It's interesting to me the divide this biography exists within in the Nirvana fanbase. Some (myself included) regard it as a thought-provoking, intimate and honest look at Kurt Cobain's life, though Cross sometimes deviates toward dramatization (as is evidenced in the final chapter). Others see it as essentially a piece of fiction, drenched in over-exaggeration and puppeteered by Courtney Love.

I think the latter claims are a bit ridiculous. Some regard Love with the same Machiavellian lens as conservatives do Hillary Clinton. Anything short of Cross saying "Courtney Love murdered Kurt Cobain" is, in their view, a transgression of the truth. But, using Occam's Razor, I think it's safe to say that Kurt's death was more a tragic result of numerous factors, rather than some sort of conspiracy.

What Cross does exceptionally well in this biography is detail Kurt as a human being -- his penchant for embellishing or lying about stories, his strange fascinations, and his violently oscillating moods. It does not lionize him in the way some other recountings of his life tend to do. But Cross also outlines just how exceptional Kurt was as an artist, how much he loved Courtney, and how much he adored his daughter. In this way, Cross paints a more complete picture of Kurt, and it becomes a bit easier to understand him as Kurt, rather than viewing him as "Kurt Cobain, lead singer of Nirvana, leader of the '90's grunge movement."

As I mentioned, this isn't a perfect biography. The last chapter in particular shows Cross's tendency to dramatize events he doesn't have factual insight into. But he's also clearly done his homework, and his biography is probably the best view into Kurt Cobain's life and death that we will ever get.

Well-written and appears to be very thoroughly researched with insight gleaned from all the people you'd expect to have known Kurt Cobain best - family, friends, acquaintances and band-mates. This is more about Cobain's life as a person and doesn't really delve into the genesis of his music so much. The book has many rich and detailed passages on his life from infancy to his death and after finishing it I felt I had a strong sense of the kind of person he was and the events that had shaped him.

The only issue I have is that there are a few passages where it feels like the author's desire to write compelling prose gets the better of the documentary integrity. This happens in a couple of places but most obviously when it comes to describing Cobain's final moments.

Clearly, beyond his note it's impossible for anyone to know his precise actions and motivations just before committing suicide but the book deigns to describe them in detail... Such detail that I was fairly confused as to where this knowledge could have come from - the author's imagination and educated guesswork I suppose. I think it's a bit dishonest and manipulative to present guesswork as fact particularly when it comes to something so tragic and if that's what it is then it ought to be made explicit.

The book loses a star for those liberties but these are exceptions to what is otherwise a really interesting and satisfying biography.

I feel like the author didn’t like Kurt Cobain all that much. It was well written and now I know a lot more about Nirvana than before. Thinking about the postcard Cobain sent Tracy that just said I love you twenty times

The first few chapters of this biography are excellent, but at the half way mark it takes a nosedive, like a dull riff repeated ad nauseum. Disappointing.