Review by Booklist Review
Watching the humble, well-mannered Elvis of Last Train to Memphis (1994) become the bombastic, bloated Elvis of Careless Love is indeed heartbreaking. It didn't have to end that way. A tragic figure of epic proportions, Elvis is the poster boy for the sorrows of superstardom. It's an old and now-familiar story: unprepared for the realities of international fame and fortune, Elvis, immensely talented, charming beyond belief, and massively charismatic, found himself adrift in a sea of sycophantic hangers-on, adoring and ecstatic fans, and seemingly endless financial resources--a dream come true or a gilded cage? As his sincere desire to please others was replaced by an obsessive neediness and self-absorption, Elvis' humility gave way to a sense of entitlement. A million adoring fans can't be wrong, can they? Picking up where he left off in volume 1 (after the death of Gladys Presley and Elvis' induction into the army), Guralnick captures it all: Elvis' introduction to 14-year-old Priscilla, the return to the States, the Colonel, the motion pictures, the Memphis Mafia, the studio sessions, Las Vegas, karate, the tours, and, of course, the girls, the guns, and the drugs. Many of the stories told here have been told previously, and Guralnick cites some of the books that came before this one, but, along with Last Train, this is clearly the definitive account of Elvis Presley, no more lurid than it has to be. The author's thoroughness is matched by his balance. It is obvious Guralnick has a deep admiration for Elvis' contributions as an artist, but he does not overlook or excuse the star's many flaws. An indispensable account. --Benjamin Segedin
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Opening with the 25-year-old Presley's nervous return to the United States in March 1960, this second volume of Guralnick's definitive and scrupulous biography then circles back to describe the singer's military service in Germany, where he encountered two elements destined to define his post-Army life: prescription drugs and 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu. His manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was by now a major factor in Elvis's career, and Guralnick is the first to explain successfully how the Colonel, a one-time carnival huckster, maintained an enduring hold on a man whose genius was beyond his grasp. Presley believed that they were "an unbeatable team," and the Colonel's success in keeping Elvis's popularity alive during the Army stint seemed to prove it. The subsequent results of the Colonel's go-for-the-quick-buck mentalitycrummy movies made on the cheap, mediocre soundtracks rather than studio albumsshook Elvis's faith in his manager, but he remained loyal through the inevitable artistic and commercial decline. Guralnick's meticulously documented narrative (which draws on interviews with virtually everyone significant) shows the insecure, fatally undisciplined Elvis to be his own worst enemy, closely seconded by the Colonel and the entourage of hangers-on who feared change and disparaged Presley's tentative efforts to grow, especially his spiritual apprenticeships to his hairstylist, Larry, and to Sri Daya Mata. When Elvis roused himselffor his 1968 television comeback, for the legendary Chips Moman-produced sessions of 1969, for the early Las Vegas showshe was still the most charismatic performer in popular music, with a voice that easily encompassed his rock-and-roll roots and his desire to reach beyond them. But as the '70s wore on, Guralnick shows, he became imprisoned by laziness and passivity, numbing his contempt for himself and those around him with the drugs that finally killed him in 1977. As in volume one, Last Train to Memphis, Guralnick makes his points here through the selection and accretion of detail, arguing in an author's note that "retrospective moral judgments [have] no place in describing a life." While some readers may wish he had occasionally stepped back to tell us what it all means, the integrity of this approach is admirable. Many writers have made Presley the vehicle for their own ideas; Guralnick gives us a fallible human being destroyed by forces within as well as without. It's an epic American tragedy, captured here in all its complexity. Major ad/promo; author tour. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This sequel to Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis (Little, Brown, 1994), completing his intensive biography of Elvis Presley, does not disappoint. Careless Love picks up the thread with Elvis's hitch in the army through his death in 1977, a period that becomes increasingly darker and more complex. The breadth of Guralnick's research is nothing short of amazing, and his lyrical narrative presents an empathetic portrait of a man struggling with drugs, sex, family, personal eccentricities, money, and the delicate web of relationships surrounding any famous figure. Elvis's manager Colonel Tom Parker, wife Priscilla, father Vernon, and a host of close associates are portrayed with candor and insight. Details about everything from recording sessions to private conversations make this work hard to resist for die-hard Elvis fans as well as casual admirers. Guralnick's honesty and skill make this tale all the more disturbing, peeling away the romantic image of a fine talent to reveal a deeply troubled man. For all performing arts/ entertainment collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/98.]Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Guralnick concludes his majestic two-volume biography of Elvis Presley with copious evidence of Elvis's creative and personal plunge. Last Train to Memphis (1994) brilliantly illuminated the mystery of Elvis's genius--what it consisted of and where it came from. The unanswered mystery here is how someone who reshaped American culture between 1954 and 1958 could have so completely insulated himself from that culture for most of the rest of his life. After Elvis came out of the army in 1960, he increasingly became a clock-puncher. The times left him behind as he gamely acted in inanely trashy movies and sang inanely trashy songs in order to fulfill contractual commitments. Guralnick meticulously documents manager Colonel Tom Parker's cutthroat dealings with RCA Records and the movie studios, which resulted in staggering paychecks for both Presley and Parker (by the mid-'70s, Parker was splitting his sole client's earnings 50--50). While his celebrated 1968 TV special rejuvenated Elvis professionally, the overstuffed-jumpsuit years that followed had few aesthetic or personal high points. Hangers-on tirelessly served the King's whims, including multiple simultaneous affairs and the incredibly debilitating pharmaceutical habits that eventually did him in. Unconditionally loved by his audiences no matter how bloated, doped up, and incompetent he became, Elvis indulged obsessions with guns and karate and even took a stoned trip to the Oval Office, where he persuaded a bemused President Nixon to make him a federal narcotics agent. As his sometime spiritual advisor and hairdresser Larry Geller puts it, "The outside world was a distant place he ventured out into but never really lived in." Careless Love is about claustrophobia, insularity, and disintegration: exactly the opposite of the previous volume's subjects. We miss the cultural context of the 1960s and '70s, but then, so did Elvis. The diffuseness of this life is reflected in Guralnick's narrative. Nevertheless, this sequel to his exhilarating first volume is the most meticulously researched and sympathetic, honest portrait of Elvis we are likely to see. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
