The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

I read this book when it first came out and I was in high school. I’ve been a fan of MM since before ‘97 and played out “Beautiful People” to the point where even my mom started liking it. I loved reading his backstory and how it became who he is today. What a lot of ppl don’t realize is how smart and articulate MM is and this book helps ppl understand him more and not to just judge a book by their cover.

I read this for a few reasons. I grew up head banging to Manson starting when I was 4 years old and my brothers were rebelling against our parents. My parents hated him because they thought what all conservative republicans thought: This dude is the antichrist. I started believing it (come on, I was like 6).Many years later, here I am teaching high school music. I’m all about anyone who pushes the envelope and teaching older kids to think critically about what they see and hear. I started watching some interviews with Marilyn Manson and was blown away at the man’s intelligence. I read this book with the plan to use part of it in teaching my music appreciation class in conjunction with some of his interviews.This book is so well-written. I truly cannot say enough good about it. It’s eye opening to how he got to where he is and why he went the path he did. I love Jesus and follow him closely, and I think Jesus would have a lot of good to say to Brian while flipping the tables the Christians sit behind as they whisper about him. His story is heartbreaking and challenging and I recommend anyone — especially anyone religious — read it.For the record, my upper high school students are always completely freaked out when I kick off my unit on controversial music with Marilyn Manson’s Sweet Dreams video. As we dive into his story, they come to love and appreciate him — including the incredibly sheltered ones from religious families. They see him for who he is: someone incredibly intelligent and massively misunderstood. If my teens can see it, surely any self respecting adult could, too.

Marilyn Manson will always remind me of that deep well of imaginative, fantastical nonsense that is the collective mind of christian fundamentalists. As someone born in the early 90's, he was the guy the older kids were warned about by the well-meaning-if-zealously-nonsensical spokespeople of my various local congregations. Warnings that filtered down to us.He sacrifices animals onstageMade a pact with the devilWorst of all; he is a homosexualPresumably all stuff they said about Black Sabbath in the 70's and Motley Crue in the 80's. Gun's and Roses in the early 90's. Sinatra in the 50's.And it will probably never endAnyways, now for the review:Brian Werner (birth name) was born and raised in a small town in Ohio. It seems like from an early age his life was filled with the disgusting and obscene. Central to this book are themes of unbleonging, anti-social anger, social disgust, filth, and the character of Werner's grandfather; an off-putting, strange old man with perverse, obscene habits indulged in from his filthy basement. The story arch is not really a personal one, despite the tital, because Manson barely changes his personality beyond the 3rd chapter, but really it is the story of his rising from a hated freak on a local level, to a hated freak on the international stage.The book is vulgar, as you'd expect, but if i'm reading a rock star's biography its just what i would expect. What did put me off was how gross everything was. Piss, blood and vomit make an appearance every few pages. A girl smokes old ground up bones from a bong. Manson picks up a broken beer bottle and cuts his chest open. Werner's grandfather jacks off unknowingly in front of his 13 year old grandkid. Manson himself is not a pretty sight to see. This man is obsessed with filth.Manson is profoundly arrogant, like most people who enter being hated and self-hating are, and this book is filled with his various judgments and insights. Christians do not come off well; neither do Americans. Moralizers come off immoral. Manson is hyper sensitive to such hypocrisy.The most prominant celeb featured in Trent Reznor, who signed Manson and was there for his mainstream breakout. Traci Lords and Jemma Jameson both make appearences, as well as Courtney Love, and Connan O'Brian. But most of the chacters are personal friends, acquaintances, enemies.And as you'll notice from the heading, Neil Strauss was "involved" with the writing, making the prose superb.Overall, an excellent rock bio, excellent peice of writing, and fascinating story. His unique story makes this a worthwhile read even to those who would never listen to his industrial garbage-pop.

Bought as a gift for a die hard Manson fan. Was told they loved the book

Very entertaining & dark

qualidade impecável e conteúdo literário do livro interessantíssimo, funamental pra verdadeiros fãs do Marilyn Manson

Hab es als Geschenk geholt. Kam sehr gut an

Premessa: non sono un lettore accanito di libri, anzi molto spesso mi annoio o mi fanno dormire dopo 2 minuti.Ho comprato questo libro perché il mio relatore di tesi mi assegnò come argomento da studiare la vita e le influenze di Marylin Manson. È stata una delle letture più belle della mia vita! Purtroppo non posso mostrarvi delle immagini perché non ce l'ho con me nella casa dove mi sono trasferito, ma è un libro per la maggior parte scritto da Marylin Manson con una semplicità, un'onestà ed un umorismo schiaccianti. Ti permette di entrare nei suoi panni, andandoti a raccontare anche eventi intimi della propria vita.In più, per non rendere banale la lettura, spesso ogni testo è accompagnato da disegni, frasi e citazioni che sembrano richiamare le immagini dei suoi album ed i suoi videoclip.Se vi interessa la vita di questa persona, vista dal suo punto di vista, è fortemente consigliata come lettura.