| Title | : | Courtney Love: The Real Story |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0684848007 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780684848006 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 253 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 1997 |
Courtney Love: The Real Story Reviews
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I guess Courtney loves to be inscrutably ostentatious--and hunting down Poppy Z. Brite to write her "unauthorized" biography is yet another instance. I will always love her though, stand by her as an idol. I'm endlessly fascinated by both Courtney and Kurt. I think they were both hugely intelligent individuals--despite the drugs--and it is amazing how they were compelled, perhaps helplessly, to take on these larger-than-life roles. Kurt cast himself as Christ, the ever-suffering son and martyr, and of course Courtney became his Madonna/whore figure incarnate. Read this in one night. I don't follow where Courtney's at now, although usually whatever "news" they print is ugly, catty gossip (and maybe/maybe not rubbish) but she and Frances have a place in my prayers.
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I'm a huge Hole and Courtney Love fan so of course I had to read this. I think Poppy Z. Brite did a great job describing Courtney's life from her troubled early beginnings to her famed career. I think many people give Courtney trouble because she is a woman and she happened to be Kurt Cobain's wife. Of course she is going to be vilified and demonized. I think Courtney is a strong fearless female and society as a whole is afraid of that because they want women to be mute and not complain. That's one of the reasons why I love her. It was interesting to read about her conflicts with other musicians. I am also a fan of Bikini Kill and used to be a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails. Reading about her relationship with Trent Reznor really opened my eyes. All in all, a great biography.
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When you combine one my favourite authors with one of my favourite rock stars. The end result is a well written, thoughtful, sympathetic and very human portrayal of a polarising woman. Brite does not make excuses for Love nor demonises her. She is just human. Nothing more, nothing less.
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I remember buying this used at a college book store not long after it came out. The older guy loved me. Respected my taste. I was 19 and reading strictly LITERATURE. Dostoevsky and Sarte and Kafka, and Hemingway, etc. Then one day I appeared eagerly at the guy’s desk at the front of the store with this book in my hands, haha. A light faded from his eyes. I wasn’t that much of a grunge kid. I loved experimental punk and and rock. i owned great glitter albums. I’d gotten into the Steve Albini stuff in a big way (mostly Rid of Me by PJ Harvey and Nirvana’s In Utero, both still such a high point in rock). And then there is HOLE and the fantastic Live Through This.
I don’t care what anyone thinks of Courtney Love. I am not interested in knowing how much of the record was actually a Kurt Cobain and Butch Vig collaboration. Not interested in the rumors (or not yet). Because Live Through This is a fantastic record and it is through and through a Courtney Love record, regardless of her muse. For this record alone, Love has my life long admiration. So screw the old fart at the book store, haha.
The truth is I LOVED rumors where Kurt and Courtney were involved. There were always such morbid details and the excerpt I’d seen of Brite’s work led me to believe that’s what this book would be. Love said she thought what embarrassed people is the best stuff to hear -- though I guess in the end that didn’t apply to her, ha. I expected this book to hurt. I expected it to be exploitation. I expected to disapprove and quietly cheer.
In the end, The Real Story was like when you really want that orange soda on a hot day an you get it and it turns out to be flat piss. I’d already gotten the details from countless magazine articles. Brite’s writing was anywhere from nothing special to kinda bad. And the grotesque impressionistic details I counted on (it was said Love at the scene Cobain's suicide found a strand of his hair attached to scalp and kept it....that she kept semen in the fridge after one of his OD episodes) just didn’t seem to be here or make any impression.
I’m sure I’m a sick puppy for wanting a book like that in the first place. I didn’t want to get off on anyone’s tragedy. I just thought it tragic and romantic and I was hoping for an over-sharing, gothic, raw and ultimately love affirming piece.
And it was a fluff piece at best.
The old fart at the book store was right all along! Nooooooooo! -
Die hard fan of Hole and indeed her husband's big deal of a band. Not a bad book for a fan of C.L. If you've watched Behind The Music and are an owner of The Diaries Of Courtney Love, there will be plenty of things you were already aware of, which was why it took me so long to get around to reading this bio.
