Autobiography by Morrissey

Morrissey's Autobiography is to be published on 17 October. I've pre-ordered the paperback (currently just under £8 on Amazon UK). Seems the book will be available as a paperback Penguin Classic and as an e-book - no hardback.

What, Moz has reached Penguin Classic stage before his book's even been released?!

Might be due to how cheap Penguin Classics are, though I'm sure his ego came into it.

The Independent reports that the book "will be published as an instant 'Penguin Classic', in accordance with the singer's wishes." Which seems a very Morrissey-esque little self-deprecating joke.

Pleased it's going straight to paperback (and that the price seems very reasonable). Having just lashed out £16.99 on Solo I'm not in any hurry to buy another hardback.

Largo's Shark wrote:

Might be due to how cheap Penguin Classics are, though I'm sure his ego came into it.

Yes, I'd imagine that his ego had something to do with it.

Finished reading it yet, Loomis? Any thoughts?

Still can't afford to buy it myself. Hopefully it'll find it's way to me as a Christmas present.

Lazenby. wrote:

Still can't afford to buy it myself. Hopefully it'll find it's way to me as a Christmas present.

Same here. Anyone else here already got it, or is it just Loomis?

Lazenby. wrote:

Finished reading it yet, Loomis? Any thoughts?

I finished it in a couple of days - it's unputdownable, if you ask me. Above all, it's brilliantly written, with more witty lines and memorable turns of phrase than are to be found in both The Smiths' and solo Morrissey's songbooks combined. If, as I do, you admire Morrissey chiefly as a wordsmith (pardon the pun) - as opposed to a vocalist, a spokesman for a way of life, a star or "personality" or whatever - you'll have a field day with Autobiography. His penmanship is nothing short of extraordinary - I knew it would be good, of course, but it far surpassed expectations. I rather hope that he doesn't return to songwriting but instead writes more books.

The book is mostly about the man - and how he views the world - as opposed to his achievements in the field of pop music. Naturally, his musical doings do get mentioned quite a bit, but Maladjusted may disappoint those people looking for masses of detail on, say, The Smiths' career, or on how Moz wrote and recorded Maladjusted.

Still, this is absorbing stuff, sometimes moving, sometimes blackly funny and sometimes both. It's probably Morrissey's single greatest work. if you only ever read one singer's autobiography, make it this one.

Well, I for one wish he'd never wrote and recorded Maladjusted, so no loss there. The Smiths I didn't expect him to go into much detail on anyway, just in case Rourke and Joyce are stuck selling Big Issues somewhere and could do with a few bob.

If one wants a more critical and scholarly look at The Smiths and Moz's solo career, then buy 'Morrissey: Fandom, Representations and Identities.' It's a collection of essays by various writers, one musicological (which is what initially drew me to it), another about his romanisation of skinhead culture framed by the Madstock/Finsbury Park incident, and so on. More expensive than the autobio, but an entertaining read nonetheless.