Rating: 
Summary: What a fantastic book !!!!
Review: If you are a great Joy Division fan then this book is a must for you. I have read it three times and every time I read it, I think I'm with the band back in those days from '77 until'80. It's written fantastically. More about Ian Curtis as a person than as a musician. This is why the book is so fantastic. Read it and read it again and again and...
Rating: 
Summary: It depends on how you see it...
Review: If you view this book as the biography of a woman who also happened to be Ian Curtis' wife, it's fine. If you view it as a book about Ian Curtis, it's not very fine. In fact, as several people have pointed out - Deborah never really seemed to be all that close to Ian. Whether that was her fault or whether it was because Ian was just being a jerk is not for us to judge (and as someone else said earlier, Deborah was likely bitter herself, seeing as Ian was having an affair, and thus more than likely to simply explain it as the latter). In essence, we learn what Ian did at such-and-such point, but never what inspired him to write "She's Lost Control" or "Twenty-Four Hours." In fact, Deborah seemed to be rather resentful towards the band and blamed it (among other things) for driving a wedge between them. She did not understand him, and he did not understand her (remember the words to "I Remember Nothing"?). I will, however, say the one thing about what some people have said - Ian Curtis, though it would be cretinous to assume he was devoid of faults, was certainly not a Nazi. As I understand, Deborah wrote that he was "obsessed" with things like the uniforms, the appearance, the organization of Nazism. Interpret that as you will. I will, however, bring up two quotes, both by Ian Curtis himself: 1. "This is the room, the start of it all / no portrait so fine - only sheets on the wall / I've seen the nights, filled with bloodsport and pain / and the bodies obtained, the bodies obtained / where will it end?" - Joy Division, "Day of the Lords" 2. "All dressed in uniforms so fine / they drank and killed to pass the time / wearing the shame of all their crimes / with measured steps they walked in line / they walked in line" - Joy Division, "They Walked in Line" Somehow that does not strike me as something a diehard Hitler fan would say. In fact, it seems to me to be the direct _opposite_. And "Decades," though I still don't know what it's about, has always brought up images in my mind of young Allied [European] soldiers going into Germany at the end of World War II and discovering the full unspeakable horrors of the concentration camps - "we knocked on the doors of Hell's darker chambers / pushed to the limits we dragged ourselves in" - and being scarred by that for life. So, judging from Ian's _own words_ that he _passionately sang_, the "Ian was a Nazi" argument becomes rather groundless. (Why do people make such statements, anyway?) ..., the _name of his band itself_ comes from a book that describes the _utter terror_ of a Nazi camp. And so, after all that, at the end of this book, we're not a single step closer to understanding the kind of person Ian was. (I'm not even getting into the idea that we, based on some of what I mentioned above, don't really know how much faith to put in Deborah's book...) Kind of frustrating, really...
Rating: 
Summary: ...further all the time
Review: In this memoir written by his wife, Ian Curtis is painted in drab colors and lonliness. Much more than young man angst was going through Ians mind during his lifetime. His attempts at normalcy (marriage, children and employment) are alternately sincere and patronizing. He seems to love and despise his family within the space of days.That he killed himself on the eve of Joy Division first U.S. tour is another major paradox in his life, especially after devoting so much energy and time into making the band a success. He was lonely, angry, frightened, bitter and pitiful. And brilliant. The addition of lyrics at the end of the book is a wonderful treat. For the Joy Division fan that had canonized Ian Curtis as a victim this book will be an eye opener. For those of us that prefer he remain human we will now know that most of his problems were self-inflicted and his nihilistic philosophy was self-fullfilling.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't read this one expecting the full truth.
Review: Keep in mind while you read this book (if you read this book) that Deborah Curtis is writing as a bitter and betrayed wife of a severely depressed man. She writes more than a decade after her husband's death, a decade where she's gained no fame from her late husband's success. Also keep in mind that at the time of his death, Ian had been cheating on his wife (and was apparently quite in love with his mistress) and the couple were in the process of divorcing. Several of the members have said vague things about the book about its apparently lack of validity in many respects.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting tale
Review: Not all that well written, but an interesting and sad story of mental illness, art, and relationships. Definately a shooting star that burned out fast and bright...
