Elvis Presley (Penguin Lives)

This is a very good book about the life of Elvis. It's a short read and gets to all the basic points without all the hype. It touches on his life in Tupelo, his move to Memphis, Sun Records, his love for his mother and his association with Parker. I still enjoy reading the other books in more depth about his life. His loneliness is so evident even with all the people around him. A very good intro into Elvis' life and the workings of a very complex person.

I sometimes assign Mason's light biography of Elvis in my southern history classes, and it is always a favorite of my students. Those looking for serious scholarship will be disappointed in the book. But it is a fun book that my students actually enjoy reading and provides a great foundation for a serious discussion of youth culture, race, and class relations. And, of course, it also shows students, who are only familiar with the kitsch, why Elvis mattered to so many people.

Bobbie Ann Mason is the person who should have written this book on Elvis. Born in 1942, she grew up on a dairy farm in Mayfield, Kentucky; she and Elvis then are from the same time and part of the country. It is obvious from every page of this work that Ms. Mason likes Elvis's music and understands what his contribution to America and the world was. There is no substitute, as some of us remember, to being alive when Elvis literally burst on the music scene and shook us from the Eisenhower 50's. Of course Ms. Mason, one of our best living fiction writers, says it better than I: "For me, Elvis is personal--as a Southerner and something of a neighbor. I heard Elvis from the very beginning on the Memphis radio stations. Many parents found Elvis's music dangerously evocative, his movements lewd and suggestive--but when my family saw Elvis on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, singing 'Ready Teddy', my father cried, 'Boy, he's good!'"My problem with this book is the same I have with the other books in this series-- their required brevity makes any in-depth study of the character impossible. This series works best, I think, in Douglas Brinkley's book on Rosa Parks since no bio of her except one for children had ever been written so he was covering new ground rather than rehashing previous material. Ms. Mason lists her sources, saying she relied heavily on Peter Guaralnick's two books on Pressley that I have not read. I did read, however, the awful book by Albert Goldman whom I believe Ms. Mason alludes to in her introduction: "In 1980, a scurrilous biography portrayed him as a redneck with savage appetites and perverted mentality, and of no musical significance to American culture." Ms. Mason provides the ultimate insult by not giving the name of the biographer.Ms. Mason discusses briefly Elvis's movies and his interest in books. I didn't know he read books or that Priscilla got him to burn them. Ms. Mason also says that by the end of 2000 Graceland had become the most visited private home in the U. S. When I visited his grave a few years ago-- Graceland was closed that day-- I was saddened so see that out of hundreds of "floral arrangements" there was not one real flower. I suppose as the Lorettta Lynn character says in "Cold Miner's Daughter," that the plastic ones last longer.

I've read Last Train to Memphis, Careless Love and other biographies of Elvis, but this is the first one to treat him so 'humanly', explaining his background and how it affected his actions as a person. I really enjoyed it; I felt like I was reading about a real person who had strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us. It was very well-written, as the above-mentioned bios were also, but this one is a lot shorter. It gives the essence of Elvis in a very respectful manner.

I ordered Bobbie Ann Mason's Elvis Presley: A Penguin Life based on a review in the jan 03 Oprah magazine. Not being very up on Elvis' life, I found this a great overview of the facts on Elvis' life as well as a quick and stimulating read. I came away from this read feeling very sad for Elvis. It seemed from this reading that with all of his fame and wealth, Elvis had very little of what he actually wanted in his life. (True love, friendship, artistic latitude and genuine happiness.)

Author Bobbie Ann Mason has artfully managed to condense Presley's life into 178 pages with well-chosen words and a genuine feel for era. It is apparent that she has thoroughly researched the late singer's life. She presents all sides of the troubled and tragic performer, from his birth in Mississippi to the final days in Graceland. This book should appeal to ardent and casual Presley fans.