HelloAngel
ONE love, blood, life
[SIMG]http://forum.interference.com/gallery/data//585/11632bonobook_thumb.jpg[/SIMG]
By Devlin Smith, Contributing Editor
2005.05
Whether it was intentional or not, it's completely fitting that Bono's eyes are downcast in the cover photo of the new book, "Bono in Conversation With Michka Assayas," now available from Riverhead Books. Like in the picture, taken by frequent U2 photographer Andrew MacPherson, throughout the conversations captured in this book Bono can best be described as evasive.
In a series of conversations between Bono and Assayas, a French music journalist, held between late 2002 and summer 2004, a variety of topics are covered, including politics, religion, music and family life. All of this makes for a truly great premise, one that promises to deliver an honest portrait of the man behind the sunglasses. Unfortunately, that doesn't come to pass.
It's hard to place blame for why this book didn't reach its full potential. Is it because Assayas asked softball questions? Is it because Bono was too guarded in his answers? The truth certainly lies somewhere in between.
The majority of Assayas' questions aren't uncomfortably probing and his follow-ups do tend to let Bono off the hook for any aloofness his original answers may have. Maybe the author didn't want to offend his subject with difficult questions, but maybe there had been difficult questions that were cut out in the final editing by Bono, who did have last-look privileges over the manuscript.
Even when the questions do try to dig a little deeper, such as when asking Bono about his relationship with his family growing up, the singer resorts to sharing the same little anecdotes anyone who's read a handful of Bono interviews will be all too familiar with. Bono's other tactic to non-answering questions is over-analyzing his own past and hiding behind philosophies and psychobabble. A few times he flat-out refused to answer.
Some of my favorite Bono-isms and oft-repeated phrases that appeared in this book include:
"Three men living alone in a house"
"Never trust a performer" (or cowboy, man in shades, etc.)
"We ran away to join the circus"
"I'm not a cheap date"
"God spare us from whinging rock stars"
Answering a question about his father, Bono says, "I wanted to get into the conversation where I could actually ask him why he was the way he was. I have discovered some interesting family history since, which is extraordinary. It's not something I want to talk about now. But no, he would disappear into silence and wit."
Like father, like son, it seems. Of course, nothing is requiring Bono to reveal things about himself, his family or his past that he doesn't want to. Nothing, that is, except for the fact that he signed on for this project. What's the point of participating in something like this, an undertaking that Bono himself describes as being like therapy several times in the book, if you're not going to surrender to it? Why hold back?
While Bono's responses didn't provide the insights I was expecting, Assayas' descriptions of the singer did help flesh out this portrait of the singer. Mentions of things like the Hewson family spending the morning in bed together gave me a better idea of who Bono is (primarily a dedicated, loving family man) than anything the man said about himself.
Nearly two years ago I saw an exhibit of Bono's paintings for the "Peter and The Wolf" project and really felt, through these canvases, that I was getting a look at who Bono truly is. Sometimes I get that same feeling from U2's music. Maybe with all these other avenues for self-expression, Bono didn't see the need to lay his soul bare for Assayas and for everyone reading the book.
By Devlin Smith, Contributing Editor
2005.05
Whether it was intentional or not, it's completely fitting that Bono's eyes are downcast in the cover photo of the new book, "Bono in Conversation With Michka Assayas," now available from Riverhead Books. Like in the picture, taken by frequent U2 photographer Andrew MacPherson, throughout the conversations captured in this book Bono can best be described as evasive.
In a series of conversations between Bono and Assayas, a French music journalist, held between late 2002 and summer 2004, a variety of topics are covered, including politics, religion, music and family life. All of this makes for a truly great premise, one that promises to deliver an honest portrait of the man behind the sunglasses. Unfortunately, that doesn't come to pass.
It's hard to place blame for why this book didn't reach its full potential. Is it because Assayas asked softball questions? Is it because Bono was too guarded in his answers? The truth certainly lies somewhere in between.
The majority of Assayas' questions aren't uncomfortably probing and his follow-ups do tend to let Bono off the hook for any aloofness his original answers may have. Maybe the author didn't want to offend his subject with difficult questions, but maybe there had been difficult questions that were cut out in the final editing by Bono, who did have last-look privileges over the manuscript.
Even when the questions do try to dig a little deeper, such as when asking Bono about his relationship with his family growing up, the singer resorts to sharing the same little anecdotes anyone who's read a handful of Bono interviews will be all too familiar with. Bono's other tactic to non-answering questions is over-analyzing his own past and hiding behind philosophies and psychobabble. A few times he flat-out refused to answer.
Some of my favorite Bono-isms and oft-repeated phrases that appeared in this book include:
"Three men living alone in a house"
"Never trust a performer" (or cowboy, man in shades, etc.)
"We ran away to join the circus"
"I'm not a cheap date"
"God spare us from whinging rock stars"
Answering a question about his father, Bono says, "I wanted to get into the conversation where I could actually ask him why he was the way he was. I have discovered some interesting family history since, which is extraordinary. It's not something I want to talk about now. But no, he would disappear into silence and wit."
Like father, like son, it seems. Of course, nothing is requiring Bono to reveal things about himself, his family or his past that he doesn't want to. Nothing, that is, except for the fact that he signed on for this project. What's the point of participating in something like this, an undertaking that Bono himself describes as being like therapy several times in the book, if you're not going to surrender to it? Why hold back?
While Bono's responses didn't provide the insights I was expecting, Assayas' descriptions of the singer did help flesh out this portrait of the singer. Mentions of things like the Hewson family spending the morning in bed together gave me a better idea of who Bono is (primarily a dedicated, loving family man) than anything the man said about himself.
Nearly two years ago I saw an exhibit of Bono's paintings for the "Peter and The Wolf" project and really felt, through these canvases, that I was getting a look at who Bono truly is. Sometimes I get that same feeling from U2's music. Maybe with all these other avenues for self-expression, Bono didn't see the need to lay his soul bare for Assayas and for everyone reading the book.
