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.