Well, it is with great relief that I can report that despite all the drugs, heartbreak, deaths, and even occasional splashes of violence in Stevie Nicks's fascinating yet troubled career, Visions, Dreams, & Rumours did not make me feel shitty. In fact, I couldn't put the damn thing down because Zoë Howe is such a damn readable writer. She lightens the load of Stevie Nick's bio with a breezy style often spiced with wise-ass humor. I like Fleetwood Mac, but I love this kind of rock writing. You always feel like you're in good hands with Howe, who tells the story completely and without glossing over anything just because it's unpleasant; you always feel like you can handle the unpleasantness because the author is such a pleasant tour guide. I wish she'd go to work for the New York Times so I wouldn't feel like sticking my head in an industrial cardboard baler every morning.
As for the updates, Howe brings us up to speed on what Nicks has been up to since 2017 in a six-page afterword that covers what seems to be Fleetwood Mac's final and for-good split with the volatile Lindsey Buckingham, her solo induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the death of Christine McVie, and Nicks's political awakening at the age of 70 that saw her pen a song for Kamala Harris's tragically unsuccessful bid for the White House.
