Take a photo of a barcode or cover
missnicelady 's review for:
Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink
by Elvis Costello
How can a 670-page autobiography feel incomplete? Costello is a wonderful writer -- just as witty and insightful and withering as you'd expect if you're at all familiar with his music. But the topics feel all out of proportion. I didn't mind the nonchronological approach, but he's coy about the personal topics and expansive about all of his way-less-interesting post-Attractions collaborations, charity benefit performances, etc. His 17-year relationship with Cait O'Riordan (I was surprised to learn here that they were never legally married) merits only two pages of vague regret, but then he barfs up approximately 300 pages of namedropping T-BoneBurnettBobDylanEmmylouHarrisJohnnyCashAllenToussaintScarlettJohannsenblahblahblah. Also, anyone looking for some inside scoop on why the Attractions broke up is SOL -- something about drinking and Bruce Thomas being a jerk? It's all very reticent for a guy who once wrote "I wish you luck with a capital F."
The throughline is his relationship with his father and grandfather, also musicians, and Costello writes beautifully about them, and about his relationships with his own sons, who also seem inclined toward the family business. The chapter about his father's death from Parkinson's had me sobbing.
The throughline is his relationship with his father and grandfather, also musicians, and Costello writes beautifully about them, and about his relationships with his own sons, who also seem inclined toward the family business. The chapter about his father's death from Parkinson's had me sobbing.