I am ambivalent about reading bad books. An excellent argument can be made that once you realize a book is an embarrassing display of incompetence, you should put it down. Why waste your time? But, some of us habitually try to finish what we start. And, sometimes, one can learn something worthwhile from the inept. That is why I've finished reading three books I don't like this week. Today's review is of My Brother, Marvin Gaye, by Frankie Gaye, the reknown singer's pathetic younger brother. I am interested in Gaye because I believe his music chronicles the culture of both the black American sub-culture and American culture in general. (The two are inextricably bound.) So, the more I learn about Gaye, the more I learn about the times he lived in and his continuing influence on our culture. Unfortunately, his brother's book is pretty much useless for that purpose.
Frankie Gaye, who died before the book was published, has three objectives:
•To cover up the pathology rampant in the Gaye family, especially his father's abusive nature and sexual confusion.
•To partake of his brother's adulation.
•To promote himself.
The first is most important. On April 1, 1984, Marvin Gay, Sr., shot and killed his son, the famous vocalist, songwriter, and producer. The killing was the culmination of a life time of abuse. Gay, a fundamentalist preacher who rarely worked, had ruled his home with an iron fist for years. Though all family members were mentally and physically abused by him, Marvin, Jr., was the main target of his wrath. The son fled the father's whippings while in his teens. A few years later, he reinvented himself as the gentle singer of duets with gorgeous female vocalists that help put Motown on the cultural map.
Article comments
1 - jb
Horrible! Very dispespectful to the legacy of both brothers. No matter what siblings go through within a household it brings them closer. I doubt that there was jealousy in Frankie's heart, if anything he looked up to his older brother, hence the immulating! Why is it such a obscenity to whomever wrote the review that Frankie changed the spelling of his last name? THAT'S HIS BROTHER!!!! For anyone who could be freshly stumbling upon the fact that there was a Frankie Gaye, this is the worst page to stumble upon and find out that the first review of the man is negative.
2 - Angie
The reason the book seems so biased and was missing pertinent information about Judy and her two children with Frankie (Christie and Denise), is because it was only partially completed when Frankie died. Irene obviously finished the book and of course left out many critical details that she personally did not want published. If it were up to her, there would never have been a previous wife, a cross-dressing father-in-law, or history of abuse in the family. Frankie was dependent on Marvin for many reasons, not the least of which revolved around fortune and fame. But, there was also love, however skewed by drugs and other intoxicating factors that came with the lifestyle Marvin's celebrity afforded.