This is a book review I wrote after reading the book. I purchased the book, read it, and wrote the most honest review I could. But, Boy! I’ll tell you, I should have thought a million times before I posted this review. All of Michael’s fans jumped all over me for supporting this work. (LIVE AND LEARN!) Click the Amazon link (below) to go and read the reactions I got to my review.
Another One Cashes In On The M-J Tragedy
Liink To this Book Review on Amazon.com
When I saw Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, being interviewed on television about his new book, The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation, I just had to have this book.
In my own heart and mind, I had never once believed that Michael molested children who visited his Neverland Valley Ranch. So, when I saw the Rabbi promoting his book which proported to invoke sympathy for Michael and diminish the many suspicions surrounding my favorite entertainer, I was all for it. I felt that by buying the book, I was somehow exercising my belief in Michael’s innocence.
I saw my buying of the book as my final act of love for Michael and his memory.
So, I ordered the book off Amazon.com and once it arrived, I didn’t put it down until I finished it.
I have not regretted buying or reading it for one moment.
WHY I LIKED IT …
The Rabbi presented Michael Jackson’s story through his own personal relationship and experiences with Michael. This made it very personal. It was very easy to read. For me, the setting could easily have been an intimate conversation with the Rabbi and I having a fireside chat, and the Rabbi sharing these conversations and his interpretation of what was said.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT IT …
At various times as I read this book, I was overwhelmed by Rabbi Boteach’s constant need to analyze the flaws (as he saw them) in Michael’s personality.
I believe in some instances, it was probably necessary for the Rabbi to share some of the background information that led to the subsequent recorded conversations. But, I was much more interested in what Michael had to say, than Rabbi Shmuley’s judgment of what Michael said in the tapes. Although the book was intended to be introspective, I believe at times, Rabbi Boteach — who appears to be very judgmental – went a bit too far in his characterization of Michael. And at yet another juncture in my reading, I even began to feel that these constant judgmental characterizations of Michael were the Rabbi’s attempt to actualize his posthumus resentment of Michael’s one-time display of “annoyance” with him. It is for that very reason, I became rather judgmental of the Rabbi -
WHY YOU SHOULD GET IT …
This book did live up to its promise to provide an introspective view of Michael Jackson, as never before seen. As promised, the conversations were deeply intimate, and no one could possibly read this book and come away from that experience believing that he was anything other than a most genuine and sincere human being, struggling with his own human weaknesses and frailties.
After I read the book and summed it up in my own mind, I was interested in what others had to say about it. For me the best place to find out was to visit Amazon.com, and look at the reader reviews.
I was amazed to hear some of the reviewers call the book a piece of trash, and displayed righteous indignation over the Rabbi’s frequent public “floggings” of Michael for his personal shortcomings.
But, I believe that is where it really becomes important for each of us to be critical readers, so we can read for ourselves, and then weed out what’s relevant from what is irrelevant. We also have to be able to read between the lines, and understand the motivations that drive writers. I believe that in the final analysis, I was able to do just that, and still count this work worthy of all of the attention it has received.
It was worth every penny that I spent.
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