Customer Reviews

Alanis Morissette: A Biography

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hello, this is Nadinia of Alanis Zone. This is the best bio on Alanis in the universe. It is interesting and has tons of facts and pictures. However, it is essential that I forewarn all potential purchasers of this fantastic book that the text of this bio is EXACTLY the same as the text in the books Alanis Morissette: You Oughta Know and Jagged. You see, Paul Cantin has only written 1 book, but it has been published by different people under different names. In other words, they are all identical except for the covers and Alanis Morissette: A biography has a condensed version of pictures. For the latest news on Alanis, please visit Alanis Zone.

First I'd like to say it's a mystery to me why this book's been around in Australia for a few months but is only just coming out in America. Anyway, the biography of Alanis Morissette by Paul Cantin is VERY well researched and accurate. The best part is that it's an authorised bio so it has direct quotes from Alanis about her experiences. This book is totally uncensored (maybe a bit biased) - does not pretend to hide anything.

All I have to say about this book is this: if you want an interesting, informative book about the life of Alanis Morissette, one that is accurate and obviously researched, then you have to find a book written by Paul Cantin. He is the only person truly qualified to be Alanis Morissette's biographer, and he has proven it. I mean this. Do not buy a biography of Alanis Morissette that wasn't written by Paul Cantin. At the very least, if Cantin didn't write the book, he has to approve of it.

This is the best Alanis bio around. This book deserves so much more than just five stars! I have three different books about her and this one is the best. While the pics may be a little lacking the content is unbeatable. Anytime I need to look back on something in Alanis' life I use this as my sort of encyclopedia of her life. Paul has written numerous newspaper articles about Alanis, so we know what he says is the truth. If you want to know about Alanis' life, don't touch "Ironic", or "Death of Cinderella", get this one instead!

Alanis Morissette's resurrection in the mid-`90s as the first of a new genre of post-modern, interpersonally savvy, male =and= female songwriters, stands along with Tina Turner's as two of the most remarkable, intriguing and illuminating sagas of re-construction in the entire entertainment world. Turner was in her mid-thirties when she "got traction." Morissette was only 19.

And that is really the "big story" here. Cantin's book may well be largely assembled from interviews with (highly significant) others, as well as interviews of a very private woman (despite her self-revelation; see below) that were published in =Spin=, =Rolling Stone= and elsewhere. But the author is a very sophisticated guy who understands the developmental, as well as creative, process. Those who are intrigued with her because of her remarkable grasp of interpersonal behavior and =intra=personal character will not be disappointed, even if =AM: A Biography= only describes her first 23 years on the planet.

(Would I love to see a "second edition?" Am I waiting for her to finish the book she's been writing for some time now? Duh.)

What is clear for those who want to "reel it in" about her is that Morissette is the product of two very functional, competent, adept and supportive parents. Her mother (a refugee from the Hungarian uprising of 1965 with her own, very fascinating, early life story) appears through Cantin's eyes to have been anything but the "demanding stage mother" pictured by many who have asserted this and that about Morissette's background. As reported here at least, her assertive support was considerable but well balanced and non-intrusive.

(We are given only the briefest glimpse into her father's personality, but I was easily able to hypothesize where Morissette's esteem of intellectual and analytical activity is derived.)

To the developmental psychologist, one of the most significant achievements (or failures, if it doesn't occur) in adolescent identity formation is the transference of trust and balanced autonomy acquired in childhood into choice-making in relationships with other people. If Cantin's picture is accurate (and based on what I know from numerous other sources, I believe it is) few people I have ever run into have made such choices as consciously and adeptly as the adolescent Alanis Morissette. (Most of us will never operate at her level of conscious election at =any= stage in our lives, though USC football coach Pete Carroll comes immediately to mind.)

Morissette sorted her way through literally scores of would-be confederates and mentors (many of whom are =well= rendered herein) from the age of 14 to 19 in her quest to shake off the identity that she had acquiesced to at 12 and 13 (leading to a very successful first album in Canada) and construct a new one.

Ice-skater-turned-talent-developer Stephan Klovan, singer-songwriter-producer Leslie Howe, talent manager Scott Welch and producer Glenn Ballard are profiled in depth here, and that is important because of their immense contributions, but there were many, =many= others. And they are mentioned in sufficient detail to provide a clear documentation of her sharp-eyed choice-making, as well as their considerable contributions. (Her later choice of producer Guy Sigsworth - not covered here - is another illustration of her remarkable ability to "see right through you" for the better, as well as the worse.)

What would make a second edition or her own book intriguing to those who find her lyrically reported adventures so illuminating, of course, are revelations about her =romantic= choice-making... and its discernable upshots. As interpersonally responsible to others - without being co-dependent (at least for very long) - as she is, however, I expect we'll never really know. Morissette may be one of the most self-revealing writers (in =any= creative medium) of our time, but she =is= a boundary setter. And she very charmingly continues to provide the conceptual explanations we can use in our own lives without stepping on the toes of others in her own.

A jagged little bit of gold that goes down like literary honey! A best book with benefits - Cantin's uncanny fly-on-the-wall anecdotes are so real and so telling that, if he isn't God, as another reviewer wrote, he surely is God's biographer. But a bit long.

This book covers extensive parts of Alanis's personality, and growth. If you want to know more about the real Alanis Morissette, and journey into a further understanding of her music, this is the book to read.

This book is so well-researched, I'm wondering if God wrote it himself! In this wonderful book, by paul Cantin, it has neve-before-seen photos, and from moment to moment acurrencies!

THE BOOK ON ALANIS BY PAUL CANTIN IS DEFINATELY ONE TO CHECK OUT. IT HAS MANY TIDBITS THAT ARE NOT KNOWN ABOUT ALANIS. I FOUND THIS A GOOD BOOK EVEN THOUGH, IT DOES GO OVER SOME STUFF THAT HARD CORE ALANIS FANS ALREADY KNOW. PLEASE BEAR WITH THAT BECAUSE OVER ALL IT IS A VERY GOOD REVIEW OF HER LIFE THUS FAR.

... I've read a few Alanis Morissette biographies but this one takes the cake! Paul Cantin gives us an indepth look into Alanis's life in a professional and wonderfully written way, unlike that so-called bio "Ironic: The Story of Alanis Morissette". If you're interested in an Alanis bio, get this one!