Customer Reviews

Morrissey: The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart

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If you want a further rehash of Morrissey's collaboration with Johnny Marr and the Smiths or another speculative inquiry into his love life, then this book is NOT for you. If, however, you have been longing for a thoughtful, respectful reading of Morrissey's lyrics in terms of theme, word choice and strategy, as well as an analysis of his work in the specific context of Britain and Ireland's literary greats (Wilde, Larkin, Rossetti, Joyce, Betjeman, Beckett, Joyce), then you should buy this book immediately and prepare for an enjoyable read. "Morrissey: The Pageant of his Bleeding Heart" adroitly brings together many observations of Morrissey's work (its simultaneous emphasis on despair and levity; its tendency to dwell on the eccentric, the infirm, the monstrous; the attempts at finding a way to live and love in a world beset by categorization, failure and embarrassment, etc.) and weaves them into a coherent whole. What is most striking is how Hopps is somehow able to articulate what many Morrissey devotees have felt (ok--what I have felt!), sensed or loved about his work but have as yet been unable to express in so eloquent a fashion. Hopps' work, with its judicious use of literary criticism and passionate emphasis on always going back to the source--Morrissey's words--, makes one long for a print edition of Morrissey's complete lyrics. "The Pageant of His Bleeding Heart" is an intelligent examination of the artist--one that Morrissey very much deserves and one that we have been needing for a very long time.

Any true Morrissey fan knows he's brilliant, and that the majority of what he does or says is definitely well-calculated or has hidden/double meanings. However, this book has some definite over analyzation leaving it quite dry as a whole. It is written like an extremely long dissertation, which makes it a bit boring, and at times strays onto different topics. Some points made in the book seem a real reach, and I was often thinking "What would the Man say to this? Perhaps that moment was completely off the cuff, yet the author is TRYING to extricate all this hidden meaning behind it?" If you are looking for a book about Moz, definitely stick with Len Brown, as Hopps has no direct interviews he's conducted that make me relaxed and confident that his meanings and interpretations about the songs are spot on. Besides, Mozza wants us to think and feel the music on an individual basis, not via others analysis.