Rating: 
Summary: The Man Comes Around...
Review: I'm not sure why everything written about Johnny Cash is so entertaining. This book is no exception. It is a quick runthrough of his career and the spiritual journey underlining it all. It is very informative and very inspiring! The book is for any fan of Johnny Cash's. You don't have to be a religious person to get a lot out of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around is an inspirational story of trial and triumph. Even if you're not a Cash fan and don't know anything about the man, this book will interest you. What a remarkable man with an incredible story and life. This was one of those books I didn't want to put down until I was finished. It is a reminder of the appreciation we should all have for life and faith. This book is an insightful look at an American legend. Enjoy this book and get to know the Man in Black.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: Johnny Cash: The Man Comes Around is an inspirational story of trial and triumph. Even if you're not a Cash fan and don't know anything about the man, this book will interest you. What a remarkable man with an incredible story and life. This was one of those books I didn't want to put down until I was finished. It is a reminder of the appreciation we should all have for life and faith. This book is an insightful look at an American legend. Enjoy this book and get to know the Man in Black.
Rating: 
Summary: 2nd best Cash bio I know
Review: The complexities of Cash's personality will keep biographers busy for years. Johnny Cash was a man of baffling contradictions. Steve Turner, in his superior bio., The Man Called Cash (2004) relays an event that is illustrative: Cash goes shooting and wounds a crow. He is so moved with compassion for the bird that he goes to great lengths to nurse it back to health. Turner writes, "...it encapsulated Cash's contradictions. Here was a man, though capable of destruction, who became overwhlemed with the desire to repair what he had destroyed; a nonviolent man who had a love affair with guns; an artist who could cause suffering and then turn that suffering into art..."
Cash's Christian was deep and abiding and passionate, but complex. Urbanski makes a good effort at portraying this, and generally succeeds. It is lovingly written and organized (if somewhatly shallow at times). Don't look for much critical engagemnet -- this is pure hagiography. I really should subtract one star for publishing this with "Relevent Books." What a STUPID name! Proof positive they are irrelevent.
Publisher aside, this book is a must have for diehard Cash fans. But if you are only going to get one bio., definitely make it the Turner one.
Rating:
Summary: Exploring the history of the Man in Black
Review: When I was six or seven, my parents brought me home my first "Christian" comic books. They were mostly Archie's, but I distinctly remember one about a singer who got involved in drugs. If I concentrate, I can still see the pictures of this singer jumping out of a jeep as it was going off a cliff and climbing into a cave, only to re-emerge a re-born Christian. The singer was, of course, Johnny Cash.Unfortunately, the singer-songwriter's recent passing leaves the music world feeling empty, but far more full than if he had never come. Now, with this latest volume of Relevant Books' Spiritual Journeys series, The Man Comes Around, we are given the privilege of exploring this great man's life as never before. Once again, the dichotomy of a true Christian life is explored. A man who was one of the first to fall to the siren song of drug abuse, yet still clung desperately to the faith of his mother and late older brother. As the Apostle Paul would say, what I don't want to do I do, and what I try to do I just can't sometimes. It's funny though, the Christian community never quite accepted Johnny Cash, and that is explored in the book as well. Odd how a man can be vouched for by the most well known and well-traveled evangelical preacher on earth, Billy Graham, and still be looked down upon by Graham's fellow brothers in Christ. If you're looking for insight into a man who revolutionized Country, Folk and Rock music, while running with both the devil and God, this is the book for you. Hey, even if you just enjoyed the video to Hurt and want to understand the man who made Nine Inch Nails lyrics work so well - check it out as well. The best part of this book, like most from Relevant Books, is that it doesn't talk down to you, hide the truth, or blanket everything in a wishy-washy Christian propaganda. As Johnny himself said a time or two, "I don't impose myself on anybody in any way, including religion. When you're imposing, you're offending... telling others is part of our faith all right, but the way we live speaks louder than we can say it... the gospel of Christ must always be an open door with a welcome sign for all." 5 Stars, well earned.
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