I want a bunch of vague overviews of life events interrupted every couple sentences with asides about the dangers of alcohol and drugs and how I can better myself by never consuming copious amounts of them - ever.
I would hope that by the end of reading the book I will feel like a horrible human for my love of liquor and will be Googling therapists in my local area that I will start meeting with once a week."
- Said no one - ever.
Nick Carter recently penned a self-help book which is masked as an autobiography which is classified on Amazon as a autobiography and self-help hybrid so no one can ask for their money back.
Facing the Music and Living to Talk About It is a valiant effort by Carter to try to help some people out, but generally speaking - people are more adept to receiving therapy from a therapist and not from a guy who is just figuring out his own life.
People will buy it for the biography portion, hate it for the self-help feel and maybe, just maybe someone will fix their life based on the words of wisdom of Mr. Carter. Or not. What do I know? I'm not a therapist.
But enough about what I think you will think. Here is what I think about this dismal display of literature. There are three different parts interwoven throughout the book.
First is Nick's need to save everyone thus the self-help portion which makes up around 50%. The amount of times that Nick refers to his therapist and things that he obviously learned in therapy makes me wonder if he had an epiphany one day in the chair, went home and wrote this whole thing.
The need to share this mind blowing information was so out of control that he literally would start a story and then stop to give you the medical definition of binge drinking and tell you how bad it was for your body. We know, please continue telling me about the time you got drunk and were refused entry onto a city bus.
At the beginning of the book he states that the death of his younger sister Leslie in 2012 was a catalyst for writing the book. "I've written it in Leslie's memory, though I sincerely wish I could have given it to her before she died."
Thus it's understandable why he was so adamant about pushing the life saving bit of the book - but it was overboard and wound up hurting the flow and creating a disconnect.
Second is Nick's need to defend himself. I'd say this was in the 20% range of page space.
A lot of people who write autobiographies do so to tell a story and to share parts of their lives, good and bad, with the public. They have come to a resolve and are open to letting you know how they got to where they are and the stupid mistakes they made along the way. Nick Carter still has something to prove, and it's inked all over this book.
The frequency in which he brings up his parents poor child rearing ways as a fall back for his and his sibling's problems is almost equal to the frequency he references his therapist. Sometimes people just do unfortunate things and there doesn't need to be an explanation or excuse attached to it. I think that the parent demon was the one he was currently focusing on in his chair time and thus it was a big player in the book.
He also tells us why he didn't attend his sister's funeral, why he stopped giving certain people in his family money and why he was such a disaster of a pop star in the later years.
The last, and obviously most interesting, part of the tangled mess that was Facing the Music was his accounts of his life outside of the family home in Florida. This is, based on the laws of math, around 30% of the book.
Being a part of the Backstreet Boys, the booze filled nights, the attempt at a solo career, the girlfriends and House of Carters were all topics of interest.
There isn't much fans don't already know about the Backstreet Boys. The later years are a little less public due to their fall in popularity and boy bands in general. For the most part however, people know what's going on with the group.
Nick clarifies the Lou Pearlman scandal. Pearlman, who founded the group, was stealing money from them and then they fired him and he went to jail. Nick states that there was never any sexual abuse that he was aware of that had been reported in the media.
He writes about his substance abuse ventures including the one time he got a DUI. I'll let you read that for yourself, but it was the least spectacular thing I have ever heard. The chapter titled "The Night of the Zombies" left much to be desired as well. Basically let me just say that if you are expecting some insane accounts of celebrity partying you are in for a big disappointment and don't even bother.
Nick's account of his solo career was on-point. "I was this overweight, unhealthy solo artist who was sweating profusely and wearing clothes on stage that I could barely fit into." That's pretty much how I remembered it as well.
He talked about a couple of his girlfriends which took up about half a page spread out over the entire book. He says that he dated Willa Ford and Paris Hilton. He briefly went into details about his near seven month relationship with the hotel heiress.
He said Paris was only interested in him because he was a celebrity and that he was with "...someone I wasn't convinced really cared about me. I often felt like she was playing me, but no one would tell me so."
He does not talk about the rumours that he cheated on Paris with Ashlee Simpson or that he beat her (He has already stated publicly that he didn't, but I thought it may come up in the book).
There is a whole lot at the end of the book about his now fiancee Lauren Kitt and how they are super healthy together and all of that fine-and-dandy stuff.
The best part was not the end (cause really, I don't care how you proposed to your girlfriend, no offence) but the chapter on the House of Carters. Did you know that show only lasted 8 episodes? Tragic.
Nick was not a fan of the show and what his family looked like in it. He doesn't claim that the editing was bad, just that they were so highly dysfunctional that he was majorly embarrassed by it. "If you saw more than 5 minutes of House of Carters just let me say "I'm Sorry."" Is he kidding? I loved that show - loved.
Besides the fact that Nick Carter has gone through the steps to fix his life and wants to be reincarnated as a therapist, there were no mind blowing revelations or discoveries to be made with this book.
I am unfortunately going to have to pass on recommending this book however, if you are a true Nick Carter fan you are bound by the laws of nature to buy it when it comes out in September. I didn't make the rules - Mother N did, so take it up with her.
http://www.xoxojes.com/2013/06/book-review-facing-music-and-living-to.html
