The Show Must Go on: The Life of Freddie Mercury

In a society where homosexuality is treated as an identifying label that precludes further investigation of the labeled person's personality, and where superstardom is reputed to be a heavy burden yet is the new embodiment of the "American Dream", and great wealth is expected to solve all problems, I appreciated the insight to the life of a man with all of the above, yet was tortured by feelings of unworthiness, incompleteness and unlovability for his true nature. Many biographies drag our Angels down from Heaven, but this book shows that no matter what his sexual orientation, wealth, social standing or how much public accolade he recieved, Freddie Mercury was a great deal more than a "Queen". He was human, with the same insecurities and fundamental identity problems as the rest of us mere mortals. This book brought a rock god down to a level of knowability, and made me feel as though the world is a poorer place without him. Since that is the point in a biography, I was quite impressed with the lack of razzle-dazzle and bright lights and smoke-screens involved. Some questions were left unanswered, but even superstars have a right to some privacy, even after they are gone.