Tom Hagler

We Could Be...Bowie And His Heroes is an interesting book. Through a multitude of individual stories, brief paragraphs to a page or two, about Bowie's encounters with celebrities, artists, fashion designers, and musicians, I learned a bit more about Bowie than I already knew. His involvement in the world of art was particularly interesting. And I knew very little about Bowie's latter days. The book's a bit of a choppy read, seeing as it's a series of bite-sized chunks of Bowie info, but it does provide a throughline, that thread being the larger-than-life Mr. Bowie himself. It's an interesting read.… (more)

Well, here I am 24 hours later, and I've devoted a full day to this book and Bowie's music, coming out the other side with zero regrets. I can't objectively rate it as it was more of a personal life experience than sitting with a book: David's been such an integral part of my life that reading this was a cross between nostalgic reminiscence and therapeutic catharsis. I can only rate it 5✴, but that's really not a very reliable indicator for you.

The format is relatively short anecdotes, arranged in a chronological sequence, which Hagler has collected from other books and assorted media, and which Visconti has obligingly fact-checked and corrected. Initially, it feels shallow and disposable, but it starts to cohere the more you read, like looking close-up at a mosaic and gradually stepping back to resolve a portrait made of individual tiles.

David's flaws aren't glossed over, and his humanity shines through, despite the last chapter of celebrity fan anecdotes getting rather gushy, breathless and elegiac (obviously, mea culpa), but by this time the spectacle of his life and public persona was overawing for just about anybody who'd grown up in a world in which he existed.… (more)