Miglė's Reviews > Faith, Hope and Carnage

this is how i chose to live my life - in uncertainty

I didn't know that much about Nick Cave.

the first song of his that I've heard was in the Harry-Hermione dancing scene, that glum glum moment that was suddenly filled with hope. O'Children, lift up your voice. I couldn't stop listening to it.

years later, I was walking the streets of London, deep in young love, Into My Arms playing in my ears and in my heart, starting and finishing the relationship with the very same song.

then I moved to the seaside and it turned out that mr Cave lives around the corner, which was still not enough of an incentive to even find out how he looks, just in case I caught a glimpse of him during a lockdown walk.

but I looked for a summer concert in early summer, and I found one in late summer, it happened to be a Nick Cave concert and it turned out to be a deeply spiritual experience, a crowd of ecstatic people, lyrics blending with feeling blending with a bright night ripe with promise. and this is the moment, this is exactly what she was born to be.

and I wanted more of those lyrics, so, naturally, I got a book. (yeah, I'm only mentioning the book this far into the review, thank you for indulging me.) this book pretty much replicated the concert experience, this deep blend of meaning and feeling.

the whole book is a conversation. the interviewer is excellent, expressing thoughts so openly and yet without judgement, neither for himself nor for his interviewee. there's a lot of suffering in this conversation, naturally. and yet it makes it so human and relatable. the audio version makes it seem almost like a podcast. or a Tim Burton-esque bedtime story.

as far as content goes, well, it's everything you'd expect from Nick Cave. it's like a very long Red Hand File. arguably, even better, as it's prompted and deepened by Sean O'Hagan's brilliant questions. maybe if I really had to summarise it, I'd say it's about the transformative power of love. but just listing its elements feels diminishing. it's definitely more than a sum of its parts.

from the Red Hand Files:
in time we all find out we're not in control. we never were. we never will be. but we are not without power. we always have the freedom to choose how to respond to what life offers us. you can move toward the opportunity that is offered to you. that of change and renewal. the next best action is always presented to you. look for it and move toward it. this is the great action of insubordination toward the vagaries of life afforded to us all.