Angels Dance and Angels Die: The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison

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Summary: A Tragic Love Story
Review: I found this story to be enchanting. Being a Doors fan I found this book to very informational on the subject of the romance of a legendary rock star and his soulmate. The story unfolds the mysteries of Jim and Pam's deaths and furthermore gives you insight to the behind the scenes life of these two people.

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Summary: An Irresistible Love Story
Review: I'm a sucker for a good love story, and this book is certainly that! Even if you're not a Doors fan, you'll be drawn into the lives of these interesting people and haunted by their tragic ends. A cautionary tale wrapped in an absorbing love story.

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Summary: Simply the Best
Review: Not only the ONLY book about the true-life love story of Jim and Pamela Morrison, but the best book on Jim Morrison I've ever read (and I've read them all). Honest, fair, and very well-written. A great read about a great love.

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Summary: First book I've read in 6 yrs. and well worth the wait!!!
Review: As I said above, I never get interested in anything so much that I'd actually sit down and read about it. So I rented Oliver Stone's movie about The Doors. The Jim & Pam in that flick actually frightened me. I was relieved to find someone (Patricia Butler) who actually put time into researching the "true" story behind The Doors. I could really relate to both Jim & Pam because they were more human to me now. Not just some mythical type drug addicts. Being the first book that I've read in such a long time, I really have to say that I couldn't have picked a better book

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Summary: Some Clarifications
Review: I appreciate reading all the reader comments about my book, though I don't generally like to comment on any of your remarks. I would, however, like to clarify a couple of things after having read the January 10 comments from the "reader from Seattle." It was interesting that this person started out by saying that my book was supposed to be about Pamela. This is an old rumor. In fact, as the subtitle -- "The Tragic Romance of Pamela and Jim Morrison" -- implies, the book is not about Pamela, but about Pam and Jim and their relationship. Also, there is, in fact, much new information about both Jim and Pam in my book that has never been published anywhere before. Since I started out simply looking for answers to my own questions about the couple, it was thrilling for me to be able to uncover so much new information and speak with people who've never agreed to speak with anyone about Jim and Pam before. I know others will be just as excited as I was to hear what these people have to say after all this time. As for Pamela being "elsewhere" during much of the book, having "ceased to exist for three chapters or so", there are only two widely-spaced chapters in my book (out of 18) in which Pam is not mentioned. Anyone who is part of a couple well knows that being a couple doesn't fuse two people into one person. Individuals in relationships are still individuals and still have individual experiences that don't necessarily actively involve their partner. Just so, in a dual biography there will be varying emphasis on the two subjects in various parts of the biography. The overall emphasis of the book is just as often on Pamela as on Jim. As for the notion that Pamela must not have really been witty and intelligent because one of her high school friends, during my phone conversation with her, couldn't remember an exact line -- after 30+ years -- to illustrate her point, I think that's normal and in no way diminishes her original point, which was that Pamela was a pleasure to hang out with in high school and always made her laugh, a point made by others as well. This book, again as the subtitle suggests, is about the love between two people who died too soon. It's not about The Doors, though they play an obvious role, nor about other women or men, though they have their place and impact as well. The book is, instead, about Jim and Pam, two very young people who came together the first night they laid eyes on each other, and were never really apart again even, as some would argue, into death. I found their story to be sad, romantic, funny, touching, and ultimately tragic. I enjoyed the years I spent getting to know them better, and I hope readers will enjoy the information I'm pleased to share in my book. I do welcome readers' questions and comments. Please feel free to email me. Thanks for reading

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Summary: This book will make you dumber
Review: The only word that comes to mind in describing this book is joke. The wild stories and theories that Butler constructs are laughable. She goes from Jim being gay, to Jim hating the Doors, to Jim dying from an asthmatic condition that she is the first to uncover quite seemlessly. I felt ripped off in paying $20 for this piece of trash. Her sentimentality for the two "star crossed-lovers" is nice to read, for about five minutes. But the tediousness of the writing makes this book a bore when Jim isn't accused of being gay. If you are a Morrison fan and feel like knowing wrong information anf being aggravated, read this book. Otherwise save the money and buy a cd or Ray's book.

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Summary: Pamela was elsewhere...
Review: Obstensibly, this book is about Pamela. I learned nothing new about Pamela Courson. Perhaps some stuff about her childhood, but that's it. Having never read another Doors book I was expecting to find some new facet. The book was like a Reader's Digest condensed version of Jim's life, and it was all stuff I already knew, all of it, information that has, for the most part, become part of our popular culture and Morrison's legend. The author treated her main subject, Pamela, as a tertiary character. So many chapters and paragraphs in the book contained this key line: "Pamela was elsewhere." or "Pamela made herself scarce." Where was she? What was she doing wherever she was? Pamela would just cease to exist for three chapters or so, then pop back up as a plot device. As for Pamela's supposed and vaunted intelligence to which the author's sources kept referring, including one who put Pamela on a par with Dorothy Parker for witticism, I think the most telling quote was: "She would make these clever quips - I wish I could think of one." Funny, Mrs. Parker's bon mots are remembered to this day, 50 years or so after she said them, and I do mean the ones she SAID, not just the written ones. If someone is truly witty and intelligent, their words are remembered. The author achieved what one would think would be impossible in a biography, she made her main subject even more obscure, faint and distant.

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Summary: A Technicolor Love Letter
Review: I loved reading this book! From the first page, the author pulled me in and kept me reading until the very last word -- and even then I hated to put it down! This is the only book I've read that puts Jim Morrison's work in the proper context with his personal life, the biggest part of which was his incredible relationship with Pamela. It's such a shame that there are those who would use this book as an excuse to further promote their own outrageous claims against Morrison. A person only has to look at the choices Morrison made, particularly leaving the country with the woman he loved, to see where his heart lay. What a shame people are still fighting over such things after Jim and Pam have been dead for nearly 30 years. What Jim and Pam shared -- what they still share, in my opinion -- can't be touched by the naysayers or detractors. Theirs was a love that transcended the grave and will certainly transcend anyone or anything here on earth. Jim and Pam's story is certainly beautifully and very fairly and objectively presented in this book. A great read.

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Summary: Great!
Review: I am a huge Morrison fan. I have read Patricia's version of Jim and Pam's relationship and was eager to see what others thought of it. I won't take sides because I really liked Patricia's book, but I do recommend you read both. It was a welcomed addition to my Morrison library

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Summary: Like real life, only more so
Review: A bio with its heart and mind in the right place, even if it seems slightly wide-eyed and unpolished. This is the first believable account I've seen, with enough humanity and curiosity to show these characters in a way that fits in the world we knew then and know now. Fascinating figures on the remote edge of normalcy: angels, surely; neither gods nor demons though, as those who insist on seeing them in one or the other of those roles will of course take quick offense with Butler for hitting the subject very nearly in the center of its truth. Well worth reading.