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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
dark
informative
medium-paced
When I moved to Seattle, I felt it necessary to acquaint myself with Nirvana. I surprised myself by not only knowing most of their songs, but also by becoming a huge Nirvana fan. Soon after I memorized all their songs, I decided to pick up a biography of Kurt Cobain. I headed on over to Pike Place (where there are three bookstores!) and found Heavier Than Heaven. It was a fantastic read. The author was able to create the picture of Kurt's life easily, without losing me at any point. It's amazing the things Kurt overcame... And the things he allowed to influence his life. Although I'm a believer that Kurt did not, in fact, kill himself (the author believes this and does paint a very good picture to convince the reader that he would kill himself), it was a great read. If you're interested in Nirvana (heck, even if you're not!), give this a go!
I just finished reading HEAVIER THAN HEAVEN and I couldn’t have been more excited to talk about how much this book bugged me!! ⠀
⠀
First off, what I loved:⠀
⠀
KURT COBAIN. ⠀
⠀
He’s a legend. He’s always been one of my favorites and when he died, it was my first taste of loss and heart break. I loved reading more behind the scenes of his life, journal entries and music facts. And Frances! How much he loved that baby girl. ⠀
⠀
What I didn’t like (here we go!):⠀
⠀
The autobiographer, Charles Cross, seemed to be trying to paint a picture of pinning Kurt in this suicide box. I’ve never believed it was suicide but he goes on and on and on for ever about why it was. I started to agree. Okay, I get it, yes, Kurt was suicidal. He talked about it all the time, but what made me furious, when you got to that date in the book, Cross actually tried to paint out what Kurt was thinking with his assumptions. And what he did. HE WASNT THERE. By the time I got to the end of the book I was wondering if this dude even liked Kurt at all? How much money did he get paid for this biased narrative?⠀
⠀
The other thing was with Grohl you could tell there was friction. There was not one nice thing in this regarding a comment from Dave. Then Cross decided to go on and on about how Foo Fighters have won SO MANY Grammys and Nirvana never won one. Ok, fuck you dude. You’re writing an autobiography on Kurt and you’ve turned it into a pissing competition. ⠀
⠀
I WAS SO MAD. ⠀
⠀
I think my main thoughts after finishing was, we all failed Kurt. He didn’t have a chance. His parents going through a divorce and him never properly working those feelings out, trying to find where he fit in, drug use trying to self medicate for his stomach issues... all worked against him. ⠀
⠀
Working in healthcare and reading all the times he begged for help, his doctors failed him. Literally. That’s the part that made me cry. I think he could have had a chance. If he got with the right therapist, someone who truly cared. If he would have found a doctor that actually wanted to dig and find out why he’s having this horrible burning stomach pain and can’t gain weight. ⠀
⠀
But he didn’t. ⠀
⠀
I’m really looking forward to reading Serving the Servant, I hear it’s written by someone who actually cared about him.
⠀
First off, what I loved:⠀
⠀
KURT COBAIN. ⠀
⠀
He’s a legend. He’s always been one of my favorites and when he died, it was my first taste of loss and heart break. I loved reading more behind the scenes of his life, journal entries and music facts. And Frances! How much he loved that baby girl. ⠀
⠀
What I didn’t like (here we go!):⠀
⠀
The autobiographer, Charles Cross, seemed to be trying to paint a picture of pinning Kurt in this suicide box. I’ve never believed it was suicide but he goes on and on and on for ever about why it was. I started to agree. Okay, I get it, yes, Kurt was suicidal. He talked about it all the time, but what made me furious, when you got to that date in the book, Cross actually tried to paint out what Kurt was thinking with his assumptions. And what he did. HE WASNT THERE. By the time I got to the end of the book I was wondering if this dude even liked Kurt at all? How much money did he get paid for this biased narrative?⠀
⠀
The other thing was with Grohl you could tell there was friction. There was not one nice thing in this regarding a comment from Dave. Then Cross decided to go on and on about how Foo Fighters have won SO MANY Grammys and Nirvana never won one. Ok, fuck you dude. You’re writing an autobiography on Kurt and you’ve turned it into a pissing competition. ⠀
⠀
I WAS SO MAD. ⠀
⠀
I think my main thoughts after finishing was, we all failed Kurt. He didn’t have a chance. His parents going through a divorce and him never properly working those feelings out, trying to find where he fit in, drug use trying to self medicate for his stomach issues... all worked against him. ⠀
⠀
Working in healthcare and reading all the times he begged for help, his doctors failed him. Literally. That’s the part that made me cry. I think he could have had a chance. If he got with the right therapist, someone who truly cared. If he would have found a doctor that actually wanted to dig and find out why he’s having this horrible burning stomach pain and can’t gain weight. ⠀
⠀
But he didn’t. ⠀
⠀
I’m really looking forward to reading Serving the Servant, I hear it’s written by someone who actually cared about him.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
this book is triggering and emotional as hell. but I loved it. if you want a look into kurts life, this is the way. Even though it isn’t from his pov like other memoirs for obvious reasons, it feels like it is, because of how factual yet emotional it was. It is an extremely deep and realistic book, not a fun one at all, but a memoir nonetheless that was accurate and a good read.
