Charles R. Cross

Based on extensive research, more than four hundred interviews, and Kurt Cobain's unpublished diaries, a portrait of the late rock star traces his rise to fame, his relationship with wife Courtney Love, and his tragic suicide.

A Biography of Kurt Cobain

Heavier Than Heaven

This is the first in-depth biography of the troubled genius Kurt Cobain. Based on exclusive access to Cobains unpublished diaries, more than 400 interviews, four years of research, and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobains life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, fortune, and the adulation of a generation.

Olivera Mitić

DISCLAIMER 

If anyone tries to bash Kurt, I'll knife you.
Yes, he was addicted to heroin, he was troubled and he wasn't necessarily a great person all the time, but he gave so much and his work means a lot to a lot of people.
Me included. 



 END OF DISCLAIMER 

I think the hardest books to rate arer biographies, autobiographies and memoir, for the simple reason that it feels like you are giving a rating to someone's life. Like, yeah, Kurt Cobain, he was like a 3 stars, i didn't like some of the things he did.

So, while I'm not sure what criteria I should exactly use for the purpose of rating a non fiction work about a person, there were elements of Heavier than Heaven that didn't sit too well with me, hence the meh rating. 

For starters, it really is too detailed. It's hard to get through because the text is really dense and it reads like a super long Wikipedia article. Some parts were overdone and unnecessary, and I had to take one star off. But, that being said, I liked how objective it felt, without trying to sugar coat anything. Cross portrayed Kurt as a moody, disturbed and depressed person who had a serious addiction problem, which is more or less who Kurt was. 

The reason why I took another star off was the way the suicide was handled. It felt too detailed and made me feel very uncomfortable, and just like many other parts of the book, as if I were going too deep into somebody else's personal life. 

Nirvana is a band that marked my adolescence, just like it did for generations of people. Heavier than Heaven was a fascinating book. It offered so much insight and history and I'm really glad I've finally read it, since it felt like returning to a specific part of my growing up.

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

Amanda Gilson

Bryan Maniotakis

Cola

Manoek Lambregts

Olivera Filipas

Stephanie Midolo

The New York Times bestseller and the definitive portrait of Kurt Cobain--as relevant as ever, as we remember the impact of Cobain on our culture twenty-five years after his death--now with a new preface and an additional final chapter from acclaimed author Charles R. Cross. It has been twenty-five years since Kurt Cobain died by his own hand in April 1994; it was an act of will that typified his short, angry, inspired life. Veteran music journalist Charles R. Cross fuses his intimate knowledge of the Seattle music scene with his deep compassion for his subject in this extraordinary story of artistic brilliance and the pain that extinguished it. Based on more than four hundred interviews; four years of research; exclusive access to Cobain's unpublished diaries, lyrics, and family photos; and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobain's life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, success, and the adulation of a generation. Charles Cross has written a new preface for this edition, giving readers context for the time in which the book was written, six years after Kurt's death, and reminding everyone how fresh that cultural experience was when the interviews for the book were done. The new final chapter will update the story since, regarding investigations into Cobain's death, Nirvana's induction into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, and how their place in rock history has only risen over the decades.

Sarah Agterhuis

This is the first in-depth biography of the troubled genius Kurt Cobain. Based on Cobain's unpublished diaries, 400 interviews, years of research, and a wealth of documentation, "Heavier Than Heaven" traces Cobain's life from his early days to his rise to fame, fortune, the adulation of a generation, and early death. Photos.

Heavier Than Heaven A Biography of Kurt Cobain