Dandelion: Memoir of a Free Spirit — Catherine James

“The rare celebrity-crammed memoir that would be worth reading even without the bold-faced names."--Kirkus Reviews

Catherine James' neglect by her young, beautiful mother cast a shadow over her Los Angeles childhood and made her long not for normalcy, but just for escape. Escape to her beloved grandmother Mimi, or to her Aunt Claire, a former beauty queen who'd had a glamorous life with ex-husband Busby Berkeley.  Escape to her father, a race car driver who had been out of her life almost since the day she was born. Escape even to school, where she would at least be taken care of.  Instead, Catherine was finally abandoned by her furious mother to become a ward of the state before she reached her teens.

A chance meeting with a very young Bob Dylan inspired Catherine to run away with only one goal: to get to Greenwich Village.  Dandelion follows Catherine's extraordinary life, as she is entranced by Eric Clapton; taken up by the beautiful people in Andy Warhol's Factory; and begins romances with rockers Jackson Browne and Jimmy Page.

While raising her son, whose father was Denny Laine of the Moody Blues and Wings, Catherine finally returns to her West Coast roots, reconnects with her family and discovers that her mother hasn't changed but her father has: he's become a heartbreakingly garish transsexual.  Moving and shocking by turns, Dandelion is a completely different view of a celebrated pop culture scene, and a fractured mother-daughter relationship.

 “James' story…take[s] this movingly written autobiography well beyond the realm of sex, drugs and rock & roll.” -- Music Connection