Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith

by William Todd Schultz

Elliott Smith was one of the most gifted songwriters of the '90s, adored by fans for his subtly melancholic words and melodies. The sadness had its sources in the life. There was trauma from an early age, years of drug abuse, and a chronic sense of disconnection that sometimes seemed self-engineered. Smith died violently in LA in 2003, under what some believe to be questionable circumstances, of stab wounds to the chest. By this time fame had found him, and record-buyers who shared the listening experience felt he spoke directly to them from astute, damaged, lovelorn, fighting, until he could fight no more. And yet, although his intimate lyrics carried the weight of truth, Smith remained unknowable. In Torment Saint , William Todd Schultz gives us the first proper biography of the rock star, a decade after his death, imbued with affection, authority, sensitivity, and long-awaited clarity.

Torment Saint draws on Schultz's careful, deeply knowledgeable readings and insights, as well as on more than 150 hours of interviews with close friends from Texas to Los Angeles, lovers, bandmates, music peers, managers, label owners, and recording engineers and producers. This book unravels the remaining mysteries of Smith's life and his shocking, too early end. It will be, for Smith's legions of fans and readers still discovering his songbook, an indispensable examination of his life and legacy.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Biography Memoir, History, Memoir

368 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

William Todd Schultz is a personality psychologist who specializes in profiles of artists. He’s published four books—Tiny Terror on Truman Capote (2011), An Emergency in Slow Motion on Diane Arbus (2011), Torment Saint on Elliott Smith (2013), and The Mind of the Artist (2021)—along with numerous articles and book chapters. He curates and edits the Oxford book series Inner Lives. He’s appeared in Huffington Post, Salon, Slate, The Spectator, Seattle Weekly, and other venues. In 2015, Schultz was awarded the Erikson Prize for Mental Health Media; from 2016-2017 he was a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas; and in summer, 2021, he completed a Yaddo Artist Residency. He lives and teaches in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking to learn about Elliott Smith as a person and as an artist, read Autumn de Wilde's book. If you're looking for a book written like a school book report that presents a simplistic psychological evaluation of someone the author never met, read Torment Saint.

I'm a big Elliott Smith fan, though I've always preferred to let his music speak, rather than to delve into his life. I read a good essay written by a college friend of his on the tenth anniversary of his death, though, and got curious about who he was as a person and what had really happened. Her essay recommended de Wilde's book, so I started there, but her book leaves the last few years murky, because he had shut most of his friends out of his life so they couldn't speak to it. I saw an essay by Schultz in Slate, and decided to try his book to learn more about the last few years.

I have to say, as interested as I was in reading to the end, I almost gave this book up a couple of times, just because it's so hard to read this book if you care for critical thought. Three main things bothered me:

1) The prose/editing/fact checking. The prose is choppy and hackneyed; it reads like a high school report of everything he could get anyone to say to him or could copy verbatim from a high school yearbook or lyrics sheet. It was clear to me throughout that Schultz isn't trained as a reporter or writer, and that his editor was AWOL. If there's a cliche available, Schultz will reach for it. (For example: Saying that no one in the NW ever uses an umbrella, even in the pouring rain, is a tired, mostly untrue cliche that was unnecessary. Another example: "culture war indoctrination" at Hampshire...a Fox News cliche that glibly writes off Elliott's time at Hampshire.) A thoughtful fact checker would have been a boon, as well: A simple Wikipedia search could have told him that Oregon was NOT "one of the vanishingly few states Mondale carried" in 1984 -- he only carried MN and DC. Little things like that make you wonder how many big things Schultz got wrong.

