Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Book for Cobain Fans!
Review: I picked this book up at a bookstore and I started to read it and I immediately loved it. I read a chapter a night, but sometimes it was so good that I would end up reading 3 or 4 chapters a night instead. Charles R. Cross has excellent information and the book is very accurate. Now some people say that Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad is a better biography of Kurt Cobain. But I totally disagree. I do love Come As You Are by M.A. but the fact is. "Come As You Are" was written using actual interviews with Kurt, which makes it very much more interesting of course. But most Nirvana fans know (or should know) that Kurt loved to exaggerate stories and make up a few lies to all journalists and interviewers. With this being said, "Come As You Are" is definitely a better book if you want to hear the side from Kurt whether it's true or not, but if you want the exact information on his childhood and the way he lived, it's better to here it from Charles R. Cross who had conducted hundreds of interviews with hundreds of different people, instead of just Kurt himself. I mean no offense to Kurt, because he is my idol and I really admire him, but I think we all stretch the truth once in a while about ourselves and others, so it's nice to hear the story from the way other people see you, instead of the way that you think other people see you.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent read for Nirvanians
Review: Well Charles Cross has certainly done his research for this book; he had access to all of Cobain's diaries and, coupling them with an enormous amount of interviews, he produced this gripping read. Personally I don't think it would be of much interest to anyone who wasn't au fait with Cobain and Nirvana but, as I was, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Ignore the conspiracy theorists who longingly insist that Cobain was murdered - he shot himself, nothing could be more obvious upon reading his diaries. Years of fantasising about suicide coupled with his ingestion of high-strength drugs led to his death, not Courtney nor anyone else. We flit from place to place but more or less stay in the Pacific Northwest for most of the book. A tortured soul, Cobain never really seemed happy with his lot. An unhappy upbringing probably started the whole thing off but there may be some credence to the theory that he had a 'suicide' gene in him, given that 2 of his uncles also went out that way. An overall enjoyable read of a slightly depressing subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: best book
Review: i've been a fan of nirvana for along time now and i bought this book to learn more about kurt and his life. i read it in 3 days and this is, in my opinion, the best book i've ever read. all of the people saying it's not good and tells about the bad side of him i truthfully don't see why they would say this. but i think that it is worth the money. you should buy this book!!!
Rating:
Summary: heavier than "come as you are."
Review: i've read all there's been written on cobain/nirvana, and on a comparative scale, this book is one of the best. sure, there's much unverified AND unverifiable information in the book, but isn't that so about all other biographies? all in all, it is a far better read than "come as you are," in which the author keeps repeating himself, and which is quite dull, bland and wimpy. a lot of research and thought has gone into this book. while we still won't know what really happened to kurt, this book does give us a reasonably good background on his life, but not really on his death. however, the combination of this book and "who killed kurt cobain" do come pretty close to depicting a semi-accurate tapestry of kurt's life and death. R.I.P. kurt. we love you!
Rating: 
Summary: we love you kurt
Review: this book was good untill it got to the issue of his death, it is totally biased toward love and goes along with the whole "suicide" thing dont buy it get something proper that does justice to the guy
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Summary: Heavier Than Heaven: He's Human, After All
Review: A reader is put in a delicate position, when evaluating a biography of a man who was reluctantly labeled "the icon of a generation." Luckily, Charles R. Cross' sensitive biography, "Heavier Than Heaven", takes a different approach than some of his predecessors in trying to map out the life of Kurt Cobain - his biography is arguably the most human portrayal of Cobain, thus far. All throughout the book, one senses a genuine affection that the author has in regard to his subject, even if it plays off of sentiment. Kurt Cobain continues, to this day, to boast one of the most passionate of followings. Born February 20, 1967, he was described as everything from "cute" to "just scary." After his parents' divorce, Cobain became increasingly a trouble child, passed on from family member to family member. Already a fragile child, the treacheries of his upbringing - constant pressures from both his parents and their second significant others - pushed him to drug use. In school, he was markedly a quiet child, whose favorite subject (albeit, the only one he was sure to show up in) was art. Eventually, he found solace in music - his influences many, and much of the time, quite random, ranging from a backyard punk sensation, the Melvins, to various pop groups and singers. As a youth, he performed in a variety of punk groups, but the only one to gain significant recognition was, of course, Nirvana, which he formed with his longtime friend Krist Novoselic. With Kurt as singer/guitarist and Krist as bassist, (Nirvana went through its fair share of drummers. They finally ended up with Dave Grohl.) the band would eventually break out of the underground and be catapulted to the greater public's attention with their first commercial release "Nevermind." Despite the mass