Courtney Love: The Real Story

by Poppy Z. Brite

Courtney Love. The girl with the most cake. The girl with the loudest mouth and the fiercest guitar. The girl of many talents -- not least among them the power to shock. Not since Madonna declared that she was like a virgin has someone in the public spotlight so consistently challenged the notion of what it means to be female -- and what it means to be well behaved. In Courtney The Real Story, Poppy Z. Brite tells the whole truth about the lead singer of the band Hole and uncovers more about this pop culture heroine than any music magazine could ever hope to. Replete with revealing details and photographs, information from Love's inner circle, and excerpts from Love's diaries and letters, this book has the intimacy of secrets told to a friend and delivers revelation after revelation. With equal parts compassion and black humor, Brite chronicles the turbulent lives of Love and introduces us to Love Michelle Harrison, the troubled girl who would be queen of postpunk rock, and her childhood spent shuttled from reform school to former stepfathers to family friends. As a precocious, flamboyant teenager, she hung around backstage after concerts, soaking up the star power she knew she had to possess one day, and then traveled to Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong to work as a stripper. Brite also takes us to new-wave Liverpool and to that citadel of grunge, Seattle, to see Courtney come of age in the circus that became alternative music, dishing much along the way about some of the biggest stars of that show from past and present. Brite also sets the story straight about Love's life with Kurt Cobain; the allegations of her drug use that surrounded the birth of their daughter, Frances Bean; and the wreckage of Cobain's suicide. But what emerges out of all the drama is a woman determined not only to survive, but to succeed more than anyone ever expected. As seen from her stunning performance as the wife of the publisher of Hustler magazine in The People vs. Larry Flynt, and her transformation into a runway acolyte, she just may catapult herself out of the mosh pit and into the mainstream. Only Poppy Z. Brite, the acclaimed author of literary horror fiction, whom Publishers Weekly called "a singularly talented chronicler of her generation," could have written this outrageous, comic, and ultimately moving tale of ferocious femininity and fishnet stockings. Courtney The Real Story is a no-holds-barred biography that is as raw as a three-chord punk song -- a work that is as uncompromising and as unforgettable as its subject.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir, Rock N Roll, Pop Culture

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1997

About the author

Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite, now going by Billy Martin) is an American author born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Born a biological female, Brite has written and talked much about his gender dysphoria/gender identity issues. He self-identifies almost completely as a homosexual male rather than female, and as of 2011 has started taking testosterone injections. His male name is Billy Martin.

He lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Athens, Georgia prior to returning to New Orleans in 1993. He loves UNC basketball and is a sometime season ticket holder for the NBA, but he saves his greatest affection for his hometown football team, the New Orleans Saints.

Brite and husband Chris DeBarr, a chef, run a de facto cat rescue and have, at any given time, between fifteen and twenty cats. Photos of the various felines are available on the "Cats" page of Brite's website. They have been known to have a few dogs and perhaps a snake as well in the menagerie. They are no longer together.

During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Brite at first opted to stay at home, but he eventually abandoned New Orleans and his cats and relocated 80 miles away to his mother's home in Mississippi. He used his blog to update his fans regarding the situation, including the unknown status of his house and many of his pets, and in October 2005 became one of the first 70,000 New Orleanians to begin repopulating the city.

In the following months, Brite has been an outspoken and sometimes harsh critic of those who are leaving New Orleans for good. He was quoted in the New York Times and elsewhere as saying, in reference to those considering leaving, "If you’re ever lucky enough to belong somewhere, if a place takes you in and you take it into yourself, you don't desert it just because it can kill you. There are things more valuable than life."

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess Courtney loves to be inscrutably ostentatious--and hunting down Poppy Z. Brite to write her "unauthorized" biography is yet another instance. I will always love her though, stand by her as an idol. I'm endlessly fascinated by both Courtney and Kurt. I think they were both hugely intelligent individuals--despite the drugs--and it is amazing how they were compelled, perhaps helplessly, to take on these larger-than-life roles. Kurt cast himself as Christ, the ever-suffering son and martyr, and of course Courtney became his Madonna/whore figure incarnate. Read this in one night. I don't follow where Courtney's at now, although usually whatever "news" they print is ugly, catty gossip (and maybe/maybe not rubbish) but she and Frances have a place in my prayers.

