Fred Goodman

I love music. I love to read about music, particularly the budding rock scene of the sixties and early seventies. The handful of players who changed all the rules fascinate me. I expected to love this book. Sadly, I was mostly bored.

While this is marketed as a biography, it is largely a study of business and economics. The content revolves around finances and contracts. Clearly this was important to Klein and his clients, though it does not make for interesting reading. My sense of Klein as a person came mostly through his contractual dealings, which showed me his intense drive to succeed at all costs. He certainly was a key player in changing the music industry, though the excitement of that was largely overshadowed by all the talk of contractual and corporate law.

The content doesn't flow well. Goodman veers off into mini biographies of other key players within the industry at that time. While interesting, much of this is of little to no relevance to Klein's story.

I was most intrigued by Klein's relationship with the musicians he represented, though this made up only a small portion of the book. His obsession with the Beatles bordered on insanity, a single-minded drive to represent a band that, by this time, had already stopped touring and was a breath away from splitting up.

If dry facts and business dealings of the music industry interest you, then you will likely love this book. If you're looking for a story with substance, like me, you might find this one lacking.… (mere)

"The Secret City" tells the story of Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York, by interspersing factual chapters on the cemetery with fictionalized stories of the people buried there. For me, the device didn't work. The sections of historical fiction were uneven and ultimately not compelling. The nonfiction chapters were much more interesting, but couldn't carry the book by themselves. I will add that I appreciate the effort by author Fred Goodman. I felt his love and fascination with Woodlawn and admired his courage in trying an unusual approach to his subject. In the end, alas, I just couldn't follow him on the journey.… (mere)