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5 internautes sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
Exceptional
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...
Publié le Nov. 18 2003 par Mark
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2 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
a murky character
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...")...
Publié le Mars 15 2001 par Charles Meredith
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5 internautes sur 5 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
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 internautes sur 2 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
a murky character, Mars 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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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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parallel lives, Oct. 19 2003
20+ years ago, I reviewed Closer for a university newspaper. I've recently been rediscovering Joy Division, and so have read Deborah Curtis's memoir of her life with Ian. This is a remarkable book. Deborah was never an industry insider, a musician or a groupie; she seems to have been a sensitive yet very practical girl, who mostly wanted a conventional sort of marriage where they would raise children and maintain their house. Yet she was also really drawn to Ian's ambitious taste in music and his brooding romantic singularity, and she genuinely supported his desire to be a musician and believed in his genius. The book mostly follows the period from their marriage through the formation of Warsaw (later Joy Division), with extensive discussion of tours and recording sessions, through to Ian's suicide shortly before the band was to embark on its first American tour. At the same time, it describes the medical crises following Ian's diagnosis with a severe, virtually untreatable form of epilepsy, the birth of their daughter Natalie, and Deborah's discovery of her husband's affair with Annik Honore. To her credit, Deborah keeps her perspective consistent, refusing to speculate on others' responses. This makes more heartbreaking the extent to which she was gradually shut out of Ian's life, with the apparent complicity of the band and its management, as she became apparently insufficiently glamorous for the role of rock star consort. Yet while this book both deconstructs and humanizes the myth, rendering Ian Curtis an often viciously callous husband, Deborah never comes across as spiteful herself: she did what she could, and more, and always realized she'd have to learn to live on her own, and she never gave up on him, so that the glimmerings of mutual tenderness in their final difficult days are almost unbearably sad. Inadvertantly perhaps, she reveals a very young man whose visions were almost too great for him to bear, and whose loss of control over his life and health terrified him into severe depression, and she reveals a taciturn community in which she and Ian felt driven into an unspoken compact to cope by themselves. This isn't a depressing book; it isn't over-analytical, and there is real wit in her episodic treatment of their courtship, and her outsider's perspective on the Manchester music scene (such as when they go see the Sex Pistols, with Ian excited at the prospect of a band who 'fought on stage'). This book should be required reading for anyone whose introduction to Joy Division was the film 24 Hour Party People, whose history of the band is severely truncated and takes great liberties with the facts. Actually, I'd love to see the players in that part of the film in a film of Deborah Curtis's book. This is a brave and wonderful, incredibly intimate memoir, straightforward and unpretentious. It also includes an introduction by stellar punk historian Jon Savage, lyrics, as well as performance and recording information, and there is a centre section of photographs, some official (including an incandescent colour picture of Ian singing with his eyes closed in April 1980), some family snapshots (including a very cute engagement picture, and Ian with Natalie a few days before his death).
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A touching memoir, Janv. 25 2003
When I first started going out with my girlfriend, the first book she lent me was this one. She knew Joy Division was one of my favorite groups so it was fitting. I severely enjoyed this book and I definetly recommend this to anyone who wants to know the story closest to the truth. We will never know why Ian killed himself but at least this gives us a backstory to one of the most mysterious frontmen in music history. What I liked most about this book is how Deborah described Ian. She didn't try to sugarcoat the myth by telling the world what a great husband and father Ian was. No, she told the outright truth. Ian was a controlling, malipulating person. Although he wrote some of the most touching songs ever, it doesn't excuse his actions as a person. It also told about the affair he had with a groupie. Another good point to this book was the fact that all the Joy Division lyrics were printed in the back of the book including some unfinished songs and lyrics. i also enjoyed the recollections of Ian's early life and the starting of Warsaw and Joy Division. It is real sad that Ian couldn't have been around to write most touching songs such as Atmosphere and Decades, but at least we have the music he and Joy Division left behind and a book written by his widow, Deborah. An excellent read, front to back!
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Joy Division still rocks, Aoû 5 2002
A good book. Some nice pictures. If you're like me and weren't listening to Joy Division while they were around, it's a very good book for getting to know the whole scene and some of the basics of Ian's life.All of the best to Deborah and their child. There's a beautiful picture of Ian Curtis by the microphone with a black background.
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Very well done memoir..., Mai 6 2002
Deborah Curtis did a great job with this narrative of her life with the former frontman for Joy Division, her husband Ian. Her story offers fantastic insight into the band behind the scenes, and also some tragic recounting of Ian's descent into depression and the reasons behind it. She goes into a lot of detail regarding her personal life, and shares things that most would have trouble sharing, and for that she is also to be commended.I have been intrigued for years by the music and mystery behind New Order, and the book answered many of the questions I had as to why events unfolded as they did. Excellent job, a must read for any die-hard New Order fans out there!
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Deborah Curtis - THE MYTH, Mars 26 2002
This book tear a part my hero. Now i see him as a man, and see his woman, as my hero. As many people, i would love to know what happened to Deborah Curtis.
How was Deborah and Natalie's life affected by her father's fame?
She opened her life to a lot of strangers.
Ms. Curtis - GREAT WOMAN...
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in a room with a window i found truth..., Fév 28 2002
i think that deborah curtis' biography of her late husband, ian curtis (singer/guitarist for the 1970's post-punk band joy division) is really great. i think that it is very touching. it shows ian curtis "the person" without sugar coating him at all, as i think many biographers have a tendency to do, especially if written post-humously. i couldn't decide whether or not to listen to joy division for a while after i read the book. ian curtis was kind of a mean, posessive person, but that person did write some very excellent music that still resonates today, more than 20 years later. this biography will no doubt leave you in disbelief, mouth agape, and more than likely, in the end, crying. a very good book with a very different insight to ian curtis. highly recommended.
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Honest and myth shattering, Fév 14 2002
I found Touching from a Distance by Deborah Curtis to be very honest. I don't feel she is a bitter person trying to slam the legend of gothic god Ian Curtis. Instead I found her to be very kind in her memories of the husband who abandoned her and their daughter when he found something more interesting to do. She was loyal to her husband then and she is loyal to him now. I enjoyed the book for many reasons, first it is an easy read, not too much of the boring history most biographies have. You experience England's pop culture of the late 70's from someone who was there, and I learned a little of the suffering epilepsy brings. I suggest this book only to those who want truth, not for those who insist on seeing Ian Curtis as a martyr for youth or a dark misunderstood genius. He was human and at times inhuman, but he did leave an invaluable legacy. I was disappointed in the lack of photos and would love to know what happened to Deborah Curtis (who I grew to like very much while reading Touching from a Distance) after her husband's death, what became of Annik, did Ms. Curtis ever get the royalities she so deserved and especially how was Natalie's life affected not only by losing her father but her father's fame? Deborah Curtis is not a door mat like some reviewers claim, she was in love and was desperate to save her marriage (she was 19 at the time of the wedding and 23 at the time she was a widow give her a break!!!!), she is honest and opened her life to a lot of strangers. Great book Ms. Curtis...bon couarge.
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