Deborah Curtis

I read this quite a while ago. I have a first edition copy of this somewhere. Unlike my more heavy reading habits, I don't feel like this subject matter needs to be fresh in my mind to write a review.

I just started listening to Joy Division again after many years of not listening to them. I often go through periods of genre listening. I suppose what sparked a renewed interest in Joy Division and Post-Punk was the fact that I just started listening to The The and I've been pretty impressed. show more I'm not sure if I should be glad or disappointed that The The somehow passed by me as a kid; but it has caused me to revisit other bands I liked from this era (e.g. The Cure, early New Order, The Smiths etc).

Anyway, this was a really good biography. Some reviewers hate it because they idolize a very flawed human being and are disappointed by his foibles. More than likely many of them are floored that Ian Curtis was a Tory conservative--GASP!!! I think Deborah Curtis did a good job representing her husband. Is she unbiased? No. Does she know him better than his legions of blissfully ignorant adorers? Undoubtedly! show less

I was a little shocked by Touching from a Distance. The biopic Control, which sticks to the mythical post-punk ideal of Ian Curtis as a tortured epileptic poet / musician who was torn between his love for two women, is based on Deborah Curtis’ memoir. She even had a hand in producing the biopic. What’s shocking is Deborah does not champion that myth in her memoir.

Deborah makes it clear very early in the memoir when discussing the budding stages of her and Ian’s relationship that Ian show more had some issues that went beyond the typical late-teenager brooding. He told her from the beginning that he had no intention to live past his twenties. He loved the melodramatic. He had wild mood swings and was often unpredictable and awkward socially. One day he was kind and generous, the next he was controlling and cruel. As Ian and the band become more successful, Ian shut Deborah out of that part of his life, going so far as to tell the band and friends invented stories about Deborah and their home life so there would be no communication between the two parties. He became a master manipulator, juggling two lives.

It would be easy to chalk up Deborah’s recollections as that of the scorned woman, but I felt she was genuinely trying to figure out the big question everyone has when a loved one commits suicide- why? And I don’t think she felt obligated to safeguarding his mythical rock status if it kept her from getting closer to answering the question. It was a liberating read in the sense that the fans rarely get to see how petty, selfish, and cruel our heroes are. We hold them above such base human characteristics. The media sells the myth. We focus on the talent, the art, as if that is all that makes them who they are.

Deborah never doubts or demeans Ian’s talent. She often applauds his work ethic and drive. He was a great performer. The music is what it is- beautiful and original.

But in the end, Ian had little connection to the realities of life. He went from living with his parents who took care of him, to living with Deborah who took care of him, to being in a band where the manager took care of him. His mental disorder, whatever it would have been diagnosed as, was compounded by the fact that he never had to focus on anything outside of himself, and everyone wanted him to give more. Ultimately, he did the most selfish thing he could think of. show less

In Touching From a Distance, Deborah Curtis retells the life of her husband, Ian Curtis - the lead singer and founder of the British punk band Joy Division. Deborah chronically Ian's tragically short life from childhood antics, to secondary school indifference and the start of his obsessions with striking it big and dying young. Curtis, with the help of quotes from several others paints a picture of a man determined to be a legend.

I started Touching from a Distance with no idea who Ian show more Curtis or Joy Division were. This was one of several assigned readings for this semester that I was more than a little skeptical about, particularly because it was a biography of someone I'd never heard of. I was surprised with how interested I became in Ian's life. Even ignoring his fame, Ian Curtis lead an interesting life. He was a smart kid who was obsessed with music. Deborah makes sure her voice is heard in every pages. She tries to give Ian a sympathetic audience but his controlling behavior, apparent schizophrenia, and inability to see how his antics effect those closest to him makes Ian more of a monster than helpless angel. It is obvious that Deborah loved her husband, even through his affair. In more ways than not this is her story as well. Her early life is so intertwined with his that it leaves the reader a chance to take sides.

I didn't many issues with Touching from a Distance. Deborah's timeline tended to move in inconsistent chunks, focusing on events that may or may not have actually been important and skimming over everything for the next several months. This happens a lot with performances. Several performances are highlighted, and there are so many that it becomes hard to keep track of venues, television personalities and groupies. My only other issue was the quotes. It is obvious that Curtis did her research, talking to everyone else involved with Ian and Joy Division. While they are informative, and sometimes refreshing to get a different perspective they often take away from the flow Curtis has created.

Overall I was very impressed. Though I'd love to hear what actual Joy Division fans thought of the biography. show less

Published in 1995, this book is the main source material for the film "Control" starring Samantha Morton as Deborah Curtis, the wife of Ian Curtis, lead singer and lyricist with legendary post-punk band Joy Division.

The mythologising of the band is in no small part due to the singer's suicide at the age of 23 - he hanged himself in the couple's home and Deborah found the body.

Ian and Deborah both grew up in Macclesfield and married when both were just 18. It is not painted as a happy show more marriage. Both had modestly paid jobs and were constantly in debt, even after the band began to find success. The birth of daughter Natalie put a further strain on their resources, as did Ian's diagnosis as an epileptic, which, to Deborah's frustration, Ian often seemed to hide behind as an excuse for not caring for their daughter.

Then there was Ian's affair with Belgian journalist Annik Honoré, who accompanied Ian on tour while Deborah was stuck at home and then excluded from the band's inner circle in order to keep the affair secret from her. By the time of Ian's death, he and Deborah are on the verge of divorce.

This is certainly not an idealised portrait of Ian Curtis, who seemed to almost have had a death wish and repeatedly asserted he would not live beyond his 20s. He seems to have been quite selfish - there is always money for his cigarettes and stage clothes when there is none for food, and Deborah suspected some of the fits are a little too conveniently timed.

Even so, he was clearly a troubled individual who attempts to kill himself more than once in the course of the book. The situation was made worse by the demands of his lifestyle and he seems too proud to ask for help from family or band members.

The book includes extracts from interviews with all the other band members, Tony Wilson of Factory records, Rob Gretton, their manager, Paul Morley, NME's Manchester correspondent at the time and the first to champion the band in the music press and others except, unsurprisingly, Annik Honoré and producer Martin Hannett, who died in 1991.

The book itself is just 140 pages; the edition I have is bulked out with a complete set of Curtis's lyrics and a Joy Division discography. Nevertheless, "Touching from a Distance" provides an interesting flipside to the fan's eye view of Ian Curtis as a tortured genius. show less