Everyone Loves You When You're Dead - Neil Strauss

I was actually reading this weeks ago and was in the last chapter when I put it down to read The Prestige.  This isn't something I usually do; stop reading something.  But I had wanted to read The Prestige for so long, and I felt like I needed a break. The layout of the book made it easier to put it down for a bit too. I definitely meant to get back to it sooner than this week, though. Christmas happened, and I got Blackout from the bookstore, and it's taken me longer than I wanted to sit down and finish the Neil Strauss.  I kept renewing it from the library, and finally ended up finishing it earlier in the week when I was done Blackout and waiting to go to the library to get the sequel. But it wasn't that I wasn't enjoying Everyone Loves You.

Actually, it's one of those ones I'll probably buy at some point - it's just too good not to own.  Neil Strauss compiled from over 280 interviews a book full of little moments, heartbreaking, hilarious, utterly true moments.  The people with whom the moments happen is what makes it completely remarkable, not to mention compelling.  You can follow the authour into little encounters with almost any musical great, from almost any genre, as well as not a few with actors and other celebrities.  Each interview is like a little scene, and the book has been put together in such a way that they are able to be grouped together into larger pieces, those being the chapters, and then the entire thing fits together to tell a unique story through the combined effect of each little piece of an interview.  It must have been an incredible task, but it is fantastic to have this remarkable book to be able to read.

Reading the interviews with old-school rock stars like Robert Plant and Bowie made me want to listen to all these old records I've been carrying around for years. Unfortunately, when I cleaned out my mom's old house, I kept only a few of my favorites from her massive record collection, and didn't keep the record player.  I obviously wasn't thinking straight.  She loved those records.  I saw my dad a few days ago and mentioned to him this book and that it had made me take out the records I have to look at (I hadn't unpacked them yet from our move in November) and regret not having the record player.  Turns out he has had one in his basement this whole time. But I was grateful that after all this time I'll be able to listen to the vinyl again, and it came about inadvertently because of this great book I was reading.

I loved the way all the separate interviews came together as a whole. The dexterity with which the authour draws out the person (or people) he is talking to is amazing.  His interviewing and journalism skill is clearly apparent and calls for big respect.  I definitely want to read some of his other books; maybe starting with The Game, which I remember a male coworker telling me about: "I felt like such a slut even reading it."

In some ways, it is simply a book about the human condition. Hundreds of people, emotions like anyone elses', with extreme conditions surrounding them.  So many glimpses into scattered lives.  Many of the people have valuable things to say about creativity, passion, working, living...I felt it.  An excellent read.