[A.R. McKenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge Hole and Courtney Love fan so of course I had to read this. I think Poppy Z. Brite did a great job describing Courtney's life from her troubled early beginnings to her famed career. I think many people give Courtney trouble because she is a woman and she happened to be Kurt Cobain's wife. Of course she is going to be vilified and demonized. I think Courtney is a strong fearless female and society as a whole is afraid of that because they want women to be mute and not complain. That's one of the reasons why I love her. It was interesting to read about her conflicts with other musicians. I am also a fan of Bikini Kill and used to be a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails. Reading about her relationship with Trent Reznor really opened my eyes. All in all, a great biography.

[Justin Fraxi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why did I even read this?

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's been many years since I read this, but I recall the author described an incident where Courtney Love was in her hotel room, put on lingerie, and either wrote a note to Roz Rezabek, or read a note from him that was left for her (I forget which), and then attempted suicide. The note is quoted in the book: "You were right, I suppose, in keeping your distance. I was too intent on self-fulfillment, and rather crude about it, with all my harlequinade and conscious manipulation of your pity." Whether the incident happened or not, and whether Poppy Z. Brite knew it or not, this is plagiarized. It was written by Allen Ginsberg, in a letter to Jack Kerouac in 1945, not by whomever it is credited to in this book.

[Jenny Q · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die hard fan of Hole and indeed her husband's big deal of a band. Not a bad book for a fan of C.L. If you've watched Behind The Music and are an owner of The Diaries Of Courtney Love, there will be plenty of things you were already aware of, which was why it took me so long to get around to reading this bio.
Worth buying for the anecdotes about Courtney's troubled and certainly colourful early life as well as an insight into the relationship between her and her parents and her famous husband. From a writing standpoint, it's well written and not a bad book to read for even the slightly curious.

[Bradley Valentine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember buying this used at a college book store not long after it came out. The older guy loved me. Respected my taste. I was 19 and reading strictly LITERATURE. Dostoevsky and Sarte and Kafka, and Hemingway, etc. Then one day I appeared eagerly at the guy’s desk at the front of the store with this book in my hands, haha. A light faded from his eyes. I wasn’t that much of a grunge kid. I loved experimental punk and and rock. i owned great glitter albums. I’d gotten into the Steve Albini stuff in a big way (mostly Rid of Me by PJ Harvey and Nirvana’s In Utero, both still such a high point in rock). And then there is HOLE and the fantastic Live Through This.

I don’t care what anyone thinks of Courtney Love. I am not interested in knowing how much of the record was actually a Kurt Cobain and Butch Vig collaboration. Not interested in the rumors (or not yet). Because Live Through This is a fantastic record and it is through and through a Courtney Love record, regardless of her muse. For this record alone, Love has my life long admiration. So screw the old fart at the book store, haha.

The truth is I LOVED rumors where Kurt and Courtney were involved. There were always such morbid details and the excerpt I’d seen of Brite’s work led me to believe that’s what this book would be. Love said she thought what embarrassed people is the best stuff to hear -- though I guess in the end that didn’t apply to her, ha. I expected this book to hurt. I expected it to be exploitation. I expected to disapprove and quietly cheer.

In the end, The Real Story was like when you really want that orange soda on a hot day an you get it and it turns out to be flat piss. I’d already gotten the details from countless magazine articles. Brite’s writing was anywhere from nothing special to kinda bad. And the grotesque impressionistic details I counted on (it was said Love at the scene Cobain's suicide found a strand of his hair attached to scalp and kept it....that she kept semen in the fridge after one of his OD episodes) just didn’t seem to be here or make any impression.

I’m sure I’m a sick puppy for wanting a book like that in the first place. I didn’t want to get off on anyone’s tragedy. I just thought it tragic and romantic and I was hoping for an over-sharing, gothic, raw and ultimately love affirming piece.

