Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis

I originally read Ian Curtis wife's book about his life, so I was skeptical that this one would be more biased from the macho male rock point of view. I found this book to be the perfect augment to his wife's book as it showed a different perspective, and what I felt was objective information about Ian Curtis. It also offers a great introspective to the Manchester music scene history and the pivotal people involved. Th book presents a lot of information about Ian, Joy Division, the Manchester music scene and the history of punk rock in this book. An absolute must for any JD fan. I couldn't put it down.

This biography is written in the style of an oral history. People do not speak in perfectly grammatical, always interesting or even easy to understand ways. If you want to read a biography written in an impeccable literary style, this isn't it. If you want to read a detailed life of Ian Curtis, this is probably as close as you will ever get. All you armchair editors out there should just calm down.

I found myself plowing through this book because it is filled with interesting facts about the post-punk scene in the Manchester area of England...the days when aspiring artists could walk into record label offices and be "found" instead of "made". However, it is a difficult read due the challenge of distinguishing who is sharing their point of view and when. The cast of characters (real life characters) is diverse and ever changing, so it is hard to follow who is sharing their story and in what `person' the story is being told. Ian's wife wrote her own portrayal of events (which I haven't read yet), but this book is missing her perspective. Even if Deborah Curtis didn't have a close relationship with Ian at the time of his demise, her input is clearly missing and it would have helped with some of the emotional gaps. We do get a lot of information from Annik Honore, the woman who participated in Ian's emotional love affair, but they had sporadic contact, over less than a year's time, so it's hard to tell how well Annik knew Ian. Did anyone `know' him for that matter? I came away from this book feeling like no one knew this man. So, the enigma lives on. I still recommend this book, but I'm still left wondering.