Worth buying for the anecdotes about Courtney's troubled and certainly colourful early life as well as an insight into the relationship between her and her parents and her famous husband. From a writing standpoint, it's well written and not a bad book to read for even the slightly curious. -
It's hard to know whether Poppy Brite is a magnificent writer or Courtney Love- the myth, the legend and the disaster is such a compelling individual that it doesn't need much work. What I know for certain is I couldn't put this book down. I was fascinated by this woman. The way she wrote, the way she cataloged her life, the amazing things she did. This is the quintessential Courtney Love and grunge rock biography.
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Why did I even read this?
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I've always been fascinated by Courtney Love, and I'm a fan of Poppy Z. Brite, so when I saw this (a NUMBER of years ago, I think the book was published in 1997 or 1998, just at the time that Courtney had gone big-time in "The People vs. Larry Flynt") I picked it up, and just found it while looking for something light to read.
An interesting portrait of a very ambitious woman, and if even HALF of her stories are true (and Brite seems to have done a fair bit of research) then Love and lived quite the life already, and she's barely 40. Probably only worthwhile if you're a fan of her life (her music is discussed, but Brite doesn't dwell on it). -
I read this book when it first came out. Poppy was my favorite horror author and Courtney was one of my favorite musicians. I thought I was tough shit (a riot grrrl even)... and my younger self loved this book.
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One of the best Courtnet Love biographys ever!
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I read this in my teens when I was into Hole and my friends were into Poppy Z Brite.
The goodreads blurb is spot-on! -
I'm going to try to remember all the books I read and add them here, despite how I may now feel about having spent several hours of my life reading them. In high school I thought Courtney Love was kind of cool. She married Kurt Cobain after all and I was into him, so I figured I better be into her, too. I'm sure at the time I thought the book was interesting, but now its one of those ones you kind of regret owning. It was a birthday gift, so at least I can honestly say I didn't pay for it. But I was happy to receive it when I did, which I believe was actually after I'd graduated hs, but oh well. Some things take time to grow out of. If i reread it today I'd probably just say it was ok, but I'm gonna stick with my system of rating the past books how i felt at that point in life.
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Yeah. I totally just gave this 4 stars. Here's a fun fact about me: I loved Hole all through high school. Four years of intense love. I read this in one night- Easter Eve- my sophomore year which was when I was at the peak of of my fangirlishness. I cannot be sure if it was just that I would have loved any fairly positive or sympathetic portrait of Courtney Love or if it was just a really enjoyable biography of a famous gal. I think the writing seemed trustworthy and casual which is really what I like in a bio, especially if it is of someone who is still alive when it's being written.
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This is like a book version of those cheap unauthorised bio's you see on the biography channel. You know the ones that use the same 6 photo's over and over again, use bad background studio muzac that kind of sound a bit like the subjects music genre(but not at all really) and pads out about 10 mins of facts and interview snipets with their nextdoor neighbours best friends taxi driver (who knew the 'real' person behind the image beacuse they drove them to the casino once in 1985)by repeating them over and over again.. you know, those ones?
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I actually really liked this read. It gives you insight to a person that people gossip about constantly and you kinda get why she has the who cares attitude she does
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I picked this up on a whim while working at Half-Price Books. I wasn't the least bit sorry, despite having never read any Brite or really even caring much about Courtney Love.
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I read this when I was 15. Can't remember why. I guess I thought Courtney might share some of my angst. Turns out she's just a wackadoo.
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stare at the cover photograph long enough and eventually youll see a black widow spider
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I'm not a fan of Courtney Love. Not in the shady way of meaning I dislike her, just that I was too young to get into grunge. I've listened to both Hole and Nirvana, and thought they were ok, but just ok. But I am interested in her story, so when my friend was clearing out his books this was one of the ones I picked up. I've read
Poppy Z. Brite once before,
Drawing Blood, and really enjoyed that so I knew this story was in safe hands. This book is not written to tear Courtney Love down, but equally it isn't trying to make her into some sort of saint. It covers her traumatic childhood, her involvement in different music scenes across America and in the UK, her relationship with Kurt Cobain and their journey into parenthood, and how she dealt with his death by suicide. I found it fascinating to see the other well-known people she knew - the ones she loved, and the ones she hated. I really appreciated that she doesn't hold back on that last one either, something you don't always get in "celebrity" biographies and memoirs, but I'm always down for some hot tea. She speaks her mind, and if she doesn't like someone she's not only going to tell them but she's going to tell the whole fucking world. I've come out of this book thinking that although problematic, this is a woman who has been through hell and is totally fascinating. The book is really well written, it flows really well and doesn't just take Love's word for things! -
This is a book that could so easily be read from cover to cover in one sitting. Of course you could say that I am biased if you know about my undying love for Courtney, but even if you aren't a die hard fan I think you could find something you'd like in her story.
