Letters to Kurt [Hardcover]

Eric Erlandson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2012

"Nearly two decades after the death of Kurt Cobain, a friend and fellow musician not only continues to mourn his suicide, but also rages against the culture that he holds responsible. These 52 'letters' . . . combine the subject matter of the Byrds' 'So You Wanna Be a Rock and Roll Star' with the fury of Allen Ginsberg's Howl . . . A catharsis for the writer and perhaps for the reader as well."
--Kirkus Reviews

"A touching and enlightening collection of prose poems addressed to [Erlandson's] departed friend."
--The San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Erlandson finally comes to terms with his loss in 52 prose-poem letters ostensibly addressed to Cobain in which he straightforwardly confronts his inner demons while offering personal reflections on food, drug abuse, death, and self-sabotage."--Booklist

"The reverberations of Kurt's suicide last to this day, and have touched the lives of many. Dozens of people could have written their own version of this bracingly candid book; Eric Erlandson has written one, filled with rage and love, landmined with detail, that can stand for them all."
--Michael Azerrad, author of Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana

"Eric was the spirit-boy in the Nirvana/Hole dynamic. Quiet, bemused, intelligent, and curiously intuitive to the power of hugging the devil, to say we will all be okay . . . Eric expresses how enchanting Kurt was, how the whole scene was, with his thoughtful, radical adult/prose love. Bring on the future, darling."--Thurston Moore, musician

"Eric. He was always there: supportive, observing, in the thick of it. Hidden in plain sight . . . Without him, I can't imagine Seattle or L.A. or a dozen other places. This book is beautiful, brutal, brief. Happy-sad eloquence. Boy Scouts playing with the complimentary cologne in the heart of the ghost town. Listen to the man. He knows."
--Everett True, author of Nirvana: The Biography

Letters to Kurt is an anguished, angry, and tender meditation on the octane and ether of rock and roll and its many moons: sex, drugs, suicide, fame, and rage. It's part Dream Songs, part Bukowski, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, and the Clash. Rants, reflections, and gunshot fill these fifty-two prose poems. They are raw, funny, sad, and searching. This will make a beautiful book for anyone who loved Nirvana and Hole and the time and place when their music changed everything. Ultimately, it's an elegy for Kurt and the "suicide idols" who tragically fail to find salvation in their amazing music.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Erlandson is known as the cofounder, songwriter, and lead guitarist of the rock band Hole, but he has performed in the shadows of his more famous, and infamous, colleagues and friends, especially Kurt Cobain, the iconic lead singer of the premier grunge band, Nirvana, who committed suicide at the height of his fame, and Courtney Love, Erlandson’s former girlfriend and Hole bandmate. As it turns out, Hole released their debut album, Pretty on the Inside, a week before the release of Nirvana’s behemoth best-seller Nevermind. Within a month, notes Erlandson, Love and Cobain were a couple. From then on, Erlandson assumed “a sort of friend/caretaker role,” serving as both Cobain’s sounding board and morale booster even as he felt pangs of “subconscious jealousy.” In addition to Cobain, other friends and associates of Erlandson’s self-destructed during a relatively short period of time. Erlandson finally comes to terms with his loss in 52 prose-poem letters ostensibly addressed to Cobain, in which he straightforwardly confronts his inner demons while offering personal reflections on food, drug abuse, death, and self-sabotage. --June Sawyers

About the Author

Eric Erlandson was born and raised in San Pedro, California. He is best known as cofounder, songwriter, and lead guitarist of the alternative rock band Hole, which he formed with Courtney Love. Their albums Pretty on the Inside, Live Through This, and Celebrity Skin achieved international recognition and success. Live Through This was named one of the top 100 albums of all time by Time magazine. Since the breakup of the band in 2002, Erlandson has been involved in a number of musical and literary projects. He has a BS in Economics from Loyola Marymount University and practices Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Akashic Books (March 27, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1617750832
• ISBN-13: 978-1617750830
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #921,597 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Prematurely Published May 15, 2012

