Rating: Summary: atrocious, badly written, commodified hackwork Review: anyone with an ounce of respect for jim morrison or the doors should stay far, far away from this book, and avoid it like the bubonic plague. the author shamelessly dredges up trivial and particularly unpleasant facts about morrison's teenage years, his drinking problem, possible homoerotic relations, and other assorted nonsense that is mostly conjecture and possibly even made up. as one might expect, the author paints a sugary, charming portrait of his utterly pathetic girlfriend, pamela courson, and implies in all sorts of way that she was just a tortured genius who 'wanted to do her own thing', when the reality of the situation is that she was a pitiful basket case who probably needed serious professional help. but i guess that, as we all know, anyone close to morrison must have been brilliant, and junkies are usually subversive brainiacs!! this lady may know a lot about morrison, but she sure as hell doesn't have any reverence or even basic respect for his memory or his privacy. there is a huge difference between writing a biography and remorselessly tearing into a person's personal life and dragging their skeletons out of the closet for everyone to see. even the jim morrison slurpie cup 'no one here gets out alive' seems substantive and deserving of admiration compared to this trash. (...) she either does not realize or simply does not care how wrong it is to chip away at another person and dredge up every piece of dirt about their lives like this, however famous and creative they might be (or were). i'm a huge jim morrison fan and consider the doors the best rock band ever, but this one must have morrison rolling in his grave. don't buy it, and if someone you know has, burn it.
Rating: Summary: A Great Bio, A Great Read Review: I have to admit it, I've been intrigued with Jim Morrison for close to 20 years now and, I've read a lot of book which all seem to re-hash the same story. This book was genuinely different though. Perhaps because it was written by a woman and perhaps just because the author did her homework and turned over stones no one had looked under before. Whatever the case, this book gives a unique perspective of Jim, Pamela and, the Doors. It brings to life a much more human side of Jim that seems very hard to convey and yet Patricia Butler has done just that. You can almost feel the anguish and grief Jim must have felt as beinig labelled a "rock star". In the same respect, you can almost feel the anguish and grief Pam must have felt by some of Jim's behavior. This is truly a good book even, if you're not a huge Doors fan, I highly recomend it.
Rating: Summary: hope turned to sadness Review: After reading this book I came away with a different view about Jim Morrison and his relationship with Pam Courson. I had no idea of how "clever minded" and genuinely thoughtful and intelligent he could be. She was perfect for him and its very sad that outside influences still ended up taking over their lives which had seemed to be more promising once they had moved to Paris. I stepped out of the box from thinking they were two of rock and roll's drug/alcohol addicts. My view has totally changed and I owe it to the thoughtfulness insight with which this book was written. Anyone who is interested in "real" stories of one of rock's icons and his soulmate need to read this book!
Rating: Summary: angels dance Review: Good, but a lot about Morrison, not a lot about Pamela. I really wanted to read about Pam, so I was a bit disappointed. I really wished there was more about Pam!
Rating: Summary: Sweet, Romantic & A Refreshing Change! Review: This is EXACTLY the book I was looking for to read about Jim Morrison and his woman, Pam! I really didn't want to read about tour dates or naive' women claiming to be his 'true love'. I wanted an open and honest (sometimes sad, sometimes funny) account of his life with Pam! I got just that with this wonderful book! Wonderful reading!!!! Great information on the Jim and the his one true love! Good job!
Rating: Summary: Good Informations for Jim's fans Review: Well, Morrison is my favorite poet, and as with any other artist i admire, i wanted to know a little more about his life.I read some biographies on him, but this is the first that brings some information about Pamela and if you know Jim's poetry you know she WAS that important in his life. Great photos, and, better understood if you read Ray Manzarek's book. A must read for Jim's admirers.
Rating: Summary: Cosmic Mates Review: Life was cut short for these two love struck artists! Beautiful story. Truly inspiring. I found it profound and beautiful at the same time. If only everyone could have such a romance as this without the few problems they had.
Rating: Summary: worth reading Review: I recommend this for more serious Morrison fans, it's not a book someone should read for the love story. It gives an interesting and thorough bio of Pam, but it falls back on a lot of information about Morrison that is already in most of the other books. The stories about them are amusing and funny, however the reader must keep in mind that the Doors "inner circle" of people are known for glamorizing and fabricating stories. The book also features four beautiful photograghs of Jim and Pamela and rare black and white photos throughout.
Rating: Summary: IT WASN'T "TRAGIC" AND IT WAS HARDLY A "ROMANCE" Review: Jim Morrison's and Pamela Courson's relationship was based on co-dependence; Morrison needed Courson and vice versa, but that need was for unhealthy and inconducive reasons. Butler just slightly acknowledges this in her book but fails to extract and undig the underlying reasons for this co-dependent relationship. I thought I would find answers here in this book, seeing as how the author supposedly spent years researching and developing the material for her book. But, wouldn't you know, it's just another book about Morrison that only skims the surface of facts with no deep investigation.There is, however, something new here: according to the wife of Morrison's lawyer, Max Fink, Jim was mollested as a child. (I had suspected something like this had happened to Jim all along, and it's about time that that truth about him has finally surfaced.) The details of this event are sketchy at best, but when Butler presents this information to Paul Rothchild (Doors producer), his reaction is "Well that explains a lot." Rothchild referring to Morrison's behavior and antics, he knew Jim better than just about anybody else. As far as Pam Courson is concerned, I wasn't interested in reading about her, but there is some info here for those who care to read about it. It is my belief that Pam Courson was Jim Morrison's first and foremost sycophant. She relied on him in such a way that she could not function as a human being after Jim died. Indeed, she became a prostitute and continued consuming heroin to such an extent that it killed her. It is unbelievably gross that Pamela Courson's name includes "Morrison" on the title of the site where her remains are held. Shame on her and her family for falsely misusing Jim Morrison's name. Pam was NEVER, EVER married to Jim in any way - legal or not. In any event, read this book and judge for yourself.
Rating: Summary: poorly executed Review: anybody with a sincere interest in the life of the doors and jim morrison will find this book at best unrewarding, but critical readers who know something about the subject might reasonably call it ludicrous. even overlooking the egregious errors of fact and obvious sensationalism (pam's "eternal" role as jim's muse and the fictionalized fable presented as pam's biography, respectively), the book, so obviously meant to be shocking, is feeble & transparent for its efforts. anyone who has read even only manczarek's and densmore's books on the doors' musical career and their involvement with jim will probably be disgusted. the book isn't especially readable, either. it sort of stumbles along awkwardly, making the reader wonder where the editor was. too bad. even as a work of fiction (& god knows most of the "biographical" work out there now on jim & the doors is fictitious), it could have made an interesting fairy tale. but besides the selective interviewing, unspecified sources, and conspicuous omissions of detail on well-known events between jim & pam extensively documented elsewhere, it's got a good selection of pictures of jim & pam together. just odd at best: sloppily researched, flimsy content unimpressively rendered. get the music.
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