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A review by prosewhore
Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love by Courtney Love
5.0
I've had an odd "relationship" with Courtney Love.
I used to loathe her, as an early teen I bought into all the conspiracy theories surrounding Kurt's death (because I didn't know enough about the situation, marriage, careers of these two people to make my own opinion + was young + had internalised misogyny A LOT + like a lot of people couldn't understand why someone like Kurt wasn't still alive..)
I've grown a lot since then and a couple of years ago maybe I decided to give Hole a second chance and became absolutely infatuated with Courtney.
I can see bits of myself in her while still aspire to be as great and successful as her. This woman is a force of nature, a survivor and there are few in the industry who are so ready to openly show their cracks and with so much dignity.
Of course she is a legend and a genius, and while I love Baudelaire and Poe if you ask me who my favourite poet is, she immediately comes to mind.
I received this book for my birthday and devoured it since. It's a collection of diary entries and alongside come photographs, copies of letters, postcards etc.. I've got the hardcover edition and it's a lot bigger and longer than I had imagined.
This is not a replacement for a biography. If you start reading this without knowing much about her life, while I'm sure you could still enjoy reading her words, I don't think you would quite grasp the essence of her personality. A lot is missing of course, I personally would have loved to read more about the time she spent -stripping etc- abroad with her friends as a teen. For fans however, I think this is great and helps to understand her and the way she thinks, writes etc better.
For me I'd say, it confirmed everything I already knew about her, how incredibly smart she is, how resilient and yet sensitive (in the best of ways).
We get to read about her love for her daughter, which is a part of her life she usually keeps more private (understandably).
She kept it really classy though, if you are looking for celebrity gossip, horrible details about her life, as a child, as a widow, single mum etc, it's not in there! I think both out of respect for other, herself and for privacy.
As someone that writes a lot and dabbles in poetry, I found it really interesting to see the evolution of songs, some we do know as the public, where just a few lines stuck and the feel changed completely or bits of writing jotted down at different times that got mixed together later on.. Aborted pieces. etc..
It's also a very well edited, a truly beautiful book to have on display.
Personally I think I've fallen even more in love with this wonderful lady, this is certainly a book I will go back to, I think it holds a lot of wisdom.
Edit/// TL;DR: would recommend to all fans, helps you dive a little further into her mind and work. beautifully edited.
I used to loathe her, as an early teen I bought into all the conspiracy theories surrounding Kurt's death (because I didn't know enough about the situation, marriage, careers of these two people to make my own opinion + was young + had internalised misogyny A LOT + like a lot of people couldn't understand why someone like Kurt wasn't still alive..)
I've grown a lot since then and a couple of years ago maybe I decided to give Hole a second chance and became absolutely infatuated with Courtney.
I can see bits of myself in her while still aspire to be as great and successful as her. This woman is a force of nature, a survivor and there are few in the industry who are so ready to openly show their cracks and with so much dignity.
Of course she is a legend and a genius, and while I love Baudelaire and Poe if you ask me who my favourite poet is, she immediately comes to mind.
I received this book for my birthday and devoured it since. It's a collection of diary entries and alongside come photographs, copies of letters, postcards etc.. I've got the hardcover edition and it's a lot bigger and longer than I had imagined.
This is not a replacement for a biography. If you start reading this without knowing much about her life, while I'm sure you could still enjoy reading her words, I don't think you would quite grasp the essence of her personality. A lot is missing of course, I personally would have loved to read more about the time she spent -stripping etc- abroad with her friends as a teen. For fans however, I think this is great and helps to understand her and the way she thinks, writes etc better.
For me I'd say, it confirmed everything I already knew about her, how incredibly smart she is, how resilient and yet sensitive (in the best of ways).
We get to read about her love for her daughter, which is a part of her life she usually keeps more private (understandably).
She kept it really classy though, if you are looking for celebrity gossip, horrible details about her life, as a child, as a widow, single mum etc, it's not in there! I think both out of respect for other, herself and for privacy.
As someone that writes a lot and dabbles in poetry, I found it really interesting to see the evolution of songs, some we do know as the public, where just a few lines stuck and the feel changed completely or bits of writing jotted down at different times that got mixed together later on.. Aborted pieces. etc..
It's also a very well edited, a truly beautiful book to have on display.
Personally I think I've fallen even more in love with this wonderful lady, this is certainly a book I will go back to, I think it holds a lot of wisdom.
Edit/// TL;DR: would recommend to all fans, helps you dive a little further into her mind and work. beautifully edited.