Title: Too close to his subject?
Review: I finished this book thinking that Bill Milkowski was just way too close to his subject to do a true biography - at times, particularly towards the end, it becomes "my life with Jaco". However, that closeness does give Milkowski some insights into Jaco's personality that another author probably wouldn't have. Milkowski correctly recognizes that one of Jaco's greatest problems was the people surrounding him. One striking thing about the book was how many people close to Jaco blamed the "system" for failing Jaco (the author included), yet amazingly, how his family allowed a total stranger to convince a judge to release him under his own recognizance, 4 days before he received the fatal beating at the Midnight Bottle Club. However, unlike the treatment of John Belushi in Wired or Jim Morrison in No One Here Gets Out Alive, Milkowski avoids mythologyzing. Milkowski recognizes that when a supremely talented person destroyes himself, it's not heroic, it's tragic.
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