A review by mike_baker
Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division by Peter Hook

4.0

Ahead of reading Peter Hook's apparently massive volume on New Order, I thought I'd check out his book about the early Warsaw and Joy Division years. Personally in the big split between Hooky and Bernard Sumner I had the former down as the villain - perhaps I was wrong, assuaged by personal feelings, thinking what I wanted to think, not giving the self-styled rock god bassist some benefit of the doubt. There's some bitchiness about Mr Sumner in here, painted very much as the McCartney of the group - the selfish, cold-hearted businessman of legend - but also acknowledgement of his genius. There's a lot about Ian Curtis, because obviously there is, and I like the effort to make him seem three-dimensional and real, and doing a better job of it than Anton Corbjin's film, CONTROL, in my opinion. There's always a danger of turning pop stars, especially dead ones, into tortured heroes, but Hooky doesn't do that with Curtis and goes instead for a 'warts and all' approach, which I appreciated.

Another thing that sits well with me is the writing style. Hooky either didn't use a ghost writer, or whoever he employed was skilled enough to stay with the author's tone. The book reads like a pub conversation. It's easy to imagine hearing it from the man himself, rambled over too many pints, that distinctive Salford accent becoming a bit slurred towards the end but distinctive and honest all the same.

Not an unknown pleasure then, but a pleasure all the same.