The Destruction and Creation of Michael Jackson
by Ellis Cashmore

376 pages, Hardcover
Published June 16, 2022, by Bloomsbury Academic

ISBN 9781501363580 (ISBN10: 1501363581)

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book tries to be clever but fails at the outset due to misinformation (or lack of information) and the fact that it reads as an exercise in fence-sitting by the author. Cashman doesn’t know what to make of Jackson. Let me explain. His observations about Jackson’s life, career and legacy are invariable followed by some kind of rider… like “or maybe not”/”or was he?” What may seem like an attempt to walk a tightrope of academic objectivity merely comes across as a cop-out.

What the author does realise though is that there was, and still is, money to be made and attention to be gained by talking about and writing about Michael Jackson, even though he has been gone over 13 years now (as at Jan 2023). Anyone wondering about his continuing relevance in today’s world only need consider the number of times Jackson’s name still appears in headlines or book titles to appreciate just how “present” he still is in the world of media and entertainment, and in a lot of people’s lives.

This book was written post Leaving Neverland, which gets plenty of mentions, and the author may not have anticipated the thorough dismantling of the narrative of the HBO hit piece by anyone who could do real research. This is not to be found by reading – or referencing – Maureen Orth, whom he calls “Anne Orth” when using a 1994 quote from her to begin Chapter 2. That made me laugh; to quote one of Michael’s most outrageous tabloid critics and get her name wrong had to be some kind of ironic justice!

In that same chapter, in talking about Michael Jackson as a historically significant figure, Cashman explains that: “He didn’t fight or assuage racism or position himself as an icon of black struggle. In later life, he and we were unsure whether he was back at all.” It was about this time that I wished I’d had a hint of the contents of this book before I bought it.

I give it two stars for the text being professionally written (excluding the errors) and using the clever (but not original) idea of working backwards through Jackson’s life and career, and even proposing scenarios for Jackson if he hadn’t died when he did. (These I found mildly interesting, though based on what, I wondered, given the errors and misjudgements made in the bulk of the book).

Anyone wanting to read Cashman’s book should make sure they are knowledgeable enough about the subject matter to detect the inaccuracies and lack of comprehension by the author about Jackson (which of course, is the entertainer’s fault, because, after all, he was/is completely incomprehensible, Cashman suggests).

The bibliography of referenced works includes some folks whose writing on Jackson I really admire – e.g., Susan Fast, Joseph Vogel and Zack O’Malley Greenburg. Unfortunately, in each case it is merely a single article (while Orth rates three), rather than the complete books each of these writers has written on Jackson. These books offer better understanding and deeper illumination of his life and art.

My suggestion is for anyone who is seeking information on Michael Jackson to read Fast, Vogel and Greenburg’s books and Elizabeth Amisu’s “The Dangerous Philosophies of Michael Jackson,” Veronica Bassil’s eBooks, of which there are three, and Willa Stillwater’s “M Poetica. Michael Jackson’s Art of Compassion and Defiance” another eBook. Also, read Michael Jackson’s own autobiography “Moonwalk” (1988) and his “Dancing the Dream” (1992) – both of which are curiously absent from Cashmore’s bibliography!

Review by Kerry Hennigan
January 2023

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