Title: Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain Author: Charles R Cross Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton My reaction to the death of Kurt Cobain takes up a chapter of my first novel. Without going into things too much, it's enough to say that the loss of someone who made me remember what it felt like to feel music tore me up. Cobain's howl at the end of "Where did you sleep last night?" meant, for me at least, that I was not alone. When he was found dead in early April 1994, it took a lot of time and healing before music could regain some of its previous power and meaning. Since Cobain's death, numerous books have been written about the musician, his band, and, of course, the self-explanatory Who Killed Kurt Cobain?, not to mention Nick Broomfield's schlocko-doco Kurt & Courtney. With that in mind, it's important to ask how does this latest exploration of the unlikely superstar's life and death differ from the rest, and does it offer anything new or interesting on a topic that has already been substantially explored? Two elements of Heavier than Heaven (named after Nirvana's first UK tour) mark it as special. The first is Cross's proximity to Kurt and Courtney Love - he was editor of Seattle's The Rocket, the magazine that gave Nirvana its first cover story, and he proceeded to establish, if not a friendship, something resembling a well-known acquaintance with them both. This relationship with the Cobains enabled Cross to interview many of Kurt's associates and friends as well as family and some band members. It also allowed Cross access to what is essentially the most important part of this book - Kurt's diaries and journals, stretching from his early teens until just months before his death, in essence writings that have never before appeared in print. The journals reveal a determined yet fragile individual, one convinced of his own musical destiny but unsure of the means and the methods used to obtain it. They also reveal Kurt's "literariness" - it's no surprise to see the debt his lyrics owe to the cutup works of William S Burroughs, and KC's collaboration with the writer on 1993's "The Priest They Called Him" was ranked by the musician as one of his proudest achievements. Cobain's writings ultimately reveal a man who had everything but who was ultimately alone, desperately addicted to heroin and chronically depressed. It is here where Cross's narrative strengths carry the book, his retelling of the Nirvana frontman's long slide into addiction and isolation from those who cared from him most providing a chilling account of one man's self-destruction. Cross's research is thorough - from Kurt's roommate in rehab to details of the final intervention led by Courtney and Krist Novoselich, little "official" material (ie sanctioned by Courtney) is left out. However, Cross's proximity to the sources damages his efforts to remain objective and to tell the entire story. No mention is made of the allegations of Love's involvement in Cobain's death, nor of Cobain's widely-rumoured queer sexuality, and little reference is made to Cobain seeking a divorce only days before his suicide attempt in Rome the month before he died. When someone decides to call their work "The Biography," it's a claim to ultimate authority, to a work that, in general, overshadows any other attempts to chronicle the subject's life. Sadly, Cross's work only reaches approximately 75 percent of the way. Nevertheless, Heavier than Heaven is an important and well-narrated telling of Cobain's life, and the honesty and skill shown in letting Cobain's drug-addled behaviours and often-selfish attitudes speak for themselves is courageous and mostly-successful. The use of comprehensive research and interviews with those most intimately involved adds a depth to this biography that others have often missed, though in the end, it only adds to the speculation and intrigue that remain, 10 years after the release of "Smells like Teen Spirit." The biography, the full, complete work, is yet to be written.