Bowie: A Biography

Great!

It took me a lot longer to get through this biography than most. I thought for sure, a book about someone like David Bowie would be an interesting read. I think the problem here lies in the author. I never felt engrossed in the story, not in Bowie's beginnings and not in the conclusion which summed up the last decade. Spitz's look at a man he idolizes seems to be lacking heart, and while that may have been intentional, I think the results suffer for it.

I was looking forward to reading this. I am a big fan of Bowie’s middle to late musical career, so finding out a little more about what contributed to his iconic status was an easy lure for me. Spitz had an unusual tack for a biography, in that he follows Bowie’s career by following his major hits. The implicit assumption is that Bowie was after such wide success from the start and therefore Bowie had achieved his record selling goals while maintaining his artistic integrity. According to Spitz, Bowie’s popularity allowed him to pursue side projects and diversify into new areas where he could market himself (film, stage drama, music video). Spitz documents Bowie’s arc of popularity directly from Space Oddity, to Diamond Dogs, to show more Young Americans, to Heroes, to Ashes to Ashes, ending in Let’s Dance. Unfortunately the book might have ended at chapter 24. After that chapter there is no longer a biography but a series of epilogical personal reflections related to Bowie. Spitz hopes that Bowie one day will thumb through the book while at the bookstore. I doubt Bowie will. There is much that is unpleasant about Bowie’s life here. No actual Bowie interviews were granted to Spitz. The book was in the end sufficiently interesting, as I had not read anything else about Bowie. The photos were numerous enough to glimpse the many phases of Bowie’s transformations. As a complete book ‘Bowie’ lacks rigor but as a work composed by a fellow fan of Bowie I am willing to grant leeway for the weak ending and the many digressions meant to add context but come off as extended asides. I was interested in Bowie's attraction to Buddhism and I wish Spitz had covered more of the interior life of Bowie. Bibliography and index. show less

The grit and the rumors on our thin, white knight of song. Bowie is THE rock star of our time (or at least the '69 to '83 part of that) -- a new look, a new sound with almost every album he's ever done. This unauthorized biography seems fairly well researched and relatively balanced though it's obvious the author adores Bowie. I would have given this book four stars, but thought it just was not dense enough.

Horribly self-serving book. Bailed after 50-100 pages when the author still had told me little about Bowie other than how he (the author) idolized him.