And it was a fluff piece at best.

The old fart at the book store was right all along! Nooooooooo!

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to know whether Poppy Brite is a magnificent writer or Courtney Love- the myth, the legend and the disaster is such a compelling individual that it doesn't need much work. What I know for certain is I couldn't put this book down. I was fascinated by this woman. The way she wrote, the way she cataloged her life, the amazing things she did. This is the quintessential Courtney Love and grunge rock biography.

[Jessica T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it first came out. Poppy was my favorite horror author and Courtney was one of my favorite musicians. I thought I was tough shit (a riot grrrl even)... and my younger self loved this book.

[Tiah Keever · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to try to remember all the books I read and add them here, despite how I may now feel about having spent several hours of my life reading them. In high school I thought Courtney Love was kind of cool. She married Kurt Cobain after all and I was into him, so I figured I better be into her, too. I'm sure at the time I thought the book was interesting, but now its one of those ones you kind of regret owning. It was a birthday gift, so at least I can honestly say I didn't pay for it. But I was happy to receive it when I did, which I believe was actually after I'd graduated hs, but oh well. Some things take time to grow out of. If i reread it today I'd probably just say it was ok, but I'm gonna stick with my system of rating the past books how i felt at that point in life.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always been fascinated by Courtney Love, and I'm a fan of Poppy Z. Brite, so when I saw this (a NUMBER of years ago, I think the book was published in 1997 or 1998, just at the time that Courtney had gone big-time in "The People vs. Larry Flynt") I picked it up, and just found it while looking for something light to read.

An interesting portrait of a very ambitious woman, and if even HALF of her stories are true (and Brite seems to have done a fair bit of research) then Love and lived quite the life already, and she's barely 40. Probably only worthwhile if you're a fan of her life (her music is discussed, but Brite doesn't dwell on it).

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah. I totally just gave this 4 stars. Here's a fun fact about me: I loved Hole all through high school. Four years of intense love. I read this in one night- Easter Eve- my sophomore year which was when I was at the peak of of my fangirlishness. I cannot be sure if it was just that I would have loved any fairly positive or sympathetic portrait of Courtney Love or if it was just a really enjoyable biography of a famous gal. I think the writing seemed trustworthy and casual which is really what I like in a bio, especially if it is of someone who is still alive when it's being written.

[Zanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in my teens when I was into Hole and my friends were into Poppy Z Brite.

The goodreads blurb is spot-on!

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, here's the deal. I couldn't care less about Courtney Love. I bought this book because Poppy is a friend and I went to her signing. Despite who it was about, I thought it was actually a pretty interesting book. Certainly it was very well written.

[Krista Moreno · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Courtnet Love biographys ever!

[Mira · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this when I was 15. Can't remember why. I guess I thought Courtney might share some of my angst. Turns out she's just a wackadoo.

[Letitia · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my old favorites

[Ted Curtis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have thousands of books in a one bedroom flat: it’s a dust factory. Very few of these have I read – there just isn’t room to keep the ones that are done with. I used to sell them on Amazon, but they’ve taken such an increasing cut of late (seller fees, paying tax on the transaction, paying their tax on the transaction, limited postal allowance) that it’s become more profitable to give them away. And so it was that I happened across a little free library on a garden wall, en route to Rectory Road station, and thus this biography of Courtney Love. The library thing is a phenomenon that’s been popping up hither and thither of late, one not coming with any instructions, but presumably operating on the take-one-leave-one principle.

