Customer Reviews
Dissapointing - By: Gary 78, 05 Sep 2008 
Very dissapointing read-in my opinion far too subjective & bitter. I got the impression that his wife, & the other band members never really understood Curtis, which I think only compounds to his tragedy. The book was far too descriptive. Alot is made about Curtis's jealousy to the point where it becomes rather repetative. Meanwhile, she skips more interesting aspects of her husbands behaviour. For example why was he fascinated with Nazism? Why did he vote Tory! When I found out that Curtis was a Tory voter I was rather amused, particualry when you hear alot of psudo-intellectual crap about Joy Divsion representing alienated, post industrial youth.
Allin all this is a very poor book-Curtis is worthy of a serious, intelligent study-sadly this was not it.
Not the full story? - By: ComicalGeeza, 01 Sep 2008 On the positive side - comprehensive discography & gig list as well as full lyrics & previously unseen lyrics & writings.
On the negative side, Deborah Curtis's story is only 139 pages long & that is not nearly enough to give the full picture of this tale.
This book is interesting only because it seems to be Deborah Curtis's attempt to portray herself as the long suffering housewife (which may or may not be true), frozen out by the band & CUrtis himself, struggling to raise their child while Curtis is having an affair with Annik Horore ('the other woman').
She touches on what seems to be bitterness towards her by Curtisin the lyrics, behaviour, coldness etc but does not go into much explanation.
Deborah Curtis points the readerin the direction of constant touring, eplilepsy medication, drugs etc as the cause for Ian Curtis's suicide. It seems to me the way that Curtis killed himself,in the kitchen, knowing she would find him, showed some really deep desire to hurt her personally.
The band & Tony Wilson are not exactly covered with glory & Rob Gretton especially comesin for some stick. Apart from understandable resentment towards her, there is little mentioned explaining why Curtis was so enamored with Annik Horore.
For me though, you read those lyrics, & you look at some of his strange behaviour & obsessions, & this book goes nowhere near explaining what was really going onin his mind, & for me, that was a big let down with this book.
Great Book - By: Edward James Blake, 16 Jun 2008 
I think this book is great piece of writing i've read it six times now. & Deborah Curtis captures everythingin a heartfelt & poininot way
Negative - By: Garner, 16 May 2008 
This is an interesting book & well worth a read as who should know Curtis better than his wife? Unfortunately it seems she didn't really know him very well & it's clear from the numberous band quotes that they didn't understand him either. He was a different person with different people & had his relationship quite compartmentalised, it seems.
What is also interesting is how negative she is about him. Obviosuly she is entitled to feel bitter - suicide is a horribly selfish act, especiallyin her home, where only she coukd be the one to find him. however, given that the book is dedicated to his daughter it seems starnge she should dwell so much on his faults: mysogeny, selfishness, even cruelty & not discuss his apparent virtues: kindness, a desire not to be a burden, a love of animals, just for example. That said she doesnt doubt his sheer ability as a lyricist.
Finally its distinctly odd to see how oblivious the band seemed to be to his deep emotional turmoil - as if the lyrics weren't enough!
definately worth a read - By: Mr. Owen Martin, 07 Apr 2008 as usual with these kind of books, the writers are open to criticism like been too subjective, money grabbing etc. it assumes that the truth cant be told. curtis is portrayed as a big boy - jealous, imprudent but also capable of showing acts of generosity. there were also the strange unexplainable acts - like when debbie jumped outin front of him as a joke or his dancing at the engagement party. he was confident of making itin the music business. the route that got him there were good times but after that the writer was sadly isolated from the band & ian, & ian became more strange &in some ways cruel, like keeping a picture of his dogin his wallet rather than a pic of his wife & daughter. from this point on he treated his wife with disdain, up until the point of his suicide, when he had completely come apart, maybe for the first timein years been honest with himself, but not been able to face up to what he had to do. (the medical drugs & whiskey perhaps impairing his judgement) the book is interesting the whole way thru & i hardly ever put it down. one thing debbie never addressedin the book was ian's voice. was his singing voice the same as his normal voice? it would have been interesting to know her opinion on this.
