NONFICTION

Mr. Mojo: A Biography of Jim Morrison

Bloomsbury USA. Dec. 2015. 192p. bibliog. ISBN 9781632862440. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9781632862457. MUSIC
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British GQ editor Jones (Elvis Has Left the Building) begins and ends his compact biography of Doors singer Jim Morrison (1943–71) at the Paris cemetery where fans from around the world still congregate almost 45 years after his death. Jones's concise look at Morrison focuses on the years of his meteoric rise and fall from 1965 to 1971, with the text a revised and updated version of Dark Star, his pictorial book from 1990. Jones adds cultural perspectives and observations of the time period and of the myths surrounding Morrison that have endured for decades, yet he doesn't ignore criticism as well as unflinching considerations of Morrison's excessive behavior and habits that increased to almost unbelievable extremes in the last years of his life. There are reasons that fans still flock to his gravesite and that Doors recordings and reissues still sell, and the author captures his subject's magnetism and flaws in equal measure.
VERDICT A succinct introduction to Morrison and a solid place to start for new fans; those wanting a more detailed history are given myriad sources to expand their knowledge of Morrison and the Doors.
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