Quick review of Michael Drewett, Sarah Hill, and Kimi Kärki, eds., PETER GABRIEL, FROM GENESIS TO GROWING UP (Surrey, ENG: Ashgate, 2010).

Birzer Rating: D.

Don’t waste your time.

I’ve had this book for five years, but I’ve just finally had a chance to read through (yes, just through) it.  What a disaster.  I’m so very happy that scholars realize how important Gabriel is, but this is one of those “apply theory, subject doesn’t matter” books.

It’s so theory-laden that it could be just as well about Jane Austen or John Updike as it is Peter Gabriel.  And, the theory isn’t even interesting.  Deconstruct the means and methods of entertainment by the politics of identity and the power structures of an oppressive culture.

“In his search for individuated identity, XXXX undermined the very structures of power as understood in a declining corporatist society.”

Just who is XXXX?  It really doesn’t matter.  Peter Gabriel, Mercy Otis Warren, Carl Olson, or Baby Jesus.  Write book, insert subject, publish as an academic book, and sell to every library around the world.

Frankly, this book is a total mockery of the actual and individual genius of Peter Gabriel.  He deserves better, and so do we.