A good explanation of what was possibly going on with Kurt Cobain. Very melancholy, as one ight expect.
I enjoyed this book until I got to the last chapter. Like a couple of other reviews state, the author makes it feel like Kurt is a character in a fictional story. I am absolutely fascinated by his life. The book is packed with details that left me astounded. While reading, I kept a browser open on my computer because there was always something I wanted to look into or a video to search. The author did a brilliant job of describing specific scenes and pictures, I really wish more of the pictures he described would have been included in this book. The final chapter, however, surrounding the events around his death had me pretty upset. The author describes in great detail what Kurt did alone in his house and what he was thinking ... Why he did what he did. There is no way for the author to know this. It is unfair for the author to assume many of the things written, especially since Kurt is not here to defend himself. We will never know what was going through his head and I'm okay with that. I'm pissed that the author tried to fill that space with an assumed story. We can all make assumptions based on his journal entries and interviews, but that's all it is .... An assumption, a feeling .... Not fact.
> zu langsam
> der Fokus auf sein Leben ist irgendiwe nicht da
> der Fokus auf sein Leben ist irgendiwe nicht da
> Ich finde es wurde viel zu lange über seine jungen Jahre erzählt aber die sind eben nicht wirklich interressant für mich gewesen.
Ok I really really loved all of it and even teared up until I got to the ending part where Charles Cross made up stuff that Kurt did before his death. I mean, no one really knows what happen, you can't just put in a biography "Kurt sat down and took a sip of root beer here. Then he did this..."
As a whole I liked how the writing was simple and easy for me to understand and grasp. The author didn’t use any fancy smchancy words to fluff up the narration and left the narration to speak for itself.
The author wrote Kurt’s life starting from how his parents met up to his untimely suicide where there are gaps in the story-line but as a whole it encompasses important dates and people that shaped Kurt both as a person and the grunge persona we all know today.
There are a few problems I faced when reading this book of which I just cannot turn a blind eye to and the problems are:
The book is heavily biased in favor towards Courtney Love. It isn’t as apparent in the first half of the book (probably because Kurt hasn’t met with Courtney yet) but it is glaringly obvious in the second half. The way the author portrayed Courtney was as if everything from her drug problem to her anger issues was all Kurt’s fault. It was as if Courtney Love is the grunge version of Mother Theresa in this book which I find HIGHLY DOUBTFUL.
This is the MAIN PROBLEM I had with this book and that was when the author took creative license up to a whole new level and decided to put his own rendition of how Kurt’s suicide played out. He described what was in Kurt’s mind, how many cigarettes he smoked, how many sips of beer Kurt drank down to how and why Kurt left the suicide note. This is not cool on so many levels.
In conclusion, Heavier Than Heaven is a book I would recommend if you want to have a light introduction to Kurt Cobains life but be warned that you must read said book with a grain of salt and not entirely believe what was written. Honestly if it wasn’t because of the second problem stated above I was more than willing to just dismiss the bias that existed in this book.
The author wrote Kurt’s life starting from how his parents met up to his untimely suicide where there are gaps in the story-line but as a whole it encompasses important dates and people that shaped Kurt both as a person and the grunge persona we all know today.
There are a few problems I faced when reading this book of which I just cannot turn a blind eye to and the problems are:
The book is heavily biased in favor towards Courtney Love. It isn’t as apparent in the first half of the book (probably because Kurt hasn’t met with Courtney yet) but it is glaringly obvious in the second half. The way the author portrayed Courtney was as if everything from her drug problem to her anger issues was all Kurt’s fault. It was as if Courtney Love is the grunge version of Mother Theresa in this book which I find HIGHLY DOUBTFUL.
This is the MAIN PROBLEM I had with this book and that was when the author took creative license up to a whole new level and decided to put his own rendition of how Kurt’s suicide played out. He described what was in Kurt’s mind, how many cigarettes he smoked, how many sips of beer Kurt drank down to how and why Kurt left the suicide note. This is not cool on so many levels.
In conclusion, Heavier Than Heaven is a book I would recommend if you want to have a light introduction to Kurt Cobains life but be warned that you must read said book with a grain of salt and not entirely believe what was written. Honestly if it wasn’t because of the second problem stated above I was more than willing to just dismiss the bias that existed in this book.