Rating:
Summary: Sorry, That's Life
Review: Realistic fans of Joy Division will love this book for the intimate window it provides on a troubled but brilliant man. Silly groupie-types who prefer the doomed-angst-angel myth that has grown around Ian Curtis will be outraged, because the book portrays him as he was: a flawed human being. I suggest these kids stick with their fantasies. Reality is so much more fascinating, though. Deborah Curtis writes with great economy, fairness, and insight, and her book is a godsend to the serious alternative music fan.
Rating:
Summary: You're going to reap just what you sow
Review: The first feeling that comes up after having read the book is of deep sorrow. Sorrow for being a pasive witness of how the marriage of Ian and his wife Deborah is sinking - not surprisingly, though- and despite everybody knows about how it all ends at the book (with Ian`s suicide), his death comes at the end like a shock, perhaps coz' the story is being told with all particular by -probably- the only person on earth who knew him fairly well in all his nitty-gritties, illness and existential abysses.
The sight of Ian lying dead in the kitchen is not less frightening than that one in which Deborah bursts into an histerical laughter after the burial as a sign of her whole strained tension accumulated over the years, to finally find out that those ones who were supossed to know him well (Joy Division fellows, Gretton, Wilson) really hadn't any clue and were not keen to see the dark clouds behind his mind.
In this personal, strong and honest written book, Deborah Curtis leads us by the hand within her personal tragedy of failure and betrayal like Dante's fall in the hell, leading an almost underdog existence placed in one of the victims of the industrial revolution (Madchester) while his husband's having his big time. At the same she shows us a glimpse of Ian`s personal tragedy, his illness, his wit and self-destructive tendences, like a Hamlet of the rock & roll scene who's forced to suffer in silence for his realer, hidden personality full of wrath, pain and compassion, while at the same time is being praised for his charisma and his talent.
Another important issue in the book is the role of women in the music bizz' which reminds more the stone age than the homo sapiens era, hence I think John Savage's foreword fits perfectly and points out well what the book is about in part: about how women are treated like in the macho world of musicians, and above all: wives and close relatives.
The man Ian Curtis exposed: visionary as musician and lyricist, but a bummer as a husband and family man.
It's also showed how neurotic managers/mentors deal with their protegés, always ready to kick off everything and everyone that get on their way for the sake of rock and roll -maybe for their own inability to deal with their own relationships or being even unable of having ones-, feel like having authority to tell band members how to deal with their marriages or how they should drive (destroy?) their family lives. Ian's myth's been disconstructed along the story and -sourly- we have to take into account that he -the sweet dark angel, the profet of the strange- could also be mean and cruel like the rest of us, like the rest of the mortals. For this reason I found those passages rather unpleasant to read at the beginning, in which he lets Deborah down and prefers to let himself been taken over by other's advices about what a rock & roll bride is supossed to be -- managers and body-guard gorillas banning pregnant wives from the backstage, then too much reality could harm the glamorous image-. He/they let that happen...A sign of an irresolute mind unkeen to make decisions of his own?.
But the myth disconstruction is very relative and the tables are turned for the reader even long before his death. There was a hole in Ian's soul and the book is full of touching moments that state his terrible loneliness and inner split. Like that one in which he's reading an Oscar Wilde's tale for Deborah about that Prince and the swallow and all the suffering of the world and then suddenly he broke down. Or that more shuddering in which he dreams of Deborah strolling alone along a beach -without him. And the dream fulfills itself in the summer inmediately after his death, when Deborah spends a holiday with his parents in Scotland...there she suddenly realizes about the premonitory nature of Ian's dream: a nightmare becoming reality. Tough, apart from his work and his lyrics---a testamentary legacy for many generations-, these happenings state the idea that Ian was someone from another world, a voice for a whole generation that broke the silence of the traumatic after-war era, exposing for the general public "an atrocity exhibition" that really happened not so long before. Carl Gustav Jung wrote once that from time to time some individuals are born who conglomerate all psychic forces underneath the general collective to pass away too soon -probably unable to stand the pressure of being continually confronted with them-. One can see in songs like "Decades" or "Ice Age" that this was about his collective and personal drama and that there are people like Ian that have an special allowance to a back door in his mind that leads to all the blackholes of the mankind.