From her early beginnings with parents who clearly had no idea how to care for a child nor how to love her, to her stays in numerous friend's houses and later on her injust placements in state facilities for the criminally inclined youth, to her stripping in East Asia when she wasn't even of legal age, all the way to her rise to fame and the difficulties media further brought to her life and that of her child and husband and the witch hunt that began after his suicide.. She has gone through so much shit and yet somehow pulled through to the other side of the tunnel. I knew much of her story already but some of the details were lost on me and I kept thinking as I read "gosh it can't get any worse can it?" knowing full well that it sadly did.
Yes I adore Courtney, not just because she made it but also for her raw honesty. She always refused to compromise on who she was for anyone. God knows she paid a tough price for it but she never ceased to be who she was, fragile and hurt yet strong and angry as hell, always screaming like a banshee, often politically incorrect and always here to smash the patriarchy.
Courtney Love is before anything else resilience personified, and I wish this book had been written later on because she has kicked her demon's arses since then and seem to have become even stronger if that's possible, but this record of her life from her birth to the release of the Larry Flint film -in which she played wonderfully the role of Althea, Larry's wife- already gives us so much information and a real sense of who she is and where she came from. It also fills the holes of her published diary entries, which were numerous.
Poppy Z Brite really wrote an articulate, in depth and generally great biography, with the help of the celebrity's friends and a few documents and letters she had access to as a friend of Courtney herself, I expect it's pretty accurate and in no instances does the author try to sugar coat anything nor to vilify her subject -which is much appreciated-.
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A riveting read. Courtney Loves childhood up to 18 is honestly astonishing and a bit harrowing.
This biography is definitely a bit bias (though it tries not to be) and now dated. It gives good insight into the media frenzy cloud that has surrounded Courtney Love and what we know of the media during that period.
I read it in one sitting. Written in the style you'd imagine someone who listens to Hole whilst trying to be proper- eloquent, stylised with a sense of take it or leave it. -
Say what you want about Courtney Love, but she was one of the first female rock stars that I properly admired throughout my teenage years (I'm not old enough to have grown up with Stevie Nicks or she would have plastered all over my bedroom walls instead), and I loved all the wild, crazy stories that were constantly in the music magazines about her life. I'd be lying if I said she wasn't an inspiration and of course, I was obsessed with all the bands involved in the grunge scene, even if I discovered them a good ten years later.
Only a few people could have written an official Courtney Love biography without wanting to rip up all the pages and repeatedly start again, but Poppy Z. Brite managed to do it and she's done it extremely well as the book covers all the major parts of Courtney's life, alongside the minor ones that add some extra depth and understanding into the psyche of the troubled rock star. Within the pages, you'll find the origins of Courtney's difficult childhood, details of her ambitions to be a musician, relationship problems, and of course her marriage to Kurt Cobain and the grief that she felt after his suicide.
The book also reads as a 'Who's Who' of the 90s US grunge scene with the usual suspects such as Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Kathleen Hanna, Dave Grohl and Jennifer Finch popping up to name but a few. It's a fast-paced rollercoaster that's hugely entertaining with some very sad parts, but one that I hope will continue to have a happier ending. If you're a Courtney, Hole or 90s grunge fan, you'll no doubt want to read it if you haven't already. -
As much as I don't want to believe Courtney (about Curt's death), her story is very compelling. Ms. Brite does an amazing job of capturing the many different sides to Courtney Love.
I all most feel sorry for her...her life was no easy life, but of course, other wise the book wouldn't be as exciting... -
This was a fascinating read. I've always had a soft spot for the media anti-darling, and this biography is written by an admitted friend, but I WANT to believe it. There is so much negativity out there in regards to Ms. Love, that I choose to love this book that presents her more positively, though her warts are exposed as well.
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I loved this book and I loved how this was written. It was almost like a report on Courtney Love and since it's an un-authorized biography on Love then maybe that's how it should be written.
If you ever wanted to learn about Love up to Celebrity Skin then this is the book for you!
Would totally recommend! -
She is such an interesting person besides what you see and hear of her on TV or in magazines! I have never listened to her music or been a big fan of her, but I have a new respect for her after reading that book!
