Customer Reviews

Elvis Presley (Penguin Lives)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bobbie Ann Mason is the person who should have written this book on Elvis. Born in 1942, she grew up on a dairy farm in Mayfield, Kentucky; she and Elvis then are from the same time and part of the country. It is obvious from every page of this work that Ms. Mason likes Elvis's music and understands what his contribution to America and the world was. There is no substitute, as some of us remember, to being alive when Elvis literally burst on the music scene and shook us from the Eisenhower 50's. Of course Ms. Mason, one of our best living fiction writers, says it better than I: "For me, Elvis is personal--as a Southerner and something of a neighbor. I heard Elvis from the very beginning on the Memphis radio stations. Many parents found Elvis's music dangerously evocative, his movements lewd and suggestive--but when my family saw Elvis on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, singing 'Ready Teddy', my father cried, 'Boy, he's good!'"

My problem with this book is the same I have with the other books in this series-- their required brevity makes any in-depth study of the character impossible. This series works best, I think, in Douglas Brinkley's book on Rosa Parks since no bio of her except one for children had ever been written so he was covering new ground rather than rehashing previous material. Ms. Mason lists her sources, saying she relied heavily on Peter Guaralnick's two books on Pressley that I have not read. I did read, however, the awful book by Albert Goldman whom I believe Ms. Mason alludes to in her introduction: "In 1980, a scurrilous biography portrayed him as a redneck with savage appetites and perverted mentality, and of no musical significance to American culture." Ms. Mason provides the ultimate insult by not giving the name of the biographer.

Ms. Mason discusses briefly Elvis's movies and his interest in books. I didn't know he read books or that Priscilla got him to burn them. Ms. Mason also says that by the end of 2000 Graceland had become the most visited private home in the U. S. When I visited his grave a few years ago-- Graceland was closed that day-- I was saddened so see that out of hundreds of "floral arrangements" there was not one real flower. I suppose as the Lorettta Lynn character says in "Cold Miner's Daughter," that the plastic ones last longer.

I sometimes assign Mason's light biography of Elvis in my southern history classes, and it is always a favorite of my students.

Those looking for serious scholarship will be disappointed in the book. But it is a fun book that my students actually enjoy reading and provides a great foundation for a serious discussion of youth culture, race, and class relations. And, of course, it also shows students, who are only familiar with the kitsch, why Elvis mattered to so many people.

I've read Last Train to Memphis, Careless Love and other biographies of Elvis, but this is the first one to treat him so 'humanly', explaining his background and how it affected his actions as a person. I really enjoyed it; I felt like I was reading about a real person who had strengths and weaknesses like the rest of us. It was very well-written, as the above-mentioned bios were also, but this one is a lot shorter. It gives the essence of Elvis in a very respectful manner.

I ordered Bobbie Ann Mason's Elvis Presley: A Penguin Life based on a review in the jan 03 Oprah magazine. Not being very up on Elvis' life, I found this a great overview of the facts on Elvis' life as well as a quick and stimulating read. I came away from this read feeling very sad for Elvis. It seemed from this reading that with all of his fame and wealth, Elvis had very little of what he actually wanted in his life. (True love, friendship, artistic latitude and genuine happiness.)

Author Bobbie Ann Mason has artfully managed to condense Presley's life into 178 pages with well-chosen words and a genuine feel for era. It is apparent that she has thoroughly researched the late singer's life. She presents all sides of the troubled and tragic performer, from his birth in Mississippi to the final days in Graceland. This book should appeal to ardent and casual Presley fans.

At 200 or fewer pages, the Penguin Lives impose the quality of succinctness upon their authors. After all, who wants to read a thousand-page tome about someone in whom you have only a passing interest?

The other good thing about them is that authors are matched to their subjects (e.g., Paul Johnson on Napoleon, John Keegan on Churchill, Sherwin Nuland on Leonardo).

Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of Bobbie Ann Mason, but based upon name alone, it was clear that she was a southern woman. That caused me to worry that the book would be adulatory, and so it was at both the beginning and end of the book, with Ms. Mason attributing everything that happened in the world in the 1950s to Elvis.

She goes on, however, to provide a highly readable, detailed acccount of Elvis' life, just about as much as the typical reader is likely to find interesting. Obviously, anyone interested in pursuing the subject can move on to the the longer biographies (Ms. Mason provides an extensive bibliography), but the average reader is likely to be satisfied by what she has put on their plate. An interesting documentary to view after, or in conjunction with, reading the book is Elvis Presley - Memphis Flash, which details Elvis'life during the early Tupelo and Memphis years, including extensive interviews with his friends, classmates, and musical historians.

It's worth noting that Elvis was not the first rock star nor the only one during the 50s. Two others that spring to mind were Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison, both of whom wrote their own music and had major impact on the musicians that followed (e.g., the Beatles and the Rolling Stones). Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, they were not "cute," and consequently, did not attain a following among teen-aged girls.

This book was a great introductory book to Elvis' life. It was short so the it did not get to in-depth to his life. It showed how Elvis lived and how he dealt with being an icon and how his life influenced who he became. I gave it four stars because it held my attention, but if you want to delve deeper into his life, it may not be the book for you.

