The legend of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, who killed himself in May 1980 aged 23, is often drawn in stark lines, the crisp monochrome iconography of the doomed young genius. This 1995 memoir, written by his wife Deborah and reprinted with a new introduction by drummer Stephen Morris, scuffs and blurs the edges of the myth, depicting a messy, complicated and less than heroic individual. Possessive, controlling and dispiritingly cruel, Curtis does not emerge from this book covered in glory.
The tensions between the domestic and artistic worsen along with his epilepsy: not even his wife, who knew him as a death-obsessed teen, realises how savage his demons have become.
It could be seen as the last word from a scorned woman – Curtis was involved in a relationship with Belgian journalist Annik Honoré before his death – yet there’s no suggestion of vindictiveness in the book’s clear, unaffected style. This is Joy Division’s destruction myth told by somebody who was more worried about bills, the baby and making Ian’s sandwiches than any grand legacy. Shoved to the sidelines during her husband’s life, here Deborah has her say; in the process, she casts valuable light on one of modern music’s darkest stories.
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