On Michael Jackson

Description

Michael Jackson: provocateur, icon, enigma. Who was he really? And how does his spectacular rise, his catastrophic fall, reflect upon those who made him; those who broke him; and those who loved him? Almost ten years on from Jackson's untimely death, here is Margo Jefferson's definitive and dazzling dissection of the King of Pop: a man admired for his music, his flair, his performances; and censured for his skin, his erratic behaviour, and, in his final years, for his relationships with children.

The winner of a Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Margo Jefferson is the author of Negroland, which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize (formerly the Samuel Johnson) and On Michael Jackson and is a professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts. She was for years a theatre and book critic for Newsweek and the New York Times. Her writing has appeared in, among other publications, the Guardian, Vogue, New York magazine, and the New Republic.

A startlingly forthright consideration of what drove Jackson then and what drives our thinking of him now * Esquire * Dazzling * Tatler * Margo Jefferson's excellent, empathic take on the singer, encapsulating the pressures of being a child star, the most famous person on the planet and having a complicated legacy that can sometimes make people forget about the music -- 'Best Summer Books' selected by Nikesh Shukla * Observer * Margo Jefferson's take on his life covers all its complexities -- 'Best Summer Books' selected by Richard Fitzpatrick * Irish Examiner * A sizzling summer read * Daily Mail * Succinct, analytical, non-linear, echoing a style of Susan Sontag perhaps or early Joan Didion * Quarterly Review *