Most helpful customer reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional, Nov 18 2003
This is brilliant. For the first time, Joy Division fans are given an insight not only into Ian Curtis, the mysterious captivating frontman of a band, but also Ian as the person; the family man, the human being.This isn't (as other reviews might suggest) the memoir of a bitter and resentful wife, desperately wanting a small piece of the limelight that her husband so coldly denied her. She gives credit where it is due. She continually refers to Ian's 'caring and generous' side, the love she felt for him before and during their marriage, and how lost she felt when her love eventually wasn't returned. The reader is taken on a journey through the life of Deborah Curtis after she met Ian, how she was made to feel at the different stages, what it felt like to be caught in the trappings of mundane 'everyday' life as her childhood sweetheart realised his dreams of a successful band. It is true, Ian was a troubled person. Deborah Curtis, instead of pretending to understand the motives for his actions, tells the situation from her point of view; she felt alienated, misinformed, lied to, isolated, abandoned. She doesn't pretend to know her husband well enough to be able to say 'this WAS the reason he did this' etc. Although she was his wife, the closest person to Ian, she, like everyone else, ultimately had no clue as to what went on in his sadly tormented mind. A common problem I've noticed with books such as this is that, when the 'facts' are not entirely clear, the author will infer truths and make it dramatic. This doesn't happen in this book. When Deborah is sure of what happened, she writes it. But so often, she seems as alienated as everyone else in Ian's life, and she expresses this also. This is effective because it makes the book so real. When a person, especially a successful musican, commits suicide, it's so easy to get caught up in what THEY must have been feeling at the time. This book makes such a topic all the more 'real', because it shows exactly how others close to the person can be affected. It's a sad read, at times confusing, and entertaining. But above all, it is honest. Essential.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a murky character, Mar 15 2001
This book is billed as the insider's account that I had been looking for on the life of Ian Curtis. But it didn't really paint a clear picture of this influential musical genius for me. It didn't reveal who Ian Curtis really was. For the most part the book seemed to consist of chronological facts ("Ian did this...then we did this...and then such and such...") listed in a detached style as opposed to written, almost like the style of a simple diary. So I never got the inside confession of where the lyrics for "Dead Souls" came from, or if Ian's epilepsy had started before he wrote and recorded "She's Lost Control." What I concluded at the end was that this book was a disappointment because the author, Ian's own wife, never got to know him. Then it hit me, that this book conveys something very sad in crystal clear fashion about the music industry's idol- he never let his own wife get to know who he was, nor anyone else. Never in 10+ years. And that tells us very indelibly who Ian Curtis was. So now my disappointment lays with the truth of Ian's coldness and selfishness, and not with the book which turns out to be pretty succesful in its biographical portrait after all. Don't expect the world, but read it all the same. You won't learn the inside thoughts and motivations of this great singer and songwriter, but you will be able to feel the choking emotional isolation with which he imprisoned those who loved him most.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, great for JD fans, interesting look at music industry/psychology, Nov 14 2008
This book is interesting in a number of ways, but I think mostly for the die-hard JD fan. It's interesting in terms of the history of Joy Division, an inside look at the music industry and the psychological sketch of a man about to kill himself.
To begin, I think I should warn interested parties that Deborah Curtis is not exactly Hemingway, which let's this book down a bit in terms of conveying the feeling of being there. However, she is a pretty good journalist. She seems to hit all of the important bits and does a good job of pulling in stories from the other Joy Division band members and stakeholders.
I think that interest in the book from a historical perspective goes without saying, so I won't really talk about it. However, more interesting was the look at the music industry. Joy Division today is an internationally known band and has spawn many products, cover songs and inspired a lot of people to start making music. Although, the success of Joy Division was never shared by the heart of the group, Ian Curtis. He reportedly made no more than 2500 UK pounds from making music over the course of about two years. Deborah Curtis puts this into words for us. She talks about nearly having her phone cut off because they couldn't afford the bill, barely being able to afford food and just generally having to live pay-check to pay-check and gig to gig. It certainly does not romanticize the rock band.
Another element is the pressure that was brought to bare on both Ian and the other members of the band. Although Deborah Curtis makes sure to not indict anyone for Ian's decision to kill himself, she certainly paints record company management and JD's manager as being self-serving at the cost of Ian's health.
The other members of JD come off as very innocent, both in their reaction to Ian's obvious problems and the music industry. Peter Hook, their bass player, puts it best when he says, "They [bars/club owners/record companies] still think musicians are stupid. In fact, I'd agree with them on that; most of them are pretty stupid." Although JD dealt poorly with the business of music, they come across as warm people. Bernard Sumner befriends Ian and tries to shock him into thinking different after his first suicide attempt, Stephen Morris's cautious relationship to Gillian Gilbert and Peter Hook's condolences after Ian's funeral are just some examples that stay in my mind.
Lastly, there is the psychological element of the book. Deborah Curtis is not a doctor, and she plainly explains that we will never know exactly what caused Ian to commit suicide. However, she supposes that Ian tormented himself, internalizing all the perceived pain that he felt he had caused. This might be shown best when he tries to defend his affair by meekly saying that it was too cruel to tell his mistress that he didn't want to see her again.
Overall, I would only recommend this book to those into Joy Division in particular and the business of music in general. Good book!
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