The author did an excellent job of tracking the changes in Nina's life. The tone of the book completely changed from beginning to end but it reflected Nina's downward spiral after the '60s. ( )

The sections on her childhood and early career were lively and illuminating and deepened my appreciation of Simone's talent. I learned a lot from later sections, too, but I stopped enjoying the book well before I was halfway done; it's probably related to the types of sources avaialble on Simone's later years, but it felt like the book devolved into a catalog of bad behavior and upsetting events, with little insight to offer. ( )

Nina Simone, the "High Priestess of Soul", is undoubtedly one of the greatest 20th century musicians in American history, and an immensely talented artist who was impossible to place in a single category. She was demanding of herself, her sidemen and audiences who failed to give her sufficient attention and praise, and unforgiving of anyone who took advantage of her work, or did not love her unconditionally. She was plagued throughout her adult life by mental illness, her race and gender in a country that viewed African American women with hostility and disrespect, and vulnerability due to failures early in life that superseded her successful career.

Nina Simone was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, a small town that was segregated yet more tolerant than most others in the Jim Crow South. Recognized as a musical genius at an early age, she was influenced and nurtured by her family, the black church and local communities, and a white British piano teacher, who gave her classical music training on the piano with the support of two white women who respected the Waymon family and Eunice's musical gift. After high school she spent the better part of a year at Juillard, in order to hone her skills as a classical pianist and to prepare her for admittance to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, she was not accepted to the prestigious conservatory, a decision that may have been based on her unfavorable race. This failure, and the loss of her first and truest love, haunted her throughout the rest of her life.

Simone gave classic music lessons in Philadelphia, added popular music to her repertoire, and gained local attention when she spent a summer performing at a club in Atlantic City as a pianist, where she first began to sing. She began to perform in Philadelphia, playing popular tunes and songs she wrote, and then moved to New York to gain wider attention. Her career peaked in the mid 1960s, with standing room only performances at Carnegie Hall, and other venues throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa. She made several critically acclaimed albums on the Philips label, which garnered only modest commercial success. Inspired by close friendships with Lorraine Hansberry, Miriam Makeba, James Baldwin and Langston Hughes, she became an active participant in the civil rights movement, performing at numerous concerts to benefit local and national organizations including Stokely Carmichael's Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Mississippi Freedom Summer volunteers.

After she divorced her second husband, who served as her business manager, confidant and stabilizing force, Simone's career began a slow decline, as mental illness, the stress of performing and traveling, and financial difficulties took their toll. She became progressively more hostile towards her audiences, berating them for not being engaged with her increasingly erratic and tardy performances, and shouting at those who interrupted her attention. She became estranged from her family, including her parents and her only child, and sought escape in Switzerland and France toward the end of her career and life. Mood stabilizing medications and the support of those closest to her permitted Simone to make a brief comeback, but she died in 2003 at the age of 70, after suffering two major strokes.

Nadine Cohodas provides the reader with an extensively researched biography of Nina Simone, which shines in its analysis of her early life and influences, the slow rise and more rapid decline of her career, details about her involvement in the civil rights movement, and descriptions of her performances through quotes from her husband, sidemen, audience members, and promoters. The book's major weaknesses are its seemingly interminable descriptions of Simone's erratic behaviors at concerts and in various settings, and its lack of personal analysis of Eunice Waymon, the complex and troubled woman within the performer. As a result, I was unable to connect with, understand and appreciate Nina Simone as much as I would have liked, which left me with a sense of dissatisfaction at the end of the book, which ended abruptly with her death, as if the author wanted to be done with Simone and the book.

I would recommend Princess Noire to fellow fans of Nina Simone, but not to casual readers or those who are unfamiliar with her work. ( )