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The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

Author: Visit Amazon's Marilyn Manson Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0060392584 | Format: EPUB

The Long Hard Road Out of Hell Description

Amazon.com Review

One doesn't usually think of rock stars as insightful, but, against all odds, glam-trash superstar Marilyn Manson has written a book that is actually an intelligent look at growing up. This autobiographical bildungsroman brings out the creepiest aspects of childhood, conveying the terror and fascination that young Marilyn (then called Brian) felt when looking through his grandfather's pornography, getting his first French kiss, and being taunted by the girls he wanted to "date." Manson has the benefit of having grown up as an outcast and loser and then having become a star without forgetting what he went through. This gives him an incredibly broad perspective, which he brings to bear on his ordinary life in order to convey the more potent and frightening moments that shaped him into the pale-skinned weirdo that the Christian Right loves to hate. Best of all, Manson is shockingly honest, and portrays himself as occasionally stupid, self-centered, over-sensitive, ignoble, and, mostly, highly fallible and human. It's a long way from the auto-hagiographies that other stars have written, and it's easily one of the best reads in celebrity bio. --James DiGiovanna

Review

"Beautifully designed and packed wih candid photos, the tome is a treasure for diehard fans, but entertaining enough even if you despise Manson's music" -- Paper

"Marilyn Manson unleashes the ultimate tell-all" -- Rolling Stone

"Overall, this makes a very good read and has enough deep-dish gossip to rank as a bestseller" -- Circus

"well-written and uncommonly addictive" -- Chicago Sun-Times

"Book sales are hot for Marilyn Manson... local stores can barely keep up with the demand." -- The Beacon Journal (Canton, OH)

"Ultimately, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell convincingly portrays Manson as a performance artist and social critic of the Howard Stern variety, one who can stoke the flames of controversy as high as possible and still win the acceptance of millions." -- US

"a terrific rock & roll saga in the epic vein" -- The Austin Chronicle

"The Long Hard Road Out of Hell is nothing short of captivating in all its intentional, over-the-top bad taste." -- Edge

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Product Details
Table of Contents
Reviews

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: HarperEntertainment; 1st edition (February 12, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060392584
ISBN-13: 978-0060392581
Product Dimensions: 1.5 x 6.5 x 9.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds

You wouldn't think a middle aged Southern conservative housewife like me would be caught dead reading something like this. The cover alone should scare me away. And the first word of the first chapter is one I wasn't allowed to say as a child. But with that first word Manson reveals immediately what his entire book portrays - Hell. The story mates his life with Dante's Inferno; even the chapters are structured as the divisions and circles of Dante's hell. This was a stroke of genius and makes for a fascinating read. Manson's life parallels Dante's journey through hell, and, like in the Inferno, it begins with pain and steadily becomes much worse. In the Inferno however, the protagonist with whom we identify is Dante, who is not one of the punished. We must guess at the psychic torment of the damned through Dante's conversations with them. Manson takes us on the same journey but as one of the condemned. He takes us inside his head to see firsthand the progressive blackening and relentless decay of his soul.
But that is only one of the many levels on which this book operates. It is also the story of a man's struggle to come to terms with his own nature when that nature is something the world perceives as evil and he suspects they may be right. He has amazing self awareness, and the rare ability to articulate his inner battles in powerful, captivating ways. The book is riveting, for he is laying bare his soul for all to see, and he knows it is ugly.
But by the end of the book, after he has sunk to the dark bottom of the pit, there is a glimmer of hope. He gains the sense that there may be some beauty hidden under all the self-loathing and screw ups that are his existence. Like Dante, Manson finally confronts Satan himself, and discovers the exit from hell.

"The less people understand you the more intelligent they think you are" muses Marilyn. In a catch 22 kind of way the understanding of Brian Warner I've gained from this book supports his claim.
I at least think he's less compassionate than I previously did, if not less intelligent. He talks seriously about planning to murder an unstable girl who was harassing him after he led her on then dumped her and kicked her out of the band, plans he was only scared off completing because a homeless man started following him and his accomplice while they were on their way to do the deed and after failing to lose him a cop car happened to pass by.
Learning about some of the experiences that inspired his lyrics and performance I can look at them and say yeah that's a good way of expressing that, but previously it was hard to see much meaning in anything he wrote or did. Yet he claims that conservatives were trying to silence him because of what he was saying. Dude, people liked you or disliked you based on image, no one knew you were saying anything.
His comraderie with Anton Lavey, who is portrayed (presumably unintentionally) as a fortune-telling conman, illuminates Manson's worst trait, his willingness to see only the worst in his conservative christian detractors, seeking to villify rather than enlighten them, denying their humanity in the same way they do his.
He also subscribes to a "contempt for the weak" ideology typically expressed by white supremecists, involving disgust for sluts and drug addicts, and advocates the death penalty for shoplifters "because if you're stupid enough to get caught you deserve to die.

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