About a couple months ago, I read Peter Guralnick’s incredible 2 volume biography of Elvis Presley (Last Train To Memphis and Careless Love). Comparing Guralnick’s work to Matt McGee’s “U2: A Diary” (which I read this weekend) offers an interesting contrast in style and narrative.
Reading Guralnick’s prose feels like reading a good novel. Furthermore, Peter is never shy about interjecting his opinion into the work (and he even inserts himself as a character in the book since he started covering Elvis as a journalist early in his career).
By contrast, McGee sticks completely to the diary structure and keeps a 100% objective tone throughout the work. While he presents commentary and opinion from others, he does so without his editorial comment.
One would think the “diary” structure could get tiresome when covering 30+ years of history. But, a funny thing happens…while reading McGee’s book, at about 1980, the time U2 gets going as a band; the diary entries seem to start melding together and form a compelling narrative that ultimately rises right up to the level of Guralnick’s books. McGee shows how unnecessary it is to editorialize U2’s history…the facts and events are compelling enough on their own to draw in reader interest and emotion.
McGee (and all the other fans / contributors at U2Diary.com) have put together an incredible historical document on one of the most important rock bands ever and if you have any interest / like for U2, this is an essential book to own.
Todd Mintz knows PPC…knows Social Media…knows SEO…knows Blogging…knows Domaining…and knows them all real well. He runs growth marketing for )and is also a Director & Founding Member of SEMpdx: Portland, Oregon’s Search Engine Marketing Association, and he can be found here on Twitter and Facebook.
Wow, thanks Todd — totally flattered by this. 🙂 I think I made 1-2 editorial comments here or there, but yes, my opinions are mainly found in the Introduction.
Thx again for the kind words. So glad you enjoyed the book!
So, why is Scott’s face showing up next to my comment?
I can’t imagine why my face would be showing. I’m looking at the page while I’m not logged in, and I don’t see any base next year comments.
Matt are you sure my picture didn’t just fall out of the silver locket I gave you when you were last here, and it’s stuck to your monitor? (oops, maybe you meant Scott Orth? 😉
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