I am not sure why all the reviewers rated this book so low. Perhaps, they are angry with Mason for telling us that Elvis was hooked on drugs.
Elvis was a great singer (and my favorite). It was a loss he had to do die so young. Mason details the rise of Elvis, and his short twenty plus years in the spotlight. The author also shows the negatives of Elvis, and why these eventually led to his destruction. Perhaps Mason analizes Elvis too deeply. After all, he was only a singer.

This is a OK read for those interested in Elvis's life. I thought the author did a good job of breaking down what constituted Presley's life and meaning.

This book fits well into the Penguin Lives series - none of them are meant to be definitive pictures of the person being written about, but most of them succeed in giving a good glimpse of a person's life and accomplishments, however, most are over far too quickly and with many details left to further reading. That's not necessarily a bad thing if it's what you're expecting.

This book on Elvis is a WHOOSH WHAT HAPPENED?!?! sort of a quick read. Before I knew it I was turning the final page. Elvis' forty-two years were exhausted in a few hours of reading. The prose is mostly very readable, but early on the author didn't seem to know what to write about Elvis' childhood, so she rhapsodizes on the taste of hamburgers or makes numerous Faulkner references. I almost didn't make it past the first few chapters. Admittedly, there is probably a lack of material on this part of Elvis' life, but that doesn't mean we need a short essay on the lucious taste of hamburgers and how Elvis surely loved them.

Happily, Faulker is never mentioned in subsequent chapters, and the dearth of material vanishes. What follows is a good but all too quick and somewhat one-sided view of the life of Elvis. There is a hint of a 'Poor Elvis' theme as the author continually mentions his "innocence." Even towards the end of his life, when Elvis was literally destroying himself and seemed somewhat nuts, the tone is mostly sympathetic. The author almost blames Elvis' fame more than Elvis himself. It is true that fame can destroy a person. It's happened to too many people (even many who were never famous), but typically there's something else about the person that causes this self-destruction rather than simply the fact that they're famous. Though to be fair, it's a short book so all sides of the story cannot be told.

If you're already versed in the life of Elvis Presley you'll likely find little new information here. I used the book as a starting point. I wanted to know more about Elvis' life, but I wasn't sure to what extent. This book was perfect as a glimpse into what happened to Elvis and the major events of his strange life. As a result of reading this book, I would really like to know more details about his "fall." This book whizzes through his final years by outlining some crazy stories such as Presley's visit with Nixon, his fascination with karate, his bizarre stage shows (to my generation, Elvis' 70's stage shows are strange and almost surreal to watch), the origin of his 70's persona (there's more to it than Captain Marvel), his divorce from Priscilla (good for her!), his becoming a narcotics officer, and his overall increasingly obsessive behavior. There's much more there I'm sure than this book tells, though it's probably not a happy tale, and this book strives to be a happy book.

The book does not mention accusations pointed at Elvis of racism. There are positive quotes from Little Richard, a Black Panthers Leader, and Elvis himself. Right or wrong, many people my age see Elvis as a thief of "black music" and as a symbol of white cultural appropriation and domination. I'm not supporting or denying this view, but the book implicitly takes the stance that this is not an issue or that "everything's okay" on this count. Elvis, along with Sam Phillips, is celebrated as a joiner of the races. This is at best controversial. Nonetheless, the overly positive view the book takes makes me want to learn more about this topic.

The book also goes a little light on Elvis' movies. They are far worse than the book leads on (I've seen all but a couple of them). It's easy to see how his legendary status declined since most people born after Elvis' death experience him first through his movies. It's really very hard to take Elvis seriously when your first exposure to him is "Paradise Hawwaiian Style", "It Happened at The World's Fair", or "Harum Scarum." In the end, his films did far more damage to his name than Elvis could ever imagine. Historically, it's telling that while the Beatles were working on Seargent Pepper, Elvis was working on "Clambake."

The book also doesn't mention what is usually considered Elvis' most critically acclaimed album: "From Elvis in Memphis." Elvis could make some darn good music when he was focused. His music is generally not album-oriented, however, so many of his albums sound merely like collections of songs strung together. "From Elvis in Memphis" is an exception to this, and is enjoyable from beginning to end. It deserves a mention even in a survey.

Overall, the book piqued my interest in Elvis as a cultural icon who took a huge fall for complicated reasons. He is right up there with Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, and Micheal Jackson in terms of the negative impact fame can have on a life. Concerning the topic of Elvis in general, there's more and less of what you'd think involved. He is a tragic figure and a symbol and a warning of the potential destructive powers of fame and wealth.

But if you want to know more details, you'll have to read another book.

"Elvis Presley," by Bobbie Ann Mason, is an almost too intimate look into the conjectured feelings, rather than the events, shaping the life of "The King of Rock 'n' Roll." I was disappointed by both the writing style, which reminded me of backroom "beauty shop-like" gossip, and the content, which contained psychoanalysis of Presley. The continuous message that the society he was raised in as a child was the blame for the his adult downfall became the focus of the narrative; so much so that it made such a significant contributor to music history and cultural icon seem pathetic and uninteresting. The book is a good study for those interested in counseling or Freudian psychology; however, for those wanting a glimpse into the exciting and flamboyant life of Elvis Presley, this book is not recommended.