Alias David Bowie: A Biography

This is a terrific book, worth getting in hardback for the collector. The authors claim that they were working in the beginning with Bowie, and he later changed his mind and would not authorize this book. I believe it's because they outlined Bowie's relationship with his older brother, Terri, who committed suicide. Regardless, I feel this is the most compassionate book I've read on Bowie (and I've got them all). This book describes Bowie's family background, and gets into the darker aspects of what would drive an artist such as David to become what he is. David Bowie has said himself, in later years, that he was lucky to fall-into his chosen profession as a musician, or he might have otherwise lost his mind. The Gillmans cover Bowie's slow rise to fame, his relationships with his bandmates, managers, other rockers of the time,his first wife Angie, and all the tours up through 1986. As I've mentioned in another review, David Bowie paid through his teeth for the price of his fame. And his mother was no exception to adding to his grief. So David's relationships, or should I say, ability to be emotionally intimate with women especially, were strained at best. I tend to think Bowie rebelled against his mother constantly, and she incited and indulged that. David's first wife, Angie, had the same effect. For many years after his divorce, consequentially, Bowie was a bachelor. The consistent thing about David Bowie's personality is that he does not appreciate being manipulated by people. He does not come across to me as that way in this book. He seems to be more of a soulful, private person who needs simplicity and sincerity as a basis from which to create. I think in the past, women undermined that for him. He had to teach himself how to respect women, somehow. Not knowing who he was, they couldn't really see WHY he was vulnerable. You would have to know some things about mental illness; and Bowie did. So perhaps he could see through the craziness of females, as well. In many ways he unable to fully come into himself until his 40's, when he married Iman. This is the story of what happened.

This was a very well written, very well researched biography. It was an interesting read and the authors obviously knew exactly what they were talking about. They interviewed a vast range of sources, had all sorts of good quotes, anecdotes and pictures. I felt like I was getting the real deal. This is the best Bowie biography I've read. (In case you're wondering, I've read five. I'm doing a report for my arts class.) This answers most of my questions about Bowie, my only regrets being that it was published in the mid-eighties, so I don't get any info on what he's doing now....