By DAVID LYNCH, KRISTINE McKENNA (Random House; 2018)
For David Lynch fans there’s certainly no shortage of biographical material, either in filmic (PRETTY AS A PICTURE, LYNCH, DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE, etc.) or print (IMAGES, LYNCH ON LYNCH, CATCHING THE BIG FISH, etc.) format. ROOM TO DREAM stands out due to the fact that, simply, it’s the most comprehensive Lynch biography to date, a hefty 500-plus page doorstop of a book.
Given the nature of its subject and his artistic output (which is to say: weird), it’s appropriate that ROOM TO DREAM has an extremely eccentric construction. It’s divided into two parts, with each chapter containing a straightforward biographical recounting by co-author Kristine McKenna of a portion of David Lynch’s life, followed by Lynch’s own take on the same events, which often directly contradict the recountings of McKenna and her interviewees. The latter include a number of Lynch’s longtime friends, as well as actors and technicians from his films, his daughter Jennifer and many of his former wives and girlfriends—of which there exist quite a few.
Flightiness is one of the many Lynch attributes we learn about in these pages. It seems he has a bad habit of starting projects and then quickly losing interest, which is what happened with his long-gestating script for RONNIE ROCKET, as well as season two of TWIN PEAKS and Davidlynch.com (which began as a pay site packed with original content and now serves as a promotional outlet for Lynch’s film and music endeavors), and that tendency extends to his romantic life. He also admits his fathering skills could use some work, with his artistic endeavors admittedly taking precedence over his four children.
One practice he seems to have really taken to is transcendental meditation. Lynch began meditating in 1973 (during the five year production of ERASERHEAD) and he’s continued to do so ever since, leading to the creation of the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace in 2005. He’s not kidding about promoting world peace: it’s a subject Lynch returns to throughout this book, which concludes with the proclamation “Enlightenment for the people and peace on Earth,” and is dedicated (as was CATCHING THE BIG FISH before it) to “His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.”
Other things we learn in these pages include the news that Lynch’s 1950s and 60s-era upbringing was idyllic but for a few disagreeable incidents (such as a confrontation with an unidentified naked woman and a horrific teenage joyride, both of which were recreated in BLUE VELVET); that Anthony Hopkins tried to have Lynch fired from the production of THE ELEPHANT MAN; that the latter film’s headliner John Hurt was at one point set to play the lead in THE STRAIGHT STORY; that the hectic production of TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN nearly killed Lynch, who turned 70 during that program’s whirlwind shoot; and that Lynch is quite a conspiracy buff, eagerly airing his theories about the killing of JFK and the 9/11 attacks. We also get a description of the legendary “buffalo hunting” sequence that was cut from WILD AT HEART.
The tone throughout is quite fawning. Lynch’s faults and contradictions are acknowledged (a brief parenthetical aside grudgingly acknowledges that Ronald Reagan was “a president Lynch admired”), but McKenna for the most part stays resolutely positive about this “extraordinary and generous man who’s helped many people,” with many of the darker elements of his existence left out. These include the rift between Lynch and ERASERHEAD’S late sound designer Alan Splet (which is given a VERY brief airing), while the acrimonious defections of Lynch collaborators like Julee Cruise and Michael J. Anderson go completely unmentioned.
Overall this is a worthwhile tome whose biggest failing is that, simply, it can’t hope to fully convey the life and output of its very complex subject. As Lynch himself acknowledges toward the end, this book is “just the tip of the iceberg; there’s so much more, so many more stories.” I doubt any book could properly contain all those stories, and until one does ROOM TO DREAM will stand as the definitive David Lynch profile.