Was it good and worth the money?/I'll say it was, now buy it honey! (With apologies to all rap artists) I chose Nick Halsted's Dark Story of Eminem, because I was curious about the subject, having little experience of him apart from the fuss in the newspapers some two years ago. His stage act here involved appearing as the Chainsaw Massacre character and the press went mad. Asking a friend's daughter why her generation was so enamoured, got the reply "Because he's looovely!" Two years later she is still enamoured, and I wanted to find out what charisma a chainsaw-wielding yob could have. Synopsis Born Marshall Mathers in Detroit to an early life as unstable as the city itself - his 17 year old mother married at 15. He was a happy, docile baby (according to his then 'hippy' mother). The marriage did not last and he was trailed through relatives' houses in Detroit and Kansas City, stopping only until they were kicked out, not staying in any place long enough to make friends. A shy and timid boy, forever the 'new boy' in class, he began to retreat into other worlds, be it comic books or the tv, hence the birth of Slim Shady later. He became the victim of school bullies and as a result of a brutal assault suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and was in a coma for 5 days. Again they leave for Kansas City and return to Detroit when they are no longer tolerated. Moving in with his grandmother, Eminem was able to attend a school long enough to make friends - so valuable to him that when his mother moved again he chose to walk 2 miles to his old school rather than attend a closer one. The fact that he has survived a traumatic early life (and there are several more disturbing incidents in the book) is remarkable in itself. There are a lot of issues covered - it's not a 'Pop Idol story: - white can be the wrong colour sometimes,
- bad parenting,
- working in dead end jobs and being unfairly sacked before Christmas as the new manager wants new staff,
- the desperation of being burgled to the point there's nothing else left to take,
- considering suicide because you can't give your child a better life than you had.
- how the music industry works in the hip-hop category (must be a 'bad boy'),
- being sued by your nearest-and-dearest (and relatives you've never heard of) because you now have money and they want some too,
- toying with drugs, and managing to overcome them,
- the price of fame and the lack of privacy,
- returning to visit your dead-end job because they were your friends, only to find they can't look you in the face now you're 'famous' (did they make fun of you while you washed up there perhaps?).
But having tasted poverty and wealth, choosing wealth and it's demons. It's easy to dismiss rap - as I had until this book, but having read many of Eminem's lyrics (I was driven to find them on the web) there is only one conclusion - he is a supreme 'word technician'. I'm not fond of the use of swear words, but this is a very clever and sensitive person, and it is the 21st century. It's OK to say you don't like something - if you feel that way - that's the way you are, it's OK to say the way you've treated me is not OK and I'm very angry about it and I'm going to tell the rest of the world and you are guilty! If I feel my parents should have give me a better upbringing and stayed together for my sake, and I'm angry that you didn't, because I feel you were selfish, I'm going to say that too! mind what If you bullied me in school and I dreamt about killing you (so the bullying would stop), it's alright for me to say I dreamt that. It's not PC, but it's what a lot of us want to say sometimes. Appraisal Eminem says - "I am what I am". We all are. We're never too old to learn something, and I feel I have ... there are a lot of people in the world that want to say what they really mean, but most of us are scared to, especially when we don't have the word power of Eminem. Throughout the book he grows, he makes his mistakes, he admits them. He hates his early fame, but learns to cope with it. He's a loving father. He will go on and on, continually developing as a person and a talent. I Commendation The book is roughly 200 pages long including references, but Nick Hasted understands the power of words too, he hasn't wasted any. I like the way he treats the reader as an intelligent being and does not make an unnecessary mystery of the context. Not a lightweight book, but extremely interesting and an absorbing read.
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Reviewer: Gill Torri Is your favourite book reviewed in these pages? If not, get your slate and chalk to work, and make yourself and your best book part of the Book Club! Write a review. | 
