Graceland: Going Home with Elvis [Hardcover]

Karal Ann Marling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 16, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0674358899 | ISBN-13: 978-0674358898

He didn't write music or lyrics and wasn't too articulate on the subject of himself, but when he created his dream house Elvis Presley spoke volumes about who he was. From the musical notes that dance across the gates to the columns of the neo-Southern manse, from the glittering stairwells to the jungle rec room to the plush-lined bathroom suite where he died, the colours and textures and shapes of Graceland speak for the boy from Tupelo who became the King of Rock 'n' Roll. What the mansion says of Elvis, and what it says to - and of - the millions of fans who make the journey there each year, is what "Graceland: Going Homd with Elvis" is about. What made Elvis a visual icon was his concern for style. Karal Ann Marling interprets the places and the look of Elvis's life - from shotgun shack to mansion, through byways lined with luxury hotels, Hollywood studios, old churches, housing projects, motels and malls - as a dialogue he conducted with himself, his family and his fans. This conversation is what tourism is about, and so "Graceland" speaks of tourism as well - of the author's forays into an alien South, its rhythms, its history, and of Elvis as the ultimate tourist, the musician on the road, ever in transit betwen home and the one-night stand. Reconstructing the changing interior of Graceland during its owner's lifetime, the book describes the cultural geography of Elvisness - his self-created material world - and of American mobility in the postwar era. In Marling's book we have a portrait of the materialist ideal of "home", created in the commercial decadence of post-World War II America and fed by rock 'n' roll.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Karal Ann Marling, a professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, examines Elvis Presley, the cultural phenomenon, through the places he lived. From his place of birth, the two-room "shot-gun house" in Tupelo, to the fabled hilltop mansion, Graceland, Marling shows that despite international acclaim he never lost his Mississippi roots. Elvis often shared Graceland with "the guys"--an entourage of relatives, assistants and school pals--"like a teenager whose parents weren't home" and was not above putting a bullet through the television when he saw something he didn't like. Marling argues that through conspicuous consumption, compulsive refurnishing of rooms and garish decor, Presley knew he was thumbing his nose at good taste and consciously cultivating his own legend.

From Publishers Weekly

Elvis Presley and his parents, Vernon and Gladys, as Jesus, Joseph and Mary? Their move from Tupelo, Miss., to Memphis in 1948 as the Israelites' flight from Egypt? If you can swallow such comparisons, you're ready to accompany Marling on this herky-jerky trip along the same roads the one and only King traveled during his lifetime. Readers are thrown head-first into creaky motel rooms with only one working light bulb, the makeshift Hollywood mansion of Presley's B-movie career, Las Vegas showroom stages and, of course, Graceland itself. Readers not only experience the American landscape as Presley did?they get a sense of the other influences of the time. Reading this book means meeting William Faulkner, eating moon pies and catfish with cornmeal crust and going backstage at Elvis's awkward wedding to Priscilla. In the process, one comes to understand how the nation grew up with the King, and then grew away from him. Marling obviously poured extensive research into her book. Her riffs and rants have a fun, freewheeling bent, creating cultural linkages that make perfect sense in some moments while at other times they appear as ways to mention as many American icons as possible in a few sentences. Still, being flung across miles of American tarmac and into the shotgun shacks and juke joints of the Deep South may be best done with a guide. Take this with a soupcon of skepticism, a good road map and a packet of Tums. Illustrations.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 266 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (August 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674358899
• ISBN-13: 978-0674358898
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,549,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elvis and his homes., January 10, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Graceland: Going Home with Elvis (Paperback)

Elvis was the unique product of a very specific time and place; a cultural expression of that sweaty, hardscrabble slice of Mississippi River Delta biracial culture which has produced so much of the authentic in American music.
The singer's unusual and deep attachment to his context is well understood in this perceptive biography, whose author views and interprets Presley through his homes, from the shotgun shack in East Tupelo to the "Peckerwood Palace" of Graceland. Highly readable and of value to students of contemporary American culture, but committed Elvis fans will not be comforted by this unblinking examination of the King and his world.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Graceland speak about Elvis..., December 9, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Graceland: Going Home with Elvis (Hardcover)

Truly great book on the myth of Elvis Presley and also about the history of the past in the United States. We can understand in a better way what Graceland truly mean to Elvis... A superficial time-line concerning his life is also a great source of informations about the man behind the star... Edith Robitaille from Quebec, Canada.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not for Elvis fans, March 20, 2006

By 

Roy F. Johnson (Columbia, TN United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Graceland: Going Home with Elvis (Hardcover)

The book generally present Elvis and his surroundings as seedy, degenerate. The 35 small, black and white illustrations, with their distorted dimensions, enhance this image.

I thought there might be a lot of information on Elvis's various homes. I was disappointed. The author wanders far afield of things Elvis. There is a significant amount of coverage on the homes of other celebrities, and there is an obsession with external columns. One chapter is devoted to William Faulkner. The final chapter describes the author's trip home from Memphis to her home in Minnesota.

I was surprised at the 12 pages devoted to "Sources". The book's text did not suggest extensive homework on Elvis, but the "Acknowledgments" give credit to four grad students for their assistance.

The page count breaks down as follow: Table of Contents - 2, text - 242 (including 16 chapters and an introduction), Sources -12, and Acknowledgments - 2.

The prose came across as meandering, often depressing, but eloquent blather, packaged under the Elvis name to sell copies. Perhaps writing in this matter purges the author of her own frustrations. Despite it's overall negativity, it was still interesting in its perspective.