PERFORMING ARTS

Harry: The Unauthorized Biography

Michael O’Mara. Aug. 2021. 224p. ISBN 9781789292619. $24.95. MUSIC
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White (1D: The One Direction Story) offers a broad overview of the life of musician Harry Styles, including his childhood, his days with the boy band One Direction, and his current career as solo star. White takes a lurid, tabloid-esque tone, and at times he seems to be attempting to win favor with Styles rather than offering a balanced chronicle of his life and career. He describes Styles’s One Direction bandmates Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Niall Horan as “little boys who had won some sort of charity prize to sing with their hero.” Much of the information found here is inaccurate or was previously published in tabloids, such as White’s claim (backed only by “unnamed sources”) that singer Adele fell for Styles following her divorce. There are no citations for the many quotes that fill the book, only a bibliography page with suggested readings.
VERDICT A poorly researched work that feels more like an article from a gossip magazine than a true biography. Not recommended.
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