Helpful Score: 1
From http://rockread.westofmars.com
I thought I knew what to expect from Tommy Lee's Tommyland. After all, I'd devoured The Dirt, the autobiography of Tommy's band, Motley Crue. I'd been transfixed and even a little transformed by Crue bassist Nikki Sixx's The Heroin Diaries.
And now, coming a little late to the party, I've got Tommyland in my hands. At last. And while I was expecting some of it â like tales of his first-ever girlfriend, who possessed a rather unique (ahem) talent â one thing I certainly hadn't been prepared for was narrative asides in the style of a Greek chorus.
Only, this Greek chorus is provided by Tommy's penis.
Yes, boys and girls, you read that right. I've got to note, too, that Tommy's penis is quite the funny character. Maybe even a little bit wise, too.
That's not to say that Tommy himself isn't funny or wise. He's quite entertaining, in fact, and for the most part, Tommyland is quite readable. This is actually high praise; Tommy comes off as a regular guy. He's got his fan-boy moments. He's also got his rock star moments. But perhaps the most poignant moments involve the death of the little boy, Daniel, in the Tommyland pool during a birthday party.
I remember that. I remember an awful lot of what happens in Tommyland, in fact, and I'm not the world's biggest Crue fan. (Odd, given that I keep reading the books they put out.) Yet how could anyone miss the media circus that was his marriage to Pamela Anderson? The jail time Tommy served?
Seeing it from the inside gave me what I was hoping for in this book â a new perspective. Tommy's made me stop and consider how it feels to need to have a few personal moments, only to find a photographer parked in the tree outside your bedroom. It's hard not to empathize with Tommy and Pamela at times. This from me, who admitted to liking the train wreck they seemed to be.
I stand corrected. In fact, the romantic in me would love to see them figure out how to make it work â without the stresses they had to face, without the paparazzi, without the anger.
I always pick up these music-themed books with the hopes that they'll inspire my fiction, or teach me something new. From that standpoint, Tommyland succeeded; the paparazzi bits aren't the only things I learned or was inspired by. Perhaps the biggest inspiration came in Tommy's comments about the almost-constant lawsuits. It's his off-hand manner, the way he dismisses them all with mentions of the legal fees; it's quite telling. His relationship with music, too, is special. It's what a number of my own fictional characters share, so to hear Tommy articulate it the way he does⦠wow. Nothing like the reinforcement that I'm on the right track with, for example, Mitchell. His relationship with his dad, the houseboat episode, is both touching and mind-blowing.
Say what you will about Tommy Lee. I've got a newfound admiration for his gentle, tender side. He may be that bad-assed rocker we've all come to know and roll our eyes at, but there's more to him. Much, much more.
I can't say I loved Tommyland the way I loved The Dirt, or the absolutely brilliant Heroin Diaries. This book didn't knock my socks off the way both of those books did. I don't think it's meant to; it's merely meant to be Tommy's story. His life, his explanation of this wild ride he'd been on up to that point.
I hope there's a sequel, telling us what Tommy's been up to since Tommyland came out. I won't wait so long to read it.
I thought I knew what to expect from Tommy Lee's Tommyland. After all, I'd devoured The Dirt, the autobiography of Tommy's band, Motley Crue. I'd been transfixed and even a little transformed by Crue bassist Nikki Sixx's The Heroin Diaries.
And now, coming a little late to the party, I've got Tommyland in my hands. At last. And while I was expecting some of it â like tales of his first-ever girlfriend, who possessed a rather unique (ahem) talent â one thing I certainly hadn't been prepared for was narrative asides in the style of a Greek chorus.
Only, this Greek chorus is provided by Tommy's penis.
Yes, boys and girls, you read that right. I've got to note, too, that Tommy's penis is quite the funny character. Maybe even a little bit wise, too.
That's not to say that Tommy himself isn't funny or wise. He's quite entertaining, in fact, and for the most part, Tommyland is quite readable. This is actually high praise; Tommy comes off as a regular guy. He's got his fan-boy moments. He's also got his rock star moments. But perhaps the most poignant moments involve the death of the little boy, Daniel, in the Tommyland pool during a birthday party.
I remember that. I remember an awful lot of what happens in Tommyland, in fact, and I'm not the world's biggest Crue fan. (Odd, given that I keep reading the books they put out.) Yet how could anyone miss the media circus that was his marriage to Pamela Anderson? The jail time Tommy served?
Seeing it from the inside gave me what I was hoping for in this book â a new perspective. Tommy's made me stop and consider how it feels to need to have a few personal moments, only to find a photographer parked in the tree outside your bedroom. It's hard not to empathize with Tommy and Pamela at times. This from me, who admitted to liking the train wreck they seemed to be.
I stand corrected. In fact, the romantic in me would love to see them figure out how to make it work â without the stresses they had to face, without the paparazzi, without the anger.
I always pick up these music-themed books with the hopes that they'll inspire my fiction, or teach me something new. From that standpoint, Tommyland succeeded; the paparazzi bits aren't the only things I learned or was inspired by. Perhaps the biggest inspiration came in Tommy's comments about the almost-constant lawsuits. It's his off-hand manner, the way he dismisses them all with mentions of the legal fees; it's quite telling. His relationship with music, too, is special. It's what a number of my own fictional characters share, so to hear Tommy articulate it the way he does⦠wow. Nothing like the reinforcement that I'm on the right track with, for example, Mitchell. His relationship with his dad, the houseboat episode, is both touching and mind-blowing.
Say what you will about Tommy Lee. I've got a newfound admiration for his gentle, tender side. He may be that bad-assed rocker we've all come to know and roll our eyes at, but there's more to him. Much, much more.
I can't say I loved Tommyland the way I loved The Dirt, or the absolutely brilliant Heroin Diaries. This book didn't knock my socks off the way both of those books did. I don't think it's meant to; it's merely meant to be Tommy's story. His life, his explanation of this wild ride he'd been on up to that point.
I hope there's a sequel, telling us what Tommy's been up to since Tommyland came out. I won't wait so long to read it.
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