Now in paperback, Cobain's journals reveal an artist who loved records, who knew the history of rock, and who was determined to define his place in that history. Full color.

Reviews

The question of how to package Cobain's journals (originally contained in more than 20 notebooks) became as important as whether they should be published. Courtney Love, Cobain's widow, ultimately decided to go with Riverhead, and her choice appears to have been a good one. Reproduced here are actual notebook pages, filled with the musician's drawings, thoughts, desires, moods, lists, and declarations, showcasing his many talents, as much as his penchant for morbidity, in an amalgamation of handwritings. While this collection offers another level of intimacy for fans who have already experienced the musician's life via records, news clippings, album art, and several biographies, no one involved with the project provides any context, and this absence is keenly felt. Notes are scattered and applied to things that are of little interest, while other confusing pieces are left without the slightest comment. Given Love's vigilance in all matters Nirvana and Cobain, it is surprising that she was not more hands-on here. Still, Journals remains a good complement to Charles R. Cross's Heavier Than Heaven, which references the notebooks, and a unique addition to popular music collections.-Rachel Collins, "Library Journal"

These journal entries by Nirvana front man Cobain record his thoughts from the late 1980s until his suicide in 1994. There are no real answers to his death to be found in this collection of scrawled notes, first drafts of letters, shopping lists, and ballpoint pen drawings, although the nature of Cobain's fame will make it hard for readers not to look for them. At best, a series of intimate portraits emerge: a kid from high school; a cousin and neighbor; a bright, sensitive, fun-loving and morbid punk rocker who became spokesman for a generation he largely detested. Cobain's journals remind fans of how unlikely was his rise to fame: here was a kid from Aberdeen, dreaming of being in the next Meat Puppets, not the next Doors, who signed on with an independent label named SupPop, and ended up changing the course of commercial radio. Cobain's early letters to fellow rockers in the grunge scene also remind readers of how small and close that community was, and of the fairly incendiary politics it had developed through the Reagan years. For a true punk believer like Cobain, the loss of that community was also the loss of himself. (Nov.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

"The year''s most fascinating, heart-breaking rock book."--Rolling Stone
"An engrossing collection of clues."--Entertainment Weekly
"His words kick and scream."--Chicago Daily Herald
"Compelling."--Seattle Times
"No editing, no footnotes: The Nirvana singer's Journals is the year's most fascinating, heartbreaking rock book."--Rolling Stone Magazine
"Especially riveting."--The Observer Magazine
"Compelling reading...a look into the creative process of one of rock's true artists."--The Seattle Times
"The daily diary of an American dream--and nightmare...Beneath all the layers of irony and sarcasm and humor and stoner realism, Cobain had a gift for sincerity, which is everywhere evident in his journals...The book is swarming with life, and it's irresistible to anyone who cares about the music."--New York Magazine
"Illuminating...charming...we catch glimpses of Cobain's wry, mischievous humor."--Newsday
"Our most elaborate first-hand evidence of the inner life of one of rock's most important figures."--New York Daily News
"Laced with humor and horror...wrenchingly candid."--LA Times
"Simple and plain, Kurt Cobain was a fuckin' genius...Journals may become his most enduring body of work. If Cobain's life was a movie, Journals is the director's cut, the musings and contemplations of a mad genius. More than that, these passages are some of the most interesting reading I've come across in years, and I boldly predict they will stand the immeasurable test of time...Journals, better than any biography could hope to be, will make essential reading for anyone looking to understand the 1990s' most important pop star."--Salon.com
"It displays the formative stages of a man whose deeply felt empathy became something close to a curse...This remarkable document finally stands as one last message from the saddest teenager in the world, hiding his diary in a drawer near an easy-to-find key."-