Charles R. Cross (1957–2024)

I didn’t expect this book to be a happy one, but I didn’t expect it describe so clearly how much of a troubled genius Kurt Kobain was. The man suffered severe depression and I think he was bi-polar as well—all undiagnosed and untreated for all of his life. So because he didn’t get the proper help, he learned to self-diagnose and self-medicate his affliction with a cornucopia of drugs. And at 27 he finally gave up his fight, and took his own life. And what a life it was! The man was a show more genius and his music defined a generation. Cross has thoroughly researched and explored the life of Kurt Cobain, and has offered this information to us with this book. No one reading this book will come away unchanged. We thank Cobain for his incomparable body of work, and we feel sympathy and empathy for him. (Empathy was one of Kurt’s favourite words, but I don’t think he ever thought that he found anyone with this trait in his short life.) The book ends with one of my favourite Leonard Cohen poems, and I think it summarizes Kurt Cobain’s longings and his life very well.
“I Have Not Lingered in European Monasteries
I have not lingered in European monasteries
And discovered among the tall grasses tombs of knights
Who fell as beautifully as their ballads tell.
I have not parted the grasses or purposefully left them thatched.
I have not released my mind to wander and wait
In those great distances between the snowy mountains and the fishermen.”

For those loved Nirvana and Kurt Cobain’s music, I recommend you read this book which is like a ballad or like Cohen’s poetry. Beautiful, unrelenting, poignant and ethereal. show less

A book striking for its objectivity. Charles Cross not only has done a great biographical work by dispelling a few myths surrounding Kurt (most invented by Cobain himself!) but, he also shows as best as can be the contradictory personality of a very talented artist, still very difficult to understand. Was Kurt Cobain a sensible and romantic young man victim of a difficult childhood and a tough life or, on the contrary, an annoying self-centred wimp? The reader will make his own opinion. show more Charles Cross doesn't judge -he's offering us here an intimate picture as deep as it is well researched. show less

The 90's were a time of great creativity, even if not all of us who were around then recognized it as such. Looking back though, especially through the lens of someone who knew and respected a great musician, and who now is looking at how that musician's legacy is influencing culture today, the 90's weren't half-bad.

Charles Cross was a editor of The Rocket, a Seattle magazine that chronicled current rock music. He knew and wrote about Kurt Cobain and Nirvana before they were famous, before show more MTV played Smells Like Teen Spirit over and over, before the band became a phenomenon and grunge, especially Nirvana, became seen as rock's latest saviors. And then Cobain, a troubled kid from a grey working class town that has fought against his fame for years, a young man who suffered from horrible physical and mental pain, killed himself.

In the years since that dreadful day when he had to confirm Cobain's death just as an issue of The Rocket was due to go to press (but not with the original planned story about Courtney Love's new Hole album), Cross has seen how Cobain and his band have become mythologized. Instead of merely saying "Me too", Cross has pointed out various ways in which Cobain has a genuine and continuing legacy. He snaps a shot of each aspect of that legacy and fills in the background with facts about what happened and how that has been built upon.

From the music itself to various cultural impacts -- including women's rights, gay rights and even fashion -- and how Seattle became the center of the music universe for a time, Here We are Now traces Cobain's impact. Cross also makes certain Cobain's physical ailments are chronicled for a more full picture of what may have been going on for that young man, as well as Cobain's upbringing in a town -- Aberdeen, Washington -- that rivals any other miserable upbringing. As a Washington state native who has lived on both sides of the Cascades, I can attest that Cross nails it.

And as someone who let the music wake her up when it was fresh and who has let in sink in for years, I can attest that Cross nails the ways in which Nirvana and its frontman continue to move us. Here we are now, Kurt, and you've enriched and entertained us. show less

The author does a commendable job fleshing out every single detail of Kurt's life, from birth to death; however, towards the middle of the book, it became overwhelming. There were *so* many details, especially small music-related details, that the narrative began to become bogged down. It felt as if I were reading a music history rather than a biography of Kurt Cobain. While I enjoyed reading Kurt's history, I felt that some of the music history belonged in another novel.