The Beautiful Ones

Worth the read. Well written. Provides interesting information about Prince. Sad that such a great talent has been lost to us.

I gave this to a dear friend and he loved it.

This book, had he been able to finish it and allow some of the same rawness, memorabilia, and pictures, would have been massive in size...volumes... so its tempting to give the book less than five stars, but I can't fault a memoir for an unfortunate and tragic death that curtailed its completion. Its brilliant what they were able to do in spite of his death though. Plus, had he lived he might have chucked it anyhow. A two hundred page journal discovered after he died would have probably been brilliantly raw...the fact we get 28 pages of that is still a treat.Some have said this is a quick read, but really its not. It is surprisingly dense with tidbits and offers new insights when you re-read it. The article (with his conversations and thoughts throughout), the captions in the back, his memoir and its notes, the pictures and things he kept (his dad's wallet with his mom's picture in it--speaks volumes) , the original darker PR script--all make up a puzzle... When you assess all this stuff and organize it a bit by theme, its got a lot to say about Prince's core dilemma and the way in which he filtered his personal experiences (how he attempted to use humor, imagination, self invention, and optimism to combat despair and often succeeded) .You discover a man tormented by insecurities/an identity crisis, religious guilt, and a longing for unity due to polar-opposite parents who drug him into their drama (not intentionally but still) leaving him feeling divided and unclear of how loved he was. He is consumed with imagination and a brilliant savant-like mind and as a result, he decides to use art, music, fame and re-invention (maybe a bit too soon after the 'traumatic" divorce) as a way to create a happy harmonious life, and when he was up on that stage soaking up the audience's love , I believe it worked.. But, it must have been exhausting to be Prince though (and this might have helped lead to his death) and I am not sure he ever found that harmony on a regular basis, but his life had wonderful moments through out. The Beautiful Ones hurt you the most and sometimes you love them but don't trust them but there is still love, forgiveness, beauty, and humor in the little moments. And even if one is warring with oneself a lot of the time, there is still moments of harmony and joy to be had in the expression of that duality.Do we learn about what Prince thought about his mistakes later in life or his behavior with others and some of his narcissistic defenses? .NO. (But there is a point when he alludes to his tendency to self-protect by bailing out of relationships when he figures they are heading into the pits..to guard his heart) But we are given a motivation for his need to create himself and control that creation...we get his motivation for making his art his life. (Very few artists do I find to be misunderstand and "tortured" artists to the extent I see in him.) But his warm attention to detail in terms of describing others and his love of people like Bernadette Anderson, his parents, the musicians who inspired him, and his community overall indicate a heart more caring than he might have wanted people to believe in the past.Plus, the book has got cool pictures and is damn funny at times.

First, I just want to say that I love his music very much and how humble and caring he was. I was told that the author did a bad job with his memoir and to skip the first pages where he talks about his time with Prince and I’m glad I didn’t skipped that part because it’s actually very interesting because we learn more about who he really was as a person and the stuff he thought about that pretty much made him, “him.” It’s crazy because reading those first pages it opened my eyes that wow Prince was born around the same time as my parents haha and it’s hard for me to believe that because of how funky he was, and as well as his very youthful appearance. We never really get to hear much about some of the things that were important to him and the things he must’ve talked a lot about, like religion and the black community. I’m not saying he never wrote a song about those things but reading about his point of view on subjects such as those and related to that is sooooo freaking awesome because yes he was an extremely talented person, but he was actually very intelligent!! From some of the things that the author wrote about him, it looks as if he wanted to go with something different, as if Prince wanted some kind of change in his life. Maybe that’s why he did the piano and a microphone on his last tour. I think he wanted to start writing books. Man after reading his memoir, I really wish he would have had more time to write more because it’s so interesting because he was a very private man and to have him write about his mom and how he grew up, is very interesting and I can now understand why he probably did certain things that he did in the past. If you are curious about reading his memoir, you really should read it sometime. It’s very interesting. I always knew he was into religion but man, I didn’t know he was that religious/spiritual haha I actually learned a few things myself when it comes to certain things he says about the Bible. Very interesting and sad because well he’s gone now and I just really wish he were still alive. He was waiting to finally open himself up to people by writing a memoir that he didn’t get to finish.