John’s Reviews > SMiLE: The Story of Brian Wilson's Lost Masterpiece > Status Update

Oh, this book just took on Brian Wilson's mental illness! He accuses his publicist of being a plant of the Beatles on the west coast; suggests the Beatles heard "Smile" early, and Van Dyke Parks backs up this paranoia with quotes almost 40 years later.

It was bad writing before, this makes it worse unless it points out "Brian's not well" at some point soon. This is non-ficiton, folks

Another bad, jumbled chapter in the books. The story I was interested in reading about was largely omitted/parred down. Disappointing. Mike Love's war with Brian Wilson deserves more than a scant mention when it's played up at the chapter's beginning.

"Avant garde a clue"

Some of it's fluff, some of it's poorly edited, some of it has me transfixed.

This book is mistitled.

"SMILE!: A press release about Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks that brutally repeats everyone's name and won't go in depth about any of the figures it talks about."

I can't believe how much I paid for this; it's something you'd expect included with the 2004 album release.

Working against this book is how scattered the narrative is.

Because the Doc Holiday book sucks...