The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You will look at her humble beginnings through critical claim
Close to three decades removed from her debut album, 1997’s The Virginian, Neko Case will tell her life story in a new memoir, out Jan. 28.
The book, The Harder I Fight, the More I Love You — which takes its moniker from the second half of Case’s celebrated, prolixly titled 2013 album — will look at how she grew up feeling invisible, “raised by two dogs and a space heater,” in Washington state’s “slummy one-horse towns” to become a critically acclaimed alt-country and indie-rock artist as a member of the New Pornographers. The book’s publisher, Grand Central Publishing, describes it as “a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.”
“I hope my story will cast a spell of love, invite everyone inside, and smash the illusion that we have no connection to each other,” Case said in a statement.
“This is a fierce, funny, moving memoir that will break your heart and patch it back up,” author Susan Orlean said in a pre-release blurb. “Case’s writing is as piercing and beautiful as her gorgeous singing, and will carry you away completely.”
In a 2015 interview with Rolling Stone, Case reflected on how her career picked up while she was in art school. “I learned how to be my own boss and discipline myself,” she said of what she learned. “It also ingrained in me the question, ‘Did my work say to the audience what I intended it to say?’ I am definitely not a believer in, ‘Oh, I let the music carry me.’ That’s bullshit. Some things come really easily when you’re writing songs … but they are not some spirit coming to visit you.”