The Quietus and the Irish Independent both gave Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More feature reviews last Saturday.
The book was selected as Pick of the Week by the Irish Independent. Their review stated that “this detailed study of their life and times felt like the opening of a brand new musical world”.
The article adds: “There’s plenty for Faith No More devotees and newcomers to get their teeth into. And as with any good music book, you find yourself wanting to discover more about a band whose music has largely defied categorisation.”
Meanwhile, Jeremy Allen in The Quietus, arguably the best music and culture website in the world, said that “Harte has a beautiful turn of phrase, and he’s not afraid to throw in a bit of Hericlitian analysis or namedrop Adorno without sounding too much like a bellend. The text kicks in with a neat coffee metaphor and ends on some tantalising possibilities, and in between there’s pretty much everything you could ever possibly hope to know about Faith No More within its pages.”
The review also states: “Beautifully captures the bellicosity, the vitality, the surreptitious virtuosity and the inveterate internal hostility that permeated Faith No More.”
Meanwhile, Douglas Esper in the Domain Cleveland said: “Adrian Harte has given us the best glimpse of the true band, zits and all” and called the book “the inside look at one of the most interesting rock bands ever.”
Christopher Owens in the Pensive Quill said: “What Harte does brilliantly is convey just what misfits the band were in their own scenes.”
Leading French rock writer Christophe Darras called the book “the bio of the year” in his extensive review. He wrote: “Small Victories, no doubt the result of meticulous and titanic work, is as gripping as a novel and reads like a thriller.”
Marvin…I took it the same way you did. The band members did get together, but that means, who knows. Even if more FNM music being released is fantasy, it was a positive way to end the book and made me happy.
Truly a great book. Bought it two weeks ago from Amazon, read it over the course of last week… For an FNM fan (which you probably are if you read those lines), that a no-brainer, go fort it!
I learned a lot reading this book, and more importantly it filled some gaps in my overall knowledge of the band. I knew some things happened, I knew that personnal conflicts occurred, but I had never quite understood all of it. I must give credits to the book: it unveils and explains it all, and everything makes sense.
About the last paragraph… I’m not sure how it’s supposed to be understood. 😉
Not being a native english speaker, I may have missed something, but to me it sounds more like a fantasy or a “possible future” if you will. Or maybe is it just some actual facts? Well, I hope it’s the case… 😉
Anyway, a great read overall. Thanks for the hard work!
Wow-wee Adrian …. €18 is a very reasonable price . My copy of the book just arrived – the coffee and decadence reference is a wonderful opener . So as the lyric goes
“Pat yourself on the back and give yourself a handshake” ..
Adrian,
Congratulations on the book. I picked up a copy here in the US today…looking forward to reading it!