The first comprehensive biography of this hipster magus. It tours his life without ever quite penetrating it. But it’s a knowing and thoughtful book.

Highly enjoyable.

Illuminating, definitive.

Szwed has ably shaped [Smith's] chaos.

Interesting but uneven.

Music writer and biographer Szwed confronted both a mammoth and chaotic trove of materials and an even larger void of tragically lost artworks and collections as he assiduously and passionately constructed this engrossing, revelatory, often beyond-belief portrait of a reckless, maddening, cosmic, and transformational genius..

Szwed, as lively a writer as he is scrupulous, has produced an excellent and engaging biography, the story of an elusive but important and utterly fascinating figure..

Vividly detailed.

An overdue, comprehensive biography of a strange, singular man.