Autobiography by Morrissey - The Sunday Times (subscription required). Link posted by Uncleskinny (original post / excerpt scan).
by AA Gill Published: 27 October 2013
The failures of teachers, the ingratitude of fellow musicians. There’s no slight too small that isn’t rehashed in Morrissey’s self-pitying memoir
Excerpt:
There are many pop autobiographies that shouldn't be written. Some to protect the unwary reader, and some to protect the author. In Morrissey's case, he has managed both. This is a book that cries out like one of his maudlin ditties to be edited. But were an editor to start, there would be no stopping. It is a heavy tome, utterly devoid of insight, warmth, wisdom or likeability. It is a potential firelighter of vanity, self-pity and logorrhoeic dullness. Putting it in Penguin Classics doesn't diminish Aristotle or Homer or Tolstoy; it just roundly mocks Morrissey, and this is a humiliation constructed by the self-regard of its victim.
An anonymous person writes (original post):
Private Eye (issue 1351) claims that Morrissey's contract with Penguin stipulated a condition of a minimum 24 books per order for shops - even small independent shops. And suggests that such practice is not the norm.
Books & Bookmen - site excerpt:
With Bookworm: "The case of Morrissey’s memoirs, published this week, suggests that dealing with pop stars turns normally mature and rational editors into panting, self-abasing teenage fans, prepared to offer or allow anything to their gods even if shame is the price. Not one but two top-flight publishers have been humiliated since it emerged that the former Smiths frontman had a sizeable typescript for sale…”
by AA Gill Published: 27 October 2013
The failures of teachers, the ingratitude of fellow musicians. There’s no slight too small that isn’t rehashed in Morrissey’s self-pitying memoir
Excerpt:
There are many pop autobiographies that shouldn't be written. Some to protect the unwary reader, and some to protect the author. In Morrissey's case, he has managed both. This is a book that cries out like one of his maudlin ditties to be edited. But were an editor to start, there would be no stopping. It is a heavy tome, utterly devoid of insight, warmth, wisdom or likeability. It is a potential firelighter of vanity, self-pity and logorrhoeic dullness. Putting it in Penguin Classics doesn't diminish Aristotle or Homer or Tolstoy; it just roundly mocks Morrissey, and this is a humiliation constructed by the self-regard of its victim.
An anonymous person writes (original post):
Private Eye (issue 1351) claims that Morrissey's contract with Penguin stipulated a condition of a minimum 24 books per order for shops - even small independent shops. And suggests that such practice is not the norm.
Books & Bookmen - site excerpt:
With Bookworm: "The case of Morrissey’s memoirs, published this week, suggests that dealing with pop stars turns normally mature and rational editors into panting, self-abasing teenage fans, prepared to offer or allow anything to their gods even if shame is the price. Not one but two top-flight publishers have been humiliated since it emerged that the former Smiths frontman had a sizeable typescript for sale…”
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