I've been thoroughly immersed in Elvis Presley ever since visiting Graceland. Reading these two volumes was a revelation in so many ways - so many things about Elvis' life I didn't know. The last time I was as emotionally affected by a biography of a musician was some twenty years ago when I read Beethoven's biography.
This second volume was sad a lot of the time as I watched Elvis go steadily downhill. The large quantities of prescription drugs that he took, the many doctors he had at his beck and call, the women who came into his life, his changes in temperament - there were times when I didn't like him too much, but then I would become sad when I saw how needy he was, how lonely he was even amidst his ever-constant companions.
He obviously never got over the death of his mother, and his relationships with women illustrate that over and over again. I think he even had a death wish in those last few years. - he certainly seemed obsessed by mortality.
The Colonel,too, was an enigma, and the author didn't appear to like him very mich - the same can be said for Ginger Alden, his last "girlfriend", who was with him when he died.
These books were extra-special for me - an excellent, gifted young man whose life was wasted away.
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