Courtney Love: The Real Story [Hardcover]

What killed it for me was probably the prologue. Poppy Z. Brite explains how Courtney Love had rented a home in Louisiana where she was recording her third album "Celebrity Skin". She talks about how Love called her up and the two went out for the evening. Apparently, this encounter inspired Brite to write the book. She claims that she did not have Love's complete approval for the book, but that having her as a friend helped the writing process. Right there, the reader knows that he or she is not getting an unbiased opinion. You can't be someone's friend and be a nonpartisan recorder of their life. And normally, that would be fine: write the Official Courtney Love-approved biography of Courtney Love. Isn't that what Michael Azzerad did with COME AS YOU ARE? However, Brite then goes on to state that she is not going to defend or condemn Love but simply chronicle her life in the most accurate manner possible. That is where she lost all of her credibility.

Throughout the book, Poppy Z. Brite constantly defends Love and sarcastically puts down her detractors, with a few harmless exceptions. Love's father is portrayed as self-centered and senile from the first page, Kat Bjelland kicks Courtney out of her own band (twice) and claims to want to kill her (although somehow the two end up friends after Kurt's death), even the L.A. Department of Social Services is out to steal Frances Bean. While I highly doubt the claims of Love-bashers that Courtney turned Cobain onto heroin and drove him to suicide, I also doubt that Courtney was always the victim. What is more, there were too many gaps in the story of a woman whose life story is far too complex to be told in a mere 230 pages. We find out when Courtney lost her virginity, hear tales of her being tied up and beaten with a fish by a crazed drama/drag-queen, and lots of other steamy details, but life slows down suddenly when Love starts her band and releases her first record. The book just spreads to thin in some of these parts. What's the meaning behind songs like the vitriolic "Violet" and the bittersweet "Doll Parts". The gaps get even wider after Cobain's death, and by the end, we are left to assume that Love will maintain her relationship with stable, sweet co-star Edward Norton (The People vs. Larry Flynt). A far cry from where she is today, although fair enough given that Brite's tale ended in 1996.

Overall, I found the writing style of this book to be poor as well. Referring to Love's crush on Cobain as a "girl-boner" isn't exactly high-quality journalism. Quotes from firsthand sources are few in this book and Brite fills in what she doesn't know with her own judgments about the people in Love's tumultuous life. Perhaps what can be gained from this book is a sense of understanding of a woman whose aggressive persona stems from frustration at having been held-down for so many years throughout her childhood that she feels the need to lash out any threat against her dignity. My advice to potential readers is to read this book along with WHO KILLED KURT COBAIN? While both accounts are highly biased and border on fiction, somewhere in the middle the truth likely lingers.

Fun fluff.

The Courtney Bio by Melissa Rossi is better.