George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry's most privileged yet tortured men began to self-destruct, the press showed little sympathy. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.
Engrossing, depressing ... Michael emerges as a gifted, tragic and infuriating figure, whose tortured relationship to his sexuality steered him into artistic confusion and self-sabotage.
Definitive, epic-sized ... Emotionally satisfying and meticulously researched ... Although he writes with compassion, Gavin doesn't let Michael off the hook for his self-destructive tendencies.
Comprehensive ... Detailed, evenhanded ... Though some of the author’s descriptions of the 1980s music scene are only serviceable, his first-rate reporting makes this biography sing. Gavin’s real stories of triumphs and tragedies poignantly explain one of pop’s most enigmatic stars.
