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The erotic politician
Mad poet. Adored icon. Wild rocker. Alcoholic genius. Brilliant musician. Jim Morrison died in 1971, but his legend still sits among us.

With people who are brilliant and badly-behaved, as Morrison was, it's difficult to get a balanced view that seems like an actual person. But James Riordan's "Break On Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison" manages to do just that.

James Douglas Morrison was an army brat, intelligent and well-read, who began to blossom into a poet and musician in college. He went on to become the singer/frontman of the band "The Doors," adding his outstanding poetry-like songwriting to his bandmates' equally outstanding musical skills. Soon they were a massively popular rock band.

But Morrison had other facets as well: He was attracted to the bizarre, and could be cruel, sweet, loving, strange, and often drunken and loutish. He was also contradictory: He sought notice as a poet, but was still mainly known as a rock star; he slept around and handfasted a rock critic, but always stayed with girlfriend Pamela Courson. After living on the edge for years, Jim passed away in Paris, under strange circumstances.

Most biographies of Jim Morrison err on one side or another. Either they portray him as a sadistic, drunken lout, or they show him as a transcendent gentleman. The truth isn't usually that simple, and neither was Morrison. And Riordan shows us the different sides of Morrison's personality -- good and bad, together.

Like Morrison himself, the book has its contradictions: There is a somewhat fannish tone to the some of the writing. On the other hand, it's willing to acknowledge that Morrison could be lewd, weird, obnoxious and drunken. Riordan also shows us Jim's gradual flowering into a poet, his literary influences such as Nietszche, and the relationships between the Doors.

Riordan also courts controversy by studying and dissecting the various theories about Morrison's death. Don't expect wacked out conspiracy theories, or medical improbabilities -- Riordan stays calm and rational throughout the whole thing, and reveals the most likely scenarios. He also avoids outright judgements on controversial figures like Patricia Kennealy.

As the book draws to a close, Riordan keeps things dignified. He devotes the final chapters to studying the lives of Pamela Courson and the other Doors in the years following Morrison's death, as well as the creation of the "American Prayer" album. The only flaw is Kennealy's bizarre description of Morrison's "fetch," which seems more fiction than fact.

Jim Morrison's wild life and mysterious death are the stuff of which tabloid biographies are made. But James Riordan keeps things simple and smart in "Break on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison." ... Read more