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emckeon1002 's review for:
Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
by Elvis Costello
I read about the "forthcoming" memoir two years ago, and I've been waiting anxiously since. As a huge Costello fan, it's unfair for me to consider being objective. This is not a kiss and tell. He left that to Bebe Buell and Bruce Thomas, dismissing both as inaccurate, and in many ways, a figment of their imaginations. Costello/McManus spends many pages on his own songs, and the inspiration for them, and an equal amount on his relationship with his father. His relationships with his mother, wives and sons, while mentioned, are fleeting, and therefore, unsatisfying. To me, this is really a book about the elder McManus, and his son Declan. And in that way alone, it is more than fascinating. I've read a lot of rock and roll bios (there are three on the NY Times best seller list right now - Costello's, Smith's and Fogarty's), but this is a serious work about an interesting life in art. It is an artist's memoir, first and foremost. And there's the name checks. The many name checks. The Dylan anecdotes are the most interesting and informing about McManus and Zimmerman. I'm not sure a non-fan can be sustained through the 600 pages, but a real fan will be gratified and edified.