I once shared pages in an anthology with Poppy Z Brite, in Robert Dellar’s Gobbing, Pogoing & Gratuitous Bad Language, and I’d read her earlier gothic horror novels Exquisite Corpse and Dead Souls and enjoyed them, and so Courtney Love: The Real Story aroused my interest, being more appealing than the average fare on offer from the garden wall bookcase. Although it’s marketed as the unauthorised biography, Brite and Love are friends, and Love asked her to write the book. But if it's intended as either a panegyric or a whitewash, it’s either not a very good one, or it truly is the real story. Because Love comes across for much of the book as an egomaniacal and superficial monster, despite her obvious intelligence. I do have to say that in my experience, in biographies of either punk rockers or the history of the scene as a whole, none of the actors come out of it well, Jon Savage’s recent book on Joy Division (This searing light, the sun and everything else: Joy Division: The Oral History, which I reviewed last week) kind of being the exception that proves the rule. I’m thinking in particular here of Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me, an oral history of the NYC punk scene spanning several decades, in which Bowie, Iggy Pop, various liggers and hangers-on from Andy Warhol’s Factory, The Ramones, Johnny Thunders and Malcolm McLaren, all present themselves as complete and utter dickheads. But hey, that’s rock and roll I suppose.

Courtney Love: The Real Story is copyrighted as being 22 years old, and I’ve no idea what Love has been doing since then, as Hole, Love’s band, have never really – other than for the occasional song – floated my boat. Love had an horrifically chaotic upbringing, born to wealthy hippie parents and then mostly ignored, being shunted from pillar to post, given LSD at the age of four, running away all over the globe in her teenage years (and being somehow able to talk herself onto various transatlantic flights absent a passport), before settling somewhere between Los Angeles and Portland and Seattle, and meeting Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Given this, the reader can perhaps be forgiven for experiencing her as a sympathetic and tragic character, but she seems to have had the luck of the gods in many respects: having a trust fund, bumping into Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes and being given the run of his house in Liverpool, becoming a minor Hollywood movie star almost on a whim, writing a barely intelligible letter to Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and persuading her to produce her first album, and other things besides.

After Cobain dies (spoiler alert), and following the grieving process in the form of a lot of AOL chatroom gibberish, tediously reproduced here, Love appears to grow up a little bit, so there’s the hint of a Hollywood happy ending, or at least a hopeful one. If Courtney Love: The Real Story were presented as a novel or a movie script, it would work very well, and I’d probably like it more, but I can’t really get over all the millionaire rock star bullshit, so only three stars I’m afraid, but still definitely worth a look.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Say what you want about Courtney Love, but she was one of the first female rock stars that I properly admired throughout my teenage years (I'm not old enough to have grown up with Stevie Nicks or she would have plastered all over my bedroom walls instead), and I loved all the wild, crazy stories that were constantly in the music magazines about her life. I'd be lying if I said she wasn't an inspiration and of course, I was obsessed with all the bands involved in the grunge scene, even if I discovered them a good ten years later.

Only a few people could have written an official Courtney Love biography without wanting to rip up all the pages and repeatedly start again, but Poppy Z. Brite managed to do it and she's done it extremely well as the book covers all the major parts of Courtney's life, alongside the minor ones that add some extra depth and understanding into the psyche of the troubled rock star. Within the pages, you'll find the origins of Courtney's difficult childhood, details of her ambitions to be a musician, relationship problems, and of course her marriage to Kurt Cobain and the grief that she felt after his suicide.

The book also reads as a 'Who's Who' of the 90s US grunge scene with the usual suspects such as Billy Corgan, Trent Reznor, Kathleen Hanna, Dave Grohl and Jennifer Finch popping up to name but a few. It's a fast-paced rollercoaster that's hugely entertaining with some very sad parts, but one that I hope will continue to have a happier ending. If you're a Courtney, Hole or 90s grunge fan, you'll no doubt want to read it if you haven't already.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is like a book version of those cheap unauthorised bio's you see on the biography channel. You know the ones that use the same 6 photo's over and over again, use bad background studio muzac that kind of sound a bit like the subjects music genre(but not at all really) and pads out about 10 mins of facts and interview snipets with their nextdoor neighbours best friends taxi driver (who knew the 'real' person behind the image beacuse they drove them to the casino once in 1985)by repeating them over and over again.. you know, those ones?

[R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

See where you've been before you go any further, Ms. Love.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Courtney Love is a psychotic goddess.

