Rating: 4/5
Review:
Interesting and readable
This is an interesting and enjoyable collection of
biographical recollections by people who knew Bowie
and by Bowie himself. Some knew him very
well, others less so, but all have something to contribute.
Whether or not you like Dylan Jones (I definitely don't), he
is a very capable journalist and has done a very good job here. He knows the scene he is dealing with and has
access to a lot of people that others might struggle to recruit for a book like
this, so there are contributions from a lot (and I mean a *lot*) of high
profile friends and collaborators of Bowie as well as childhood friends and
others not in the public eye. Jones
allows them to speak for themselves (including Bowie's
own words), giving their contributions verbatim (although presumably edited)
rather than crafting them into a narrative written by a biographer. I like this approach; others have called it
lazy, but I like reading what people actually say rather than reading someone
else's (particularly Dylan Jones's) interpretation of it, and it is structured
in a way which gives it the coherence of a narrative.
It's a long book, and for me it's one to dip into a bit at a
time rather than read straight through.
Some of it is a bit gossipy, but I felt it gave me a pretty rounded picture
of the man and his milieu. I don’t think
this is the definitive Bowie
biography, but given the nature of the man, I'm not sure there will ever be
one. However, it's an insightful,
interesting and readable account of his life, his work and his influence, and I
can recommend it.
(I received an ARC via NetGalley.)
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