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stacymania 's review for:
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
by Michael Azerrad
Wow! This book is fantastic! Big surprise, huh? Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a Nirvana fanatic. This book was written based on more than 25 hours of interviews with the band members, families, friends and a few people on the more corporate side of things. I really enjoyed hearing experiences told from all perspectives. And each member, including their cycle of early drummers has their time in the spotlight.
This book heavily benefits from being written while the band was still together. It negates the retrospective martyr syndrome a lot of pieces on this subject fall guilty to. It was written at the request of Kurt and Courntey, after the prolific Vanity Fair scandal. Even though Azerrad was close with the band he writes honestly, showing the highs and lows of everyone's experiences and personalities to give us a fairly unbiased account of the years.
At times the story is contradictory and even jumps timelines and one has to read between the lines, but that makes it kind of fun! It is all usually intertwined enough that everything pieces together.
This book was originally published six months before Kurt Cobain took his life, and the story ended with the recording of In Utero. Azerrad did add a "new final chapter" in 2001 which was done in a very respectful, reflective manner. You can tell he knew Kurt personally through the care he takes with that section and didn't just write it for sensationalism. (I'm looking at you, Charles R. Cross) However, I would have loved another chapter added between these two covering the release/reception of In Utero, the Heart-Shaped Box music video, Pat Smear, MTV Unplugged and everything else between .
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this portrait of the band. I already hyped four friends into reading it before I was finished! This is 'the' Nirvana biography I would recommend to anyone wanting to know more about the band.
This book heavily benefits from being written while the band was still together. It negates the retrospective martyr syndrome a lot of pieces on this subject fall guilty to. It was written at the request of Kurt and Courntey, after the prolific Vanity Fair scandal. Even though Azerrad was close with the band he writes honestly, showing the highs and lows of everyone's experiences and personalities to give us a fairly unbiased account of the years.
At times the story is contradictory and even jumps timelines and one has to read between the lines, but that makes it kind of fun! It is all usually intertwined enough that everything pieces together.
This book was originally published six months before Kurt Cobain took his life, and the story ended with the recording of In Utero. Azerrad did add a "new final chapter" in 2001 which was done in a very respectful, reflective manner. You can tell he knew Kurt personally through the care he takes with that section and didn't just write it for sensationalism. (I'm looking at you, Charles R. Cross) However, I would have loved another chapter added between these two covering the release/reception of In Utero, the Heart-Shaped Box music video, Pat Smear, MTV Unplugged and everything else between .
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this portrait of the band. I already hyped four friends into reading it before I was finished! This is 'the' Nirvana biography I would recommend to anyone wanting to know more about the band.