Journals by Kurt Cobain
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Book Reviews of Journals
Book Review: Just a nice collection
Summary: 5 Stars
It's fun to flip these pages. You'll see a lot of writing, less of art. There is no story telling or even coherence in this published work. Really cool to own, sometimes you'll get a glimpse of what was going on in his mind.Book Review: AWESOME!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is simply great. I'm very impressed with its quality and have learned a lot about this iconic figure by reading Kurt's entries. I hope everyone picks up a copy! = )Book Review: A modern cryptogram
Summary: 4 Stars
If there was any doubt of Cobain: the enigma, let it be cast out upon exploring "Journals." What you hold in your hands is the blueprint for his life both in and out of music--business decisions, to-do lists, multiple drafts of lyrics, Nirvana t-shirt designs, music video treatments and amusing personal anecdotes or other quips. A large amount of the material is illegibly indecipherable, and even more indiscernibly odd. Such was the crux of Cobain's art and existence, and the reason that Nirvana remains my favorite band.
Without opening, I clutched Journals for about ten minutes the day it was released, contemplating the ethics of reading anybody's (world-famous rock musician or otherwise) personal diaries. After all, would I ever read my college roommate's journal? Of course not. Honestly, I still can't justify the browsing or even the publication of this collection. My only hope is that time will both extend the celebration of this man's genius and allow us to move beyond the shock of his death (even more than a decade after the fact).
After all, if we were to unearth Aristotle's lost musings on comedy to compare with those of tragedy in "Poetics," would we hesitate for a second to indulge ourselves? I don't even think Kurt would.
Book Review: The Soul of Pain
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not a Nirvana fan nor a Kurt Cobain fan. I picked this book up at Borders because I like the intimacy of journals. I could not put it down. You can't help but connect with his spirit and emotions if you have a broad enough perspective on life.
It is fascinating from an artistic and psychological viewpoint.
Everyone that picked this up at my house on Christmas Day wanted their own copy. So here I am!!
Book Review: Not a revelation
Summary: 2 Stars
I was expecting to get some sort of mystical revelation from this book, to get really deep into the psyche of Kurt Cobain, to see the tortured artist at his most artistically tortured. Unfortunately, I was let down.
This book is just a smattering of photoscans from Kurt Cobain's various journals he kept throughout the years. It is by no means complete or even coherent in it's selection of material. The book jumps around from here to there, giving random short stories, drawings, lyrics, ideas for recording, letters to various people, etc., etc. And I will admit, some of it is interesting to read, especially during the years where Nirvana was at it's peak of popularity. But it's not satisfying; in fact, I found it frustrating. Everything is so jumpy and choppy that you can't really appreciate the context of the journal entry, and much of the time it's so random that even if you did know the context, it wouldn't help much. I'll give the book one thing, though: it is roughly in chronological order. Even so, it's hard to follow at times.
I would have liked to have seen a book more in the vein of other artist's journals, where you get a more complete selection of journal entries. I don't feel as though I learned anything about Kurt Cobain, or got any insight into his art, or sensed any of his deepening depression as he neared his death. If I'm going to read an artist's journals, it's to come away with a revelation about them as artists and as people. "Journals" offers little, I think. It is so heavily selective with what it includes that it only gives very small glimpses into Kurt's mind. If you want to read it, I would suggest getting it from the library first, just to see what you think.
I hope a more comprehensive (and hopefully typed) collection of Kurt Cobain's journals come out one day, so that we can get a really clear view of Kurt's creative genius and emotional turmoil at work.
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