Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain

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 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 show more 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. Charles Cross doesn't judge -he's offering us here an intimate picture as deep as it is well researched.

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.

I read a lot of biographies as they are my favorite and this one on Kurt or Kurdt, as he may have preferred at times depending upon his condition, was one that will stick with me a while to ponder. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I picked it up or why I would want to explore this seemingly wasted life. But shortly into the story I sound it both fascinating and riveting. Since completing the book I read some commentary regarding Charles Cross' supposed slant and those questioning some truthfulness in the book. Also I read a mention of Courtney Love's influence and direction on it, as well as her supposed shopping of it for a movie. That would seem to be Courtney, not one to hold back on anything. But setting that aside I came show more away with a feeling that Cross was not grinding out an agenda and found his writing quite impressive.

Cobain in my take from what I saw here was a suicide in the making from birth. The torture he lived through from the very start gendered in me both feelings of pity and scorn. I could not help to feel his destiny was driven by his self paved path of destruction. Much like some of his music a crying out in the dark of the pain and suffering he perceived in so much. Bordering on psychosis it was hard to feel much sympathy for a guy that could not be reached by no matter what or whom. Not even his love for little Frances Bean could alter that path he was on.

Certainly his early childhood and the trauma of his parents' struggles could be cited as a lot of his own trauma, but he is among many in that regard. His physical pain also could be blamed for leading to the heroin downfall, but again not the only one. Yet looking at his creative side the "reluctant" star driven by his private ambition and stood out like not many in the rarefied air of musical stardom. Maybe like many of genius in this field he simply got caught up in the overwhelming pressure and expectation the fame demands. He would not be the first or last. But as Neil Young put it so well in his lyrics, every junky's like a setting sun. show less

Kurt Cobain died my senior year in college, during our annual Rites of Spring, and I always associate his death with the end of college and the beginning of the real world. This is an interesting and well-researched account of his life and music. It was interesting to read, because when I was young of course I identified with his emotional angst, but now I'm the parent of teenagers and I identified with his parents. I kept trying to think of how he could have been helped. A good therapist at an early age, for example. A mentor. Prozac.

It just seems like such a waste, even more now that I have kids and I think of all the time with his daughter that he missed.

Kurt Cobain died my senior year in college, during our annual Rites of Spring, and I always associate his death with the end of college and the beginning of the real world. This is an interesting and well-researched account of his life and music. It was interesting to read, because when I was young of course I identified with his emotional angst, but now I'm the parent of teenagers and I identified with his parents. I kept trying to think of how he could have been helped. A good therapist at an early age, for example. A mentor. Prozac.

It just seems like such a waste, even more now that I have kids and I think of all the time with his daughter that he missed.

It has been twenty years since Kurt Cobain died by his own hand in April 1994; it was an act of will that typified his short, angry, inspired life. Veteran music journalist Charles R. Cross fuses his intimate knowledge of the Seattle music scene with his deep compassion for his subject in this extraordinary story of artistic brilliance and the pain that extinguished it. Based on more than four hundred interviews; four years of research; exclusive access to Cobain's unpublished diaries, lyrics, and family photos; and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobain's life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, success, and the adulation of a generation. Charles Cross show more has written a preface for this new edition, in which he recounts some of the events regarding Kurt Cobain and this book in the past two decades since his death. show less