2) A spotty selection of sources. Clearly he couldn't get many people to open up to him and he leans on de Wilde's book pretty heavily to fill in quotes from major figures in Elliott Smith's life. Three chapters in, you're already sick of his statements that intimates know something happened between Elliott & his stepfather, but they're not telling Schultz. (Given that this seems pretty pivotal for Elliott's songwriting and mental state, why bother writing the book if you don't have a source that will elucidate it?) Or then things like, "Elliott wrote a lot of songs in that upper space, according to a tenant who replaced him." Well, that sounds like a really reliable source on Elliott Smith's songwriting. It's not even really necessary to the narrative to have that fact in; why is it there when it's so flimsy? There are examples like this throughout.

3) Constant pop psychological analysis. Schultz never met Elliott Smith. He has met a handful of his friends and acquaintances, and read the lyrics (draft and final) to most of his songs. I thought most responsible psychologists would avoid doing a full psychoanalysis of a patient they've never met, but Schultz is ready to tell you all about Elliott Smith's psychological state based on a regurgitation of his lyrics and a huge amount of supposition. Do I feel this told me anything about Elliott Smith's mental state? No, nothing that I couldn't have guessed at myself. The critical thinker in me cringed every time I read another unsourced clunker about what Elliott was thinking to himself -- and they're liberally sprinkled throughout.

This is not the definitive biography of Elliott Smith. Perhaps there won't ever be one; at any rate, I think it will be years before a more comprehensive group of sources opens up. Emotions are still too raw, from what I can tell. Until then, Autumn de Wilde's book is a much better introduction to Elliott Smith, the person, than Torment Saint is.

[Antigone · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it's irritating to those in the know to refer to Elliott Smith as Portland's Cobain, it does give the rest of us an immediate fix on the issues at hand. Young musical savant with a troubled childhood hits the alternative rock scene and bends the badlands to his brilliance. Unfulfilled by the fame dream and haunted by suicidal ideation, he side-trips into self-medication and hooks up with what, in retrospect, his most ardent fans will claim was a rogue manifestation of Kali the Destroyer - who may or may not lend a question mark to the coroner's finding of death by his own hand.

Also (because establishing some cultural touch-point often assists in situations like this), it may help to know that Elliott Smith was the guy who wrote and performed the song Miss Misery, which was featured in the final drive-away scene of Good Will Hunting and was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song. And like Burt Reynolds on that very same evening, he was left lonely at the Oscar bar - having been steamrolled by the juggernaut that was Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On.

The tragic story of this alt-rock phenom, who was by all accounts a genius in his field, carries enough drama on its own to make for compelling reading. Yet rather than rely on reportage and reflection, this author chose a far more complicated approach. William Todd Schultz's Torment Saint is what has come to be known as a "psychobiography." In it, he blends historical evidence with psychological theory to create a narrative enhanced by analytical insight into Smith's struggles with clinical depression and the manner in which this informed his artistry and interpersonal choices. In other words, this is the biography you might expect his therapist to have produced. And therein lies the problem.

Schultz never met Elliott Smith. No one Schultz spoke with (family, friends, lovers, bandmates) either knew or was willing to share the details of the abuse he suffered in his Texas childhood. There are no journals to draw on, or hospital records, or treatment profiles. All Schultz has to mine is the music - and whatever memories those closest to Smith felt comfortable relating. So while his psychiatric theories are cogent and, in many cases, remarkably astute, you simply can't get past the reality that he's been hamstrung here by a dearth of defining emotional fact. He can dissect the songs from now until doomsday, and chart the course of a freefall already underway, but what he can't do is speak with authority on a single root cause. Which leaves the reader with one man's imagined version of the headspace of Elliott Smith. And to what degree does that version verge on the fictional?

It's an interesting experiment in psychological biography, but there just isn't enough meat on the bone to genuinely inform.

[Bobbi Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

PLEASE DO NOT BEND OR PLACE NEAR HEAT: A Review of William Todd Schultz’s Torment Saint

“There is really no next Elliott Smith.”

