Building a Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan and Lilith Fair

Tamara Jones is Production Stage Manager/Operations Supervisor,
Entertainment Department, Paramount Canada’s Wonderland.

Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan has gained worldwide
attention with her vocal talent, top-selling albums, and all-female
tour, Lilith Fair. For those seeking a greater understanding about what
makes her tick, Building a Mystery will disappoint.

Ostensibly about the author’s quest to uncover the charismatic
singer’s past, the book reveals more about the music business and the
ardent and obsessive fans it creates than about McLachlan. One of those
fans is the subject of the longest chapter, which reads more like a
murder mystery than a biography.

The author, who figures as another “character” in the book, leaves
the reader feeling exhausted and frustrated. At one point, Fitzgerald
writes, “A tiny bell—a belletino, if you will—distinctly
tinka-tinkled in the remoter regions of the good ol’ gray matter.”
Elsewhere she notes that “[l]opsided lyrics packaged with incongruent
melodies undeniably appeal, in the current musical marketplace, to
millions of listeners lost in the detritus of cultureless
utilitarianism.” Fitzgerald, a very thorough journalist and
researcher, is ultimately undone by this slang-cum-academic speak.

In the final analysis, Building a Mystery does not deliver any new
insights into McLachlan the artist or the person.