Torn Apart- The Life of Ian Curtis

Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division This is the only in-depth biographical account of the legendary lead singer of Joy Division, written by his widow. Revered by his peers and idolised by his fans, Ian Curtis left behind a legacy rich in artistic genius. But although mesmerising on stage, in his private life he was...	Joy Division: Piece by Piece Paul Morley knew Joy Division intimately. He not only wrote extensively and evocatively of the “mood, atmosphere and ephemeral terror” that enveloped the group and their doomed front man, Ian Curtis, but he was present when Curtis suffered his life-changing epileptic ...	Joy Division (The Miriam Collection) While Michael Winterbottom's 24 Hour Party People took on impresario Tony Wilson and Anton Corbijn's Control concentrated on singer Ian Curtis, Grant Gee's Joy Division opts for non-fiction over biopic. Together, the three films create a multi-dimensional portrait of Manchester i...	Control (The Miriam Collection) In his elegiac debut, Anton Corbijn combines the music film with the social drama to stunning success. Based on Deborah Curtis's clear-eyed biography, Touching from a Distance, Control recounts the wrenching tale of a working-class lad about to hit the highest highs only to be wa...	Bernard Sumner
Heart and Soul Though Joy Division's anxious, angular songs echoed time-honored art-school obsessions from the Doors through Eno, they never stooped to cheap nostalgia or pretentious condescension. Neither bridge nor battering ram, the band's music--haunting and hypnotic, with an emotionally na...	Joy Division - Under Review This 70-minute documentary covers the entire career of Joy Division, one of Manchester and Post-Punks most respected bands. It charts the entire short lifespan of the group, from their origins in their days as Warsaw to the more well known incarnation of	Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album A creative juggernaut of the post-punk era, Factory Records was the catalyst behind the U.K. music explosion of the late '70s through the '90s with groups like Joy Division (soon to be the subject of an Anton Corbijn movie), New Order, and Happy Mondays leading the New Wave. At F...	Closer 2007 digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the influential Manchester quartet's 1980 album. Joy Division's influence on modern music is not only based around the band's unique sound, but also their vision, their personalities and their intense and troubled vocalist,...	24 Hour Party People An ingenious docudrama on the Manchester music scene of the 1980s and '90s. 24 Hour Party People traces the rise and fall of bands like Joy Division, New Order, and Happy Mondays--bands whose success in the U.S. was limited, but whose impact in Europe (and England in particular)...

Build a bridge and get over it
This biography is written in the style of an oral history. People do not speak in perfectly grammatical, always interesting or even easy to understand ways. If you want to read a biography written in an impeccable literary style, this isn't it. If you want to read a detailed life of Ian Curtis, this is probably as close as you will ever get. All you armchair editors out there should just calm down.

Interesting, Confusing, Interesting...
I found myself plowing through this book because it is filled with interesting facts about the post-punk scene in the Manchester area of England...the days when aspiring artists could walk into record label offices and be "found" instead of "made". However, it is a difficult read due the challenge of distinguishing who is sharing their point of view and when. The cast of characters (real life characters) is diverse and ever changing, so it is hard to follow who is sharing their story and in what `person' the story is being told. Ian's wife wrote her own portrayal of events (which I haven't read yet), but this book is missing her perspective. Even if Deborah Curtis didn't have a close relationship with Ian at the time of his demise, her input is clearly missing and it would have helped with some of the emotional gaps. We do get a lot of information from Annik Honore, the woman who participated in Ian's emotional love affair, but they had sporadic contact, over less than a year's time, so it's hard to tell how well Annik knew Ian. Did anyone `know' him for that matter? I came away from this book feeling like no one knew this man. So, the enigma lives on. I still recommend this book, but I'm still left wondering.

Could have used a good editor
I have to agree that the book is a real pain to read because the writing is so lousy. I'm glad to finally have such a detailed account not only of the story of Joy Division but the whole Manchester scene in general. The information is good, but I just can't deal with the sub-standard writing. An unfortunate strike against an otherwise interesting book.

New Infro, Poorly written
3 stars for new info contained in the book, but damn, the book was annoying to read because of grammatical errors and sloppy writing. What ever happened to editors who are supposed to catch this stuff?

reviews from Amazon.UK
here are the reviews found at Amazon.UK where the book is in circulation. Can't wait for this one. 5 stars. This book takes you from the minutae of a child's life to an absolute monster of a tradegy.The the strength of this book lies in the publication of the letters between Curtis and Honore and Mr.Middles identification of the many variables of epilepsy,fame,marital breakdown,love,art and business that broke a young and very talented guy. A great book. Oh,and the depiction of Martin Hannet as somekind of MadHatter is brilliant...a real genius. 5 stars This is an excellent biography featuring a lot of new information notably from Ian's family and from those who knew him intimately towards the end of his short life. Featuring photos from the Curtis family album, information about his childhood - right through to extracts from letters between Ian Curtis and Annik Honore. Highly recommended and equally as important as Deborah Curtis's "Touching From A Distance". If you want to know the real story of Ian Curtis - the one behind the myth - this book is for you.