders music and Chrissie's vocals, going back to college days in the early 80s and vinyl. I had no idea the musicians (and other celebrities) she hung around, or the situations she got herself into. She certainly titled the book well. Really enjoyed the read, the narration is a little run-on ish in places and sometimes had to back it up to get the full meaning. Very sad about the way Pete and Jimmy died.

Reckless Indeed!

I felt this story was good, as far as it went. I honestly don’t understand why some people objected to learning about the earlier part of her life. Hello? This is called a biography for a reason, you know. Having said that, I would have liked to have known what difficulties, if any, that she faced as a result of being one of the few female pioneers in the male dominated music industry. I would also have liked to know how she was able to continue after the deaths of Honeyman-Scott and Farndon. Her career did not end there and it would have interesting to see how her life progressed, how she was able to make that adjustment and continue writing great songs. In short, I wanted more and was a little disappointed at how abruptly her story ended.