Siblings Difficult

“Early on in A Complicated Life, Johnny Rogan quotes Marianne Faithfull: ‘The Kinks were very gothic. Creepy and silent. They never spoke. They were uptight and fearful of everyone. Underneath there was all this weird dysfunctional family stuff going on.’ Great quote. The trouble is, it manages to say more in a few lines than Rogan manages in 750-plus pages. In the absence of any obvious psychological acuity, Rogan interviews an apparently endless supply of people who testify to what a horror show it was dealing (separately) with Ray or Dave, or with Dave and Ray together. I don’t think I’ve ever read a biography in which such a gap emerged between the public image of a beloved entertainer (and the affection it is generally guaranteed), and how much they were privately loathed by anyone who ever had to work with them. If the book’s testimony is to be believed, it seems that no one who ever worked with Ray has a good word to say about him. The nearest we get to anything like a tender emotion would be the strained sort of pity people feel for Dave because he’s had to put up with even more of Ray’s awful behaviour than they have. But then it turns out they don’t have anything better to say about Dave.”
 — This is one of those great reviews that obviates any need to read the book in question, if that were even something one might be inclined to do. Anyway, if you’ve never heard of The Kinks, they were like your grandparents’ version of Oasis, and if you’ve never heard of Oasis ask your parents, they’ll probably remember.