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richardderus

Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud

Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original - Robin D.G. Kelley Rating: 3* of fiveI wish I'd never read this book. I now don't like Thelonious Monk, who comes across in these pages as a self-centered snot whose mental illness could and should have been medicated to ameliorate its nasty effects on those around him; and I flat don't like the selfishness and effrontery of the man.His music is great. I will do my damnedest to forget the rest.I spent 451pp hoping that soon I'd get past the building distaste for the man whose talent I'd revered for decades. Sadly, it never happened. I think Robin Kelley got Stockholm Syndrome and fell into the world of Monk so completely that he became an apologist instead of a biographer and the book became a hagiography. Kelley's serviceable prose rises to a sort of two-dimensional poesie when rhapsodizing about Monk's music, but it's never better than average.Not recommended. Not at all. Want to know about Monk? Listen to "Ruby, My Dear." It'll teach you what you *really* need to know.