Review by Booklist Review
Academy Award--winning Crowe's films include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, We Bought a Zoo, and most relevantly here, the semi-autobiographical Almost Famous. His riveting memoir tells the true story. In 1973, Crowe was a teenage journalist whose innocence, wit, and curiosity opened improbable doors to rock's most elusive figures. At 15, he landed a Rolling Stone cover story on the Allman Brothers just after they'd sworn off the magazine. The following year, he charmed David Bowie into a rare interview. The Uncool captures the qualities that made such feats possible. Crowe's eye for detail brings every subject fully to life, as in his portrait of Gram Parsons--patched knee, smooth hands, and the "air of a well-educated, stony young prince." His gift for narrative turns a tense encounter--Gregg Allman demanding Crowe's interview tapes--into a gripping tale. Most essentially, Crowe's patience and attentiveness--qualities nurtured by his eccentric and loving family--let him see past celebrity to the human being. Still fueled by the awe of a 15-year-old fan decades later, Crowe delivers a memoir that is both a backstage pass to rock 'n' roll and a master class in storytelling, warm, vivid, and irresistibly uncool in the best way.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Filmmaker and former Rolling Stone writer Crowe (Conversations with Wilder) revisits his formative years in this lively autobiography. Growing up in 1960s Palm Springs with strict parents, Crowe found freedom in rock music, a passion that led--by age 16--to writing for Rolling Stone, where his youth, candor, and curiosity earned him the trust of artists including Joni Mitchell, Kris Kristofferson, and Rita Coolidge. (Crowe's backstage encounters with Led Zeppelin and his tour experiences with the Allman Brothers inspired his Oscar-winning screenplay for Almost Famous, providing plenty of breadcrumbs for fans to connect the film's events to his real life.) After burning out on music criticism at 21, Crowe received a copy of Slouching Toward Bethlehem from Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner, and the quality of the writing inspired him to start the book that would become Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The account also covers Crowe's films, including Fast Times and Jerry Maguire, though he dives into those projects with less detail than he does his heady days at Rolling Stone. Readers who only know Crowe from his screen credits will savor the behind-the-scenes insights, but the book's real power lies in its portrait of a teenager chasing his heroes. It's a delight. Agent: Albert Lee, UTA. (Oct.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
I was a teenage journalist. In this deceptively breezy memoir, Crowe recounts his upbringing in San Diego and his teenage adventures as a rock journalist. In a series of short, lively chapters, many of which open with an aphorism from his mother, Crowe lovingly portrays his parents and siblings without shying away from his oldest sister's depression, institutionalization, and suicide. He also reflects on his first record reviews written for an underground newspaper, his subsequent work forRolling Stone, and his brushes with everyone from Kris Kristofferson to the Ramones. Always the prodigy, Crowe was painfully aware of his youthful innocence, which paradoxically helped him cover the hedonistic rock scene of the 1970s. He also developed a knack for self-deprecating humor, which he deploys throughout the memoir, beginning with its title. (After rock critic Lester Bangs reminded Crowe how uncool he was, his nerdiness became a badge of honor.) Following his journalistic triumphs atRolling Stone, Crowe wroteFast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), which launched his film career. He eventually wrote, directed, and landed an Oscar forAlmost Famous (2000), the winsome coming-of-age story that his memoir often evokes and fleshes out. Crowe has relatively little to say about his Hollywood years, and he is tight-lipped about his own marriage and children. The memoir opens and closes with the stage adaptation ofAlmost Famous, whose 2019 opening in San Diego coincided with his mother's demise. She was obsessed with the play, Crowe tells his readers, but its topic clearly preoccupies him as well. "All of this will be forgotten," David Bowie told Crowe while driving through Los Angeles in the 1970s, when the Eagles took flight. Crowe's love letter to that place, time, and music puts Bowie's prophecy to the test. A winning blend of family portrait, rock history, and coming-of-age movies. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
