Love Is a Mix Tape

害羞的樂評人羅伯，遇上搖滾酷女郎芮妮，
因為音樂，他們相知；因為音樂，他們相守。
經歷了愛的失落，
羅伯以搖滾寫成了愛妻安魂曲！

◎紐約時報暢銷書
◎獲出版人週刊、柯克斯評論、圖書館學刊星號書評（Starred Review）
◎滾石雜誌、洛杉磯時報、邁阿密先鋒報、新聞週刊推薦
◎《性，毒品與可可煙》（Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs）作者恰克．克羅斯特曼（Chuck Klosterman）推薦

愛是什麼？

根據女歌手佩特．班納塔（Pat Benatar）的說法，愛是一座戰場。法蘭克．辛納屈會說，愛是甜蜜的陷阱。愛會傷人，愛令人厭，愛會咬人，愛會流血，愛是毒品。大家都想知道愛情是什麼，其實答案很簡單。

一九九○年代，「另類」突然成了主流，珍珠果醬（Pearl Jam）、人行道（Pavement），超脫（Nirvana）和R.E.M.等，一年前如果出現在MTV音樂台會顯得很怪異的樂團，儼然成了MTV的代 名詞。屬於科特．柯本（Kurt Cobain）、仙妮亞．唐恩（Shania Twain）與泰勒．丹恩（Taylor Dayne）的十年，結束得太匆匆。美國文化的界限崩解，由音樂帶頭前進。

怕羞的愛樂怪胎羅伯．薛菲德也是在這時代，遇見喜歡吵吵鬧 鬧的阿帕拉契龐克搖滾女郎芮妮。對羅伯而言，芮妮實在是太酷了，無論如何，芮妮還是愛上了羅伯。羅伯高大，芮妮嬌小。羅伯靦腆，芮妮是愛交際的花蝴蝶。羅 伯講的笑話向來很冷，只有芮妮聽了會笑。除了彼此都熱愛音樂之外，他們倆毫無交集。音樂將他們湊在一起。當羅伯突然遭遇喪妻之痛，也是音樂幫助他走出難以 言喻的失落。

羅伯如今是《滾石雜誌》的撰稿人。在《我的愛情是一卷自製混音帶》裡，他利用十五卷自製合輯裡的歌曲，敘述他和芮妮短短相處時光中發生的故事。從貓王到蜜西?艾莉特，從滾石樂團到優拉糖果，這些自製合輯裡的歌曲編出他們的生活原聲帶。

羅伯不是音樂人，他是作家；《我的愛情是一卷自製混音帶》不是情歌，卻與情歌無異。羅伯藉著這本書向音樂致敬，向塑造他的時代致敬，尤其是藉此稱頌一個令人難忘的女人。

What Is love? Great minds have been grappling with this question throughout the ages, and in the modern era, they have come up with many different answers. According to Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to show them. But the answer is simple: Love is a mix tape.

In the 1990s, when "alternative" was suddenly mainstream, bands like Pearl Jam and Pavement, Nirvana and R.E.M.-bands that a year before would have been too weird for MTV- were MTV. It was the decade of Kurt Cobain and Shania Twain and Taylor Dayne, a time that ended all too soon. The boundaries of American culture were exploding, and music was leading the way.

It was also when a shy music geek named Rob Sheffield met a hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl named Ren?e, who was way too cool for him but fell in love with him anyway. He was tall. She was short. He was shy. She was a social butterfly. She was the only one who laughed at his jokes when they were so bad, and they were always bad. They had nothing in common except that they both loved music. Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss.

In Love Is a Mix Tape, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Ren?e. From Elvis to Missy Elliott, the Rolling Stones to Yo La Tengo, the songs on these tapes make up the soundtrack to their lives.

Rob Sheffield isn't a musician, he's a writer, and Love Is a Mix Tape isn't a love song- but it might as well be. This is Rob's tribute to music, to the decade that shaped him, but most of all to one unforgettable woman.

本書中文版《我的愛情是一卷自製混音帶》，由「商周」出版。

各界推薦

搖滾史上最漂亮的書寫出現在此書──就像收音機裡傳來的歌聲，字字情真意切。愛情真是一卷自製混音帶。──《滾石雜誌》

多數人把大眾文化當作個人情緒的反照鏡，羅伯．薛菲德卻快樂地跨入鏡裡世界。──《洛杉磯時報》

對一個燦爛音樂時代的偉大悼念，對愛情本身的頌讚，令人難忘。--《邁阿密先鋒報》

羅伯．薛菲德筆鋒優雅，讓這則愛侶早逝的故事不至於彌漫憂鬱情緒……機智又諷刺，即便在最傷痛的時候，他的浪漫悲劇也不顯得矯揉做作。──《新聞週刊》

羅伯．薛菲德筆下的芮妮是如此怪誕聰慧詭異可愛，讓讀者也像作者一樣，情不自禁愛上她。── 《圖書館學刊》星號書評

有 史以來，從來沒有一位搖滾評論者像羅伯．薛菲德一樣，用這種招魂式、超詩意般完美的文字，書寫流行音樂 。《我的愛情是一卷自製混音帶》是我所讀過最快樂、最哀傷、最棒的搖滾書。--《性，毒品與可可煙》（Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs）作者恰克．克羅斯特曼（Chuck Klosterman）

歌頌流行、愛情、悲歌、爛歌，以及年紀輕輕就當鰥夫，那段漫長而幾乎無法忍受的痛苦，作者以熟練但真誠的文字輕輕道來。全書才氣橫溢，充滿智慧之語，可入選前五大荒島流行音樂書單之列。--《柯克斯評論》星號書評

搖滾樂就是我們生命的原聲帶。--陳德政

作者簡介

羅伯．薛菲德（Rob Sheffield）

《滾石》雜誌的特約編輯，替該雜誌撰寫〈流行音樂生活〉（Pop Life）專欄。作品散見於《村聲》、《旋轉》、《石板》、《細節》、《打開收音機》、《文學雜誌》等雜誌。同時，替MTV撰稿，上VH1與MTV等節目。住在紐約布魯克林區。

《愛情是一卷自製混音帶》是作者第一本書，不僅獲得好評，並進入《紐約時報》的暢銷排行榜。