following this album helped garner the band, Kurt maintained that his next releases would be of a less mass-media-driven nature. "In Utero" followed, and though it may never be as popular as "Nevermind", Kurt spills his guts out to the listener in one of the most personal albums of all time. In April 1994, Kurt was found dead in a storage room above his garage - the final verdict was suicide. Cross develops Kurt's story with sensitivity and respect - interviews with various people who knew Kurt amount to over 300 pages describing Kurt's life, around twenty or so describing his death. These interviews result in a more three-dimensional, more human vision of this man. (I should add that quite a bit of this information is from Cobain's own journals. These are also available from Amazon.) While the sentimentality is still there, it is easy to forgive. We get things like the story of the "Fat Man" - an obese character who Kurt and his friends, as teenagers, would get to buy them beer on the condition that they carry him to the store on a grocery cart. One Christmas, Kurt buys for this man a toaster and record, out of empathy for his helpless condition. The man burst into tears, and for years after, spread the word of what a swell kid Kurt Cobain was. This is the nature of much of what we get with Cross. "It was a small example of how at times, even in Kurt's shadow world, a sweetness would emerge" as the author himself says. Not all of the book brims with sweetness - we also get visions of Kurt attempting to rape a "half-retarded" girl in an act of teenage (...) frustration, and Kurt pawning the guns his mother had throuwn in the river. As many Cobainists are apt to point out, much of Cross' information was filtered through the hands of widow Courtney Love, and this includes his journals and notes (even the suicide notes). In fact, this bio has garnered its fair share of criticism for this very reason from many fans, especially in relation to Cross' reconstruction of Kurt's final hours. Cross is evidently not one of a great number of consperacy theorists who blame Love for Kurt's death. Readers will have to make their own conclusions - there is plenty of information on the internet and in print disputing Cross' representation. This is a biography that paints a picture of Cobain - disturbing at some points, but undeniably sweet at others. It is a picture, it seems, most Nirvana fans are comfortable with as this book has sold comparatively better than many, less affectionate, biographies that have been concocted over the years. Even out of its rock history context, it serves as a deeply moving parable on the effects that we, as parents, teachers, lovers, and fans, can have on those around us. These days, with the divorce rate at almost 50/50 and the drug underground raging, Cobain's is a story that we may have to endure yet again.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy
Review: I bought this book over a year ago, and have read it three times. One of the best books I have ever picked up. As a huge Nirvana Cobain fan, I wanted to learn more about him and the events leading to his tragic death. I wanted to know what compelled him take his own life. This book gave me so many answers. I cried through the whole book. This book takes us through the events of Kurt's life in a very detailed way.It shows us how artistic, talented, and ultimately troubled he was. I highly recommend it to any Kurt Cobain fan.
Rating:
Summary: If I could have picked 0 stars I would have
Review: I completely agree with Rachel from Detroit, Michigan.. This book is more of a "He's suicidal" by Courtney Love than a true biography. If your interested in the facts behind Kurt's "suicide" there are many websites you can visit...just search for Kurt Cobain's Death on any search engine. But, what ever you do..don't waste your money on this book.
Rating:
Summary: Its good as far as books go about Kurt
Review: Its a good book. But it gets off to a real slow start. Kinda boring at first but then it redeams its self and becomes a good book in the end..
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Summary: Louise's Crazed Review
Review: Woa!!!
Hey, you're rigth now at this very moment reading a review from a fifteen year old Nirvana fan. Last time I read a book about a band, every single part of the book was predictable. I knew the band would do drugs, have struggles, and eventually have a tumultous breakup. This book was a wonderful enligthening journey with surprises all the way through. Actually, the entire book was one big unpredictable amazing moment. The band's music explains crazy sad and happy survivals and explains drug addictions and spiritual moments. I couldn't help but fall in love with Kurt Cobain through this book. The author describes his phases in life as if he was Kurt's best friend and really understood all the juicy details of his life, and unique style. That doesn't mean he isn't honest, he pours out Kurts less apealing sides as well. Some chapters get a little bit long at the end of them. You can tell that the author cared a lot about this book, and he explains the amount of research and hard work that went into it. If I were older I wouldn't enjoy the material as much because I am fifteen and unfamiliar with a lot of things in the world still, like the details of heroin addictions.This book is crazy his parents are crazy. Some of the people (not characters) are unbelievable influences in kurt'slife. All of them are explained completely and rigth away you will have a great understanding of each one. Some of the people will make you mad or glad or laugh or you'll want to be their friend. You'll deffinitley want to be Kurt's friend. You'll be amazed at the things people do, and the real struggles that aren't talked about that even the most rich perfect looking families go through. This book will shock you, you havn't read a biography like this before!
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