Copyright 2018 Library Journal.

On the 25th anniversary of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain's untimely death, Goldberg (Bumping into Geniuses) emerges with a reverent memoir about his years working for Cobain, Nirvana, and Cobain's polarizing wife, musician Courtney Love. Goldberg joined the Nirvana family a year before their swift rise to fame. As manager, he facilitated the deals that would move the grunge band from Seattle's indie label Sub Pop to major label Geffen Records. Goldberg is effusive in his admiration for his subject as an artist and a man and devotes considerable attention to Cobain's feminist and pro-LGBTQ activism as well as his love for daughter Frances Bean Cobain. The Nirvana front man comes across as deeply conflicted between his desire to have his art appreciated by the masses and his need to uphold his punk ideals while withstanding the pressures of sudden, immense fame. VERDICT Fans of Cobain will devour this recollection of life with the artist, even when it gets heavy on the business and legal side of the story. [Prepub Alert, 10/22/18.]—Amanda Westfall, Emmet O'Neal P.L., Mountain Brook, AL

In this loving remembrance of the troubled Nirvana songwriter and frontman, the band's former manager explores Cobain's creative genius and personality. After a brief history of the underground music that inspired Cobain, Goldberg (In Search of the Lost Chord) embarks on an emotionally resonant narrative of Cobain's meteoric rise to superstardom and his attendant self-questioning depression. This insider perspective details how Nirvana's explosion onto the scene in 1991 was carefully crafted, first by the tutelage of the band members of Sonic Youth and then by Cobain himself, who Goldberg persuasively argues was astute when it came to image and business ("It often felt to me that Kurt had planned the next several moves for Nirvana with as much rigor as he had rehearsed the music"). As the narrative moves toward Cobain's 1994 suicide, Goldberg digs deeper into the singer's contradictions regarding success ("He identified deeply with outcasts... but also embraced the joy of being part of a large audience") as well as his fluctuating between sweetness and rage (he embodies "the idea that a cool guy could be snarling and powerful and also compassionate and sensitive"). This is a worthy addition to the growing canon of books on Cobain. (Apr.)

In this loving remembrance of the troubled Nirvana songwriter and frontman, the band's former manager explores Cobain's creative genius and personality. After a brief history of the underground music that inspired Cobain, Goldberg (In Search of the Lost Chord) embarks on an emotionally resonant narrative of Cobain's meteoric rise to superstardom and his attendant self-questioning depression. This insider perspective details how Nirvana's explosion onto the scene in 1991 was carefully crafted, first by the tutelage of the band members of Sonic Youth and then by Cobain himself, who Goldberg persuasively argues was astute when it came to image and business ("It often felt to me that Kurt had planned the next several moves for Nirvana with as much rigor as he had rehearsed the music"). As the narrative moves toward Cobain's 1994 suicide, Goldberg digs deeper into the singer's contradictions regarding success ("He identified deeply with outcasts... but also embraced the joy of being part of a large audience") as well as his fluctuating between sweetness and rage (he embodies "the idea that a cool guy could be snarling and powerful and also compassionate and sensitive"). This is a worthy addition to the growing canon of books on Cobain. (Apr.)