The first 150 or so pages of Sonic Life describe this childhood and his early years in downtown Manhattan. Mostly, though, the opening chapters are about his listening habits ... This section is too long and impersonal, and I might have put the book down if I weren’t getting paid to keep going ... But the book gets much better ... Excellent ... One reason Moore is a good observer of the early years is that he’s a good observer of other people, always a good sign in a memoirist.
Moore, 65, does not use the pages of Sonic Life to spill too many tales of rock ’n’ roll glory or a young man’s fancy. Nor does he impart advice from lessons learned. Rather, Moore uses nearly two-thirds of a long book to take the reader on a detailed walk through his New York, the Lower East Side of the ’70s and ’80s — the milieu that made him ... Less about success, disappointment or failure and more like a fan’s notes, Moore’s listings are comprehensive, from the influential records and people he met along the way ... Moore writes self-assuredly and aware but without conceit.
Tells you a lot more about Moore’s record collection and gig-going history than Moore himself ... Lopsided: it works better as a personal history of American alternative rock than a memoir per se. Which ironically brings Gordon’s book to mind, specifically a line that one suspects was rather pointed, about men’s inability to communicate.
For all the messiness of his music, this account of Moore’s life is conspicuously tidy, assiduously painting Moore as a thoughtful, humble, and fundamentally shy person ... The more he goes on in this vein, the harder it is to square the Thurston Moore of the book with the Thurston Moore who played in the singular band that was Sonic Youth ... Sonic Life is basically a by-the-numbers rock star bio.
Fascinating if occasionally lumbering ... Gossipy bits about meeting Madonna, Basquiat, and Keith Haring before they became famous are also fascinating, and Moore conjures the grit and atmosphere of 1980s New York with ease, but the pace—particularly in the book’s midsection—can drag. Still, there’s plenty here to entertain Sonic Youth fans and readers drawn to New York’s downtown milieu.