In these terrible times, those words that Ian wrote over two decades ago are more vivid and present than ever. Hell seems to be around the corner and those atrocities he wrote about which seemed to be so far away and happening in exotic far away places are reaching us slowly, but firmly. The story could repeat itself in less than hundred years.
I can only add to all this that this book's a MUST for every Joy Division fan. It's up to everyone to figure out the reason for his suicide, but most important is the fact that it was written by someone who was once very close to him and not by any of his Joy Division fellows or any music reviewer -who surely would have paint the whole thing in cool pastel colours to keep the cliché alive, like in the "24 hours people" thingie- and though some passages or insights are quite subjectiv-coloured (which is alright too), you can read between the lines and get the whole picture of what it could have been or really was. The writing style is direct, slight and honest and sometimes so vivid and plastic that one thinks to be suddenly in the living room and hear the conversations or see Candy rushing around all corners of the house. The chapters about Ian's childhood and those parties at Oliver Cleaver's are fascinating, the piccies, moving.
I'm sure Deborah Curtis's been the right one to write a book about Ian. I had already embraced her in my heart and
wish her all the best. So as I had done mit Ian, this book had brought me closer to him, despite discovering the bad husband, the schizoid, the liar, the rock star who'd prefered to roam around the world with a circus... CLoSER, yes, I can see it clearly now:
(I see your face still in my window/ Torments yet calms, won't see me free/ Something must break now/ THIS LIFE ISN'T MINE/ Something must break now/ Wait for the time/ Something must break)
Rating:
Summary: You dunn her wrong
Review: There was a lot of hype over this release suggesting Curtis was a 'right wing racist'. What this actually amounted to was the fact he voted conservative and made some off colour remarks about curry. The best line is when he votes conservative on polling day and wouldn't let his wife vote labour because it would cancel his vote! Priceless.
I'm shocked by the mysogyny on this page. 'What did he see in this totally unremarkable women?' Why is she unremarkable, just because she's a housewife and not a pop star? Nonsense. All human beings can be remarkable if you bother to look 'closer'. Besides, he was no catch himself, being a bug-eyed stick insect that worked for the DHSS. Also to claim she did nothing to help or support his problems. Piffle. I think women are heartily sick of this kind of accusation, as if the world revolves around men's backsides. He was away touring all the time, seeing other women and refused to support his kid. Looking after kids is a full time job and she was housebound because of it. I think she showed remarkable little bitterness considering and as for being a 'jejune and insipid' writer, what do you expect, Ibsen? I thought she did a perspicacious job. Women are no fools, and her portraits of men are deadly accurate.
Ultimately, you would do well to remember they were both young.
Rating:
Summary: A Helpful Review
Review: This book = great.
P.S.: I have not read this book, but I suspect the above statement is true. This is based on nothing but pure conjecture and suspicion.
Rating: 
Summary: a murky character
Review: This book is billed as the insider's account that I had been looking for on the life of Ian Curtis. But it didn't really paint a clear picture of this influential musical genius for me. It didn't reveal who Ian Curtis really was. For the most part the book seemed to consist of chronological facts ("Ian did this...then we did this...and then such and such...") listed in a detached style as opposed to written, almost like the style of a simple diary. So I never got the inside confession of where the lyrics for "Dead Souls" came from, or if Ian's epilepsy had started before he wrote and recorded "She's Lost Control." What I concluded at the end was that this book was a disappointment because the author, Ian's own wife, never got to know him. Then it hit me, that this book conveys something very sad in crystal clear fashion about the music industry's idol- he never let his own wife get to know who he was, nor anyone else. Never in 10+ years. And that tells us very indelibly who Ian Curtis was. So now my disappointment lays with the truth of Ian's coldness and selfishness, and not with the book which turns out to be pretty succesful in its biographical portrait after all. Don't expect the world, but read it all the same. You won't learn the inside thoughts and motivations of this great singer and songwriter, but you will be able to feel the choking emotional isolation with which he imprisoned those who loved him most.
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