Music Book of the Month: Days of Miracle and Wonder - Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland

Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon  and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland
Ashley Kahn
White Rabbit

The story of Paul Simon’s Graceland begins, wonderfully, with a bootleg cassette that landed in Simon’s car stereo and changed the direction of his life. Ashley Kahn’s richly detailed book follows that spark through Johannesburg, New York, London and beyond, revealing Graceland not as some immaculate pop miracle, but as a messy, inspired, morally complicated act of musical transformation.

It is rich on the musicians who made the record breathe – Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Boyoyo Boys, Youssou N’Dour, Los Lobos and the Everly Brothers all emerge as vital co-authors rather than supporting players. The political context is handled with necessary weight, showing how the album became both a bridge-building triumph and a source of controversy during apartheid.

At times the detail is dense, but the reward is a vivid portrait of artistic risk, moral complexity and artistic reinvention.