Scan barcode
A review by badseedgirl
Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross
2.0
I was born in 1974. That means I have my foot firmly planted in "Generation X." I owned a "Cabbage Patch Kid.". In 1986 I sat with my 6th grade class and watched in horror as the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded on live TV. In 1981, I did not "Want My MTV", I was only 7 years old for God sake, but by 1990 I did and that just so happened to coincided with the advent of the Seattle-based "Grunge Movement" hitting MTV hard. To this day i have a CD collection full of Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Bikini Kill, Stone Temple Pilots,Hole, and of course Nirvana. At the time of his death in 1994 Kurt Cobain was touted by magazines,industry insiders, and fans alike as "the voice of our generation." Now in 1994 I was working 32 hour a week and going to college full time so I take offense that my voice would be the guy who just blew his brains out and after reading Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R. Cross I am even more convinced I am right.
I should start out by saying that this biography was approved by Courtney Love and the Cobain estate. That is how Mr. Cross was able to get access to Kurt Cobain's diaries and this shows in the novel. The Estate ie. Courtney Love seemed more concerned with cleaning up and protecting her reputation and how she came across in the book and less on how Kurt was portrayed. This made for a very, very strange read. Saint Courtney as she will be referred to for the rest of this review is introduced as having a "history" of drugs but clean when she met Kurt. But I guess his powerful personality was just to much for her and dragged her back into drug use. The author goes out of his way to relieve her of all blame for Kurt's spiraling drug abuse and untreated mental illness. She is repeatedly self described in the novel as powerful and yet she is helpless to stop the drug abuse happening in her own home and in her own relationship. If she was as determined as she kept claiming she was in the novel to get and stay clean, she would have kicked Kurt Cobain's Junky ass to the curb. Instead Saint Courtney stayed and shot up with her husband, not because she wanted to but because she loved so much.
Kurt on the other hand comes across as a lying, self-centered, egotistical, douche-bag for the entire book. Every story he ever told about his childhood in every interview was a bald face lie. The only true thing he ever said was that has was from Washington and that his parents were divorced! Living under a bridge, LIE! Stealing his step-dad's guns to buy his first guitar, LIE! Homeless, well he was homeless because he made it impossible for his parents to live with him. he was jealous when his parents tried to move on after they became divorced and he was no longer the center of their universe. Kurt Cobain, The Voice of Generation X turned out to be a GIANT WHINER BABY who turned to drugs as an easy escape.
That is not who we are as a generation. Not then, not now.
As for the book itself. Although well written and apparently Mr Cross interviewed many sources for it, the voice of the book itself comes across as very one note. Was this because of the estate approval? I don't know and I feel I have wasted enough time on the "voice of my generation" so I will probably never find out. Someday I might like to read something from Krist Novoselic or Dave Grohl but not for a long while. This novel has left me with a "Negative Creep" "Sifting" for something better.
I should start out by saying that this biography was approved by Courtney Love and the Cobain estate. That is how Mr. Cross was able to get access to Kurt Cobain's diaries and this shows in the novel. The Estate ie. Courtney Love seemed more concerned with cleaning up and protecting her reputation and how she came across in the book and less on how Kurt was portrayed. This made for a very, very strange read. Saint Courtney as she will be referred to for the rest of this review is introduced as having a "history" of drugs but clean when she met Kurt. But I guess his powerful personality was just to much for her and dragged her back into drug use. The author goes out of his way to relieve her of all blame for Kurt's spiraling drug abuse and untreated mental illness. She is repeatedly self described in the novel as powerful and yet she is helpless to stop the drug abuse happening in her own home and in her own relationship. If she was as determined as she kept claiming she was in the novel to get and stay clean, she would have kicked Kurt Cobain's Junky ass to the curb. Instead Saint Courtney stayed and shot up with her husband, not because she wanted to but because she loved so much.
Kurt on the other hand comes across as a lying, self-centered, egotistical, douche-bag for the entire book. Every story he ever told about his childhood in every interview was a bald face lie. The only true thing he ever said was that has was from Washington and that his parents were divorced! Living under a bridge, LIE! Stealing his step-dad's guns to buy his first guitar, LIE! Homeless, well he was homeless because he made it impossible for his parents to live with him. he was jealous when his parents tried to move on after they became divorced and he was no longer the center of their universe. Kurt Cobain, The Voice of Generation X turned out to be a GIANT WHINER BABY who turned to drugs as an easy escape.
That is not who we are as a generation. Not then, not now.
As for the book itself. Although well written and apparently Mr Cross interviewed many sources for it, the voice of the book itself comes across as very one note. Was this because of the estate approval? I don't know and I feel I have wasted enough time on the "voice of my generation" so I will probably never find out. Someday I might like to read something from Krist Novoselic or Dave Grohl but not for a long while. This novel has left me with a "Negative Creep" "Sifting" for something better.