Reviews
"This is a big book, literally, by one of the best rockers in the business. Given the singular, and eclectic, nature of his career, it is no surprise that Elvis Costello's anecdotal autobiography is an idiosyncratic journey through his music and the people and places that have inspired him...A must for Costello fans everywhere." --Booklist (starred review), "....Some of the best writing - funny, strange, spiteful, anguished - we''ve ever had from an important musician." -Dwight Garner, New York Times "In a world littered with uneven (and largely ghosted) celebrity memoirs, "Disappearing Ink" is a beautifully written revelation. Dare I blaspheme by declaring I liked it even more than the excellent memoirs produced by Bob Dylan and Keith Richards? Costello embraces the basic qualities of good storytelling: the use of detail, tension and humor.....The book is also a gold mine for Costello obsessives who have spent decades dissecting and analyzing his every lyrical zinger. But it''s not just for fans, more "Angela''s Ashes" than Motley Crue''s "The Dirt." "Unfaithful Music" is a lyrical tale that stretches across generations, geography and a century of popular song. The book serves as both a musical and personal anthropology." -Geoff Edgers, The Washington Post "The book is fantastic - maybe the best about music by a musician that I''ve read....The stuff about the collaborations alone - McCartney, Burt Bacharach, Allen Toussaint, the Roots, the Brodsky Quartet - is riveting." -Nick Hornby "Often brilliant and wholly idiosyncratic." -David Ulin, Los Angeles Times "[Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink] is refreshingly free of salacious gossip and needless name-dropping; it''s an intelligent self-assessment from a musician who went from angry young man to elder statesman of pop... It''s an unexpected memoir from a musician whose creativity and brilliance changed pop rock forever." -- Michael Schaub , NPR "Revelatory, evocatively crafted, [and] highly entertaining." - David Fricke , Rolling Stone "A winningly droll and good-natured guide to his life and many works throughout." -Clark Collis , Entertainment Weekly "Punctuated with sardonic and self-aware truths ." - Pitchfork "Vivid....It''s not surprising that one of rock''s most literate songwriters would pen such a deep, free-form memoir." - Houston Chronicle "Elvis Costello delivers an impeccably detailed autobiography. He''s often as brilliant at turning a phrase in prose as he is in his lyrics." - Paste Magazine "Enthralling.... This is family history as musical encyclopedia, and to listen to Costello recount his life is to be buttonholed by an enthusiastic fan. Fandom for Costello is inseparable from the compulsion to write songs and, it seems, to understand his own life.... Fortunately for the fan of Costello''s music the topic of discussion is often his own songs, and he is, unsurprisingly, a witty and eloquent guide." -- Paul Grimstad , New Republic "Long one of music''s wittiest, smartest, and most perceptive lyricists, Costello has done his legacy proud with his new book, which, thankfully, goes far beyond his angry-young-man days, most movingly in its frequent reminiscences about the relationship between the singer and his musician father." --New York Magazine "[Costello] pens books with the same clever writing that he uses in song." --Kathy Flanigan , Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel "Costello[''s] book is capacious, clever, and full of heart and soul." -- Dan DeLuca , Philadelphia Inquirer "The story unfolds like a movie that jumps across time, more thematic than chronological, as boyhood anecdotes and obsessions intersect with mature songs and adult reckoning.... The book doubles as a selective mini-history of 20th century music, as told by a discerning guide. He addresses artists both towering (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash) and relatively unheralded (David Ackles, Robert Wyatt) with a fan''s affection and music scholar''s insight." -Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune "With an encyclopedic knowledge and appreciation for, and deep love of, music, and with an expressive power and heart, Costello''s memoir will take its place in the highest echelons of the genre." --Library Journal (starred review) "This is a big book, literally, by one of the best rockers in the business.
