Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 Review

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Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 ReviewI did nothing this past weekend but read this book. Michael Jackson is incredibly interesting to me- a compelling and unsolvable mystery. Was he vain, or did he have body dysmorphic disorder? Did he want to be white, or was he trying to cover up disfiguring vitiligo? Was he heterosexual, gay, or asexual? Was he a pedophile, or was he a repressed child who was only able to relate to kids? How could he be so outgoing on stage, but so shy and reserved off stage? Was he destroyed by the media/lawyers, etc, or did he destroy himself? In certain interviews, he seems exquisitely gentle, sweet, kind, and sincere... at other times, he seems childish, naive and evasive. I have the deepest compassion for this misunderstood man whose story of meteoric superstardom and crashing fall from grace could be a Shakespeare tragedy. The irony is that he was constantly being judged by people whose characters were inferior to his (eg the unscrupulous Mr. Martin Bashir)
In this biography, the nature of the relationship between the author and Michael Jackson is unclear. They first met when they both were kids, at a time when the author was too young to be a reporter. Some of the information he reports is uncited, and you are led to wonder where the heck it came from, as other reviewers have noted. I thought the author tried to be fair and presented both sides of the story for the most part. However, he often came across as judgmental; the facts alone would have sufficed, but the author usually sums up with his own opinion about Michael's psychology or behavior or motives- opinions I often disagreed with.
At times he would quote psychiatrists who had theories about Michael that I often thought were rediculous: for example, one psychiatrist thought Michael's interest in mannequins suggested that he was narcissistic. The mannequins were not replicas of himself, they represented people of several different ethnic groups. The obvious explanation for the mannequins is that he was lonely and couldn't relate to "normal" people.
The author is sick of hearing about Michael's lost childhood. He calculates that he missed out on a certain number of years of his childhood, and has spent double that amount of time recovering them as an adult. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I don't think it works that way... I'm pretty sure you have to experience your childhood when you're a child for it to count. He also suggests that Michael's vitiligo was caused by skin-bleaching agents, when it more commonly occurs spontaneously as an autoimmune disorder; the co-presence of lupus, another autoimmune disorder, makes this a more likely cause. Overall, I felt the portrayal of Michael was slightly more negative than positive. The stories that portray him as a cut-throat artist or an aggressive businessman are most interesting, but don't necessarily represent all aspects of his complex personality.
I definitely wanted to hear about his personal life, but not at the expense of his musical and professional history. For example, the creation and release of the "Dangerous" album was completely glossed over- by then it was all about the scandal. In contrast, he spends pages and pages describing the planning of a Jackson 5 concert series in Korea that never occurred.
At the end of the book, the author says that he still has doubts about whether Michael Jackson was innocent of Jordan Chandler's accusations. Among other reasons, he remembers Jordan's mother's poignant testimony at the 2005 trial, and states that it was clear she had been totally ruined by her association with Michael Jackson. Not sure what her ruin has to do with Michael's innocence or guilt? There are obvious major credibility issues with the Chandler family. Evan Chandler had motives beyond those that concerned his son. A nasty, vindictive man, he wanted to get back at Michael for some personal slight and wasn't ashamed to retire in luxury on someone else's hard-earned money. June's lawyer withdrew from the case- how often does that happen, especially knowing how much money was to be made? This lawyer later claimed he thought Michael was innocent. Jordan refused to testify against Michael, even many years later. So I thought the author could have put more emphasis on the Chandlers' lack of credibility. Early on in the book he talks for several paragraphs about how even if Michael were really gay, he would never act on it because of his strict moral upbringing and religious beliefs. Does child molestation not fall under the same category??
I still recommend the book, but suggest that you make your own conclusions about this enigmatic man.Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009 OverviewSo much has how been said and written about the life and career of Michael Jackson that it has become almost impossible to disentangle the man from the myth. This book is the fruit of over 30 years of research and hundreds of exclusive interviews with a remarkable level of access to the very closest circles of the Jackson family - including Michael himself. Cutting through tabloid rumours, J. Randy Taraborrelli traces the real story behind Michael Jackson, from his drilling as a child star through the blooming of his talent to his ever-changing personal appearance and bizarre publicity stunts. This major biography includes the behind-the-scenes story to many of the landmarks in Jackson's life: his legal and commercial battles, his marriages to Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe, his passions and addictions, his children. Objective and revealing, it carries the hallmarks of all of Taraborrelli's best-sellers: impeccable research, brilliant storytelling and definitive documentation.

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