By Charlotte

Format:Hardcover

I love Hole and really admire anyone who could cowrite all of those great songs, especially from the pissed-off punk of Live Through This & the lighter but maybe even angrier Celebrity Skin. So, Bravo Eric Erlandson the songwriter/guitarist. Sadly, this book is by the less talented Eric Erlandson the prose writer, a person who seems to have a lot of ideas but no strong guide to give them form. Akashic, the publisher, did him no favors by allowing this book into print at this stage. There are things here that should never have made it into an adult's final draft of anything. For instance, raw yogurt upsets Erlandson's stomach, seitan makes him constipated (as do a long list of other foods), and Erlandson has hugged someone hard enough to be "at the risk of pooping" (111). Fascinating as all this might be to Erlandson's gastroenterologist, as his reader I'm not just uninterested but left wondering at the poverty of a mind that goes on and on about such things. Oh, also, he lets us in on ejaculating on some woman's stomach and giving another woman (the same woman?) three orgasms in one morning "by accident" (45). Yeah, I don't get that last one either.

The more interesting parts of Letters to Kurt are just uncomfortable. He trashes Courtney Love almost obsessively. She's too easy a target and the things he says seem more in place in a Kitty Kelley biography. Some of his musings on Kurt are interesting, many unintelligible. Once he verges on beautiful: "I found a picture of you back when your saddest days were the happy days of my life" (122).

Unfortunately much of the rest of the book is written like this: "My definite chief aim in life is to give a lecture at Harvard on the female anatomy as it relates to the benefits of adding nicotine to ice cream" (33). Here's a longer sample: "No, I didn't forget to turn out the lights. Maybe 'cause she's a missionary and I'm anal. Her post-partum to my pre-verbal. Keep confusing the tush for the bush. Spare ribs" (65). If Akashic had any integrity, they would have assigned Erlandson an experienced editor, recommended he heavily workshop these pieces, and wait for a polished manuscript. What they published instead is just sad.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars About a boy. June 3, 2012

By kika

Format:Hardcover

This book reads, no smears, like a slice of the most juicy, self-analytical dear diary that Jung himself would blush at. It is intensely private look into the mind of a musician-cum-writer, who used to be in one of the most well known "grunge" bands of the 90's, the band HOLE. Erlandson's side of the story has always been quiet, but any of those who kept up with any of the press about the time, know that he was in the eye of the heroin chic hurricane; often portrayed as the shy, quiet one, a silent observer of sorts, maybe having to do with his Buddhist background or maybe it's just his personality. Either way it served him in terms of how well he conveyed rather saliently what it smelled like to be there, to be the one conjured in memory. As the writer dances ambiguously through time, we as the reader don't know when he is speaking of Courtney Love or Kurt Cobain, if it is in present day, but it doesn't really matter, since the syntax is so lyrically produced. Your eyes seem to hear the song that he is writing. He has stated that he is heavily influenced by John Berryman and Jim Harrison...to quote a line from Berryman,

"He knows:
he went over everyone, & nobody's missing.
Often he reckons, in the dawn, them up.
Nobody is ever missing."

It sums up the thematic of the 90s, nobodies making music about nothing about something about nothing that meant everything.

I dug the book, it's akin to a piece of literary art, it's not a tell-all, it's not a "lemme read this to the kids". It is singular and sincere, all signs of a good read to me, worth the purchase indeed.Letters to Kurt

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Tell a story... don't paint a picture with words April 9, 2012

By M. T. Wilson

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm curious about the lives of others. It doesn't have to be a Kurt Cobain, it could be the Cambodian immigrant working at the donut shop down the street. I want to know how other people put their lives together and - in some cases - take them apart. Erlandson's book is simply a sweet stew of his thoughts and feelings at the time and very specifically toward Kurt Cobain. Unfortunately, it's indecipherable as any sort of information real or imagined. Would've been good to know in plain terms what Erlandson's life was like and how he saw the others around him, but I'm guessing he'll get around to that book at another time. At least, I hope so.