[Nicole Lindell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really liked this read. It gives you insight to a person that people gossip about constantly and you kinda get why she has the who cares attitude she does

[Megan Mclaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim while working at Half-Price Books. I wasn't the least bit sorry, despite having never read any Brite or really even caring much about Courtney Love.

[Danne]

stare at the cover photograph long enough and eventually youll see a black widow spider

[Michelle Vandepol · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read about Courtney in the 90s tabloids and wanted to have more context. Highly recommend.

[SadieReadsAgain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a fan of Courtney Love. Not in the shady way of meaning I dislike her, just that I was too young to get into grunge. I've listened to both Hole and Nirvana, and thought they were ok, but just ok. But I am interested in her story, so when my friend was clearing out his books this was one of the ones I picked up. I've read Poppy Z. Brite once before, Drawing Blood, and really enjoyed that so I knew this story was in safe hands. This book is not written to tear Courtney Love down, but equally it isn't trying to make her into some sort of saint. It covers her traumatic childhood, her involvement in different music scenes across America and in the UK, her relationship with Kurt Cobain and their journey into parenthood, and how she dealt with his death by suicide. I found it fascinating to see the other well-known people she knew - the ones she loved, and the ones she hated. I really appreciated that she doesn't hold back on that last one either, something you don't always get in "celebrity" biographies and memoirs, but I'm always down for some hot tea. She speaks her mind, and if she doesn't like someone she's not only going to tell them but she's going to tell the whole fucking world. I've come out of this book thinking that although problematic, this is a woman who has been through hell and is totally fascinating. The book is really well written, it flows really well and doesn't just take Love's word for things!

[Ocean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that could so easily be read from cover to cover in one sitting. Of course you could say that I am biased if you know about my undying love for Courtney, but even if you aren't a die hard fan I think you could find something you'd like in her story.

From her early beginnings with parents who clearly had no idea how to care for a child nor how to love her, to her stays in numerous friend's houses and later on her injust placements in state facilities for the criminally inclined youth, to her stripping in East Asia when she wasn't even of legal age, all the way to her rise to fame and the difficulties media further brought to her life and that of her child and husband and the witch hunt that began after his suicide.. She has gone through so much shit and yet somehow pulled through to the other side of the tunnel. I knew much of her story already but some of the details were lost on me and I kept thinking as I read "gosh it can't get any worse can it?" knowing full well that it sadly did.

Yes I adore Courtney, not just because she made it but also for her raw honesty. She always refused to compromise on who she was for anyone. God knows she paid a tough price for it but she never ceased to be who she was, fragile and hurt yet strong and angry as hell, always screaming like a banshee, often politically incorrect and always here to smash the patriarchy.

Courtney Love is before anything else resilience personified, and I wish this book had been written later on because she has kicked her demon's arses since then and seem to have become even stronger if that's possible, but this record of her life from her birth to the release of the Larry Flint film -in which she played wonderfully the role of Althea, Larry's wife- already gives us so much information and a real sense of who she is and where she came from. It also fills the holes of her published diary entries, which were numerous.
Poppy Z Brite really wrote an articulate, in depth and generally great biography, with the help of the celebrity's friends and a few documents and letters she had access to as a friend of Courtney herself, I expect it's pretty accurate and in no instances does the author try to sugar coat anything nor to vilify her subject -which is much appreciated-.

+++

[Jennifer Ratcliffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A riveting read. Courtney Loves childhood up to 18 is honestly astonishing and a bit harrowing.

This biography is definitely a bit bias (though it tries not to be) and now dated. It gives good insight into the media frenzy cloud that has surrounded Courtney Love and what we know of the media during that period.

I read it in one sitting. Written in the style you'd imagine someone who listens to Hole whilst trying to be proper- eloquent, stylised with a sense of take it or leave it.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography follows the life of grunge rocker Courtney Love from her birth through the mid-1990s.

Courtney Love is probably best known as the wife (widow) of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. It is a shadow from which she can never entirely escape. In her own right, she is best known as the frontwoman of the alternative rock band Hole.

[Alex Ankarr · Rating 3 out of 5]

bonkers, good fun.