Let me confirm that I am one of those notorious Elliott Smith fans. I am destined to be disappointed in any book about Mr. Smith, simply because nothing short of bringing the man back to life would satisfy me. Well, Schultz had me on page 11 with the above quote. Just as I was about to complain about the Nick Drake/ Kurt Cobain references, because they trivialize a unique and uniquely brilliant man, Schultz affirms that no one can or will come after him. And no one came before him. He was sui generis. Schultz gets that.

Anyone attempting to unravel this short, cryptic life needs to address three mysteries: Was he abused as a child? Did he intend to kill himself when in 1997 he jumped off a cliff? And finally, was his death murder or suicide?

No one may know the answer to the first question until a key person in his childhood—maybe, perhaps, the whole family—has died. (Naturally, the Smiths and Welches were not interviewed. That family has too much to hide. Even Elliott’s devoted half-sister Ashley Welch, who has had the most involvement with the media, sets boundaries for her own peace of mind. And to be fair, it would be cruel to force her to take a side between her father and her brother.) No one will know the answer to the third question as long as the case remains unresolved. But Schultz gets one out of three, by answering the second question in a way that makes sense but will not be very pleasing (if that is the word) to fans.

Much of this book is shaped by the negative space of what was left out. I wish Schultz had had more time to research this book. I wanted to know more about the “s***” jobs Elliott had to work, especially the baking and drywall. These had to be dispiriting at times, but in some of them he seemed to take a certain pride. Besides the family, Schultz was unable to interview Joanna Bolme (by all accounts the love of Elliott’s life) or Valerie Deerin (whose relationship with Elliott ran concurrently for a while with his relationship with Jennifer Chiba). He did interview Jennifer, eliciting the premature rage of many, but she was a part of Elliott’s life, and her words and her presence in the book seem right.

What is included in the book is frequently amazing. It’s the little details that I like the best. Tony Lash describes how little opportunity the members of their high school band Stranger than Fiction had to play, often cramming in fifteen minutes at a time before SCHOOL band practice. James Ewing, a Portland roommate, says he and Elliott watched Ken Burns’s The Civil War together while both had the flu. Leslie Uppinghouse says her pet boxer Anna loved Elliott so much she had to be restrained (or at least tired) so Elliott could record. According to Jennifer, the man born Steven Paul Smith would have been named Monday had he been a girl. (Had they had their own child, it would have been Tuesday if a girl and Harmony if a boy.)

The Dallas and Portland chapters are the most rewarding. As Elliott’s life became more complex and out of control, the people he loved but pushed away become more reticent. The Dallas friends-- Steve “Pickle” Pickering, Kevin Denbow, Mark Merritt, and Elliott’s first girlfriend Kim— describe an honor student who dearly loved his half-siblings, “stuck up for his friends,” and was far more advanced musically than even those who had more formal training. They remember only good times.

The word “depressed” does not appear until page 84, when Garrick Duckler describes himself, Tony Lash, and Elliott as “three slightly depressed people.” None of the Dallas people recall ever seeing any abuse or dysfunction. However, this was the ‘Seventies, when child abuse was still a dirty little secret. Later, at Lincoln High in Portland, Elliott was known to “live up inside his head.” It’s not a stretch to believe he did the same at an earlier age in Texas, keeping family secrets. The argument that someone abused him has to stand, given such songs as “Bastard John,” “No Confidence Man,” and “Abused”—all of which “disentangle the same hairball of abuse,” as Schultz so poetically puts it. Why would anyone even be coughing up this hairball if abuse never took place?

The Portland of the 1990’s appears in all its danger and dreariness as a character in its own right. The music culture is described vividly: the all-important, two-song 7” vinyl “calling card,” the grubby one-word-named bands, the democratic posters giving no one act top billing, the booze, the drugs, the endless rain. Homophobic politicians tried to push through Measure 9, which further encouraged the already out Neil Gust to stay out, giving Heatmiser its “queercore” rep. Elliott as always took the side of the underdog, saying that if the band members had to be one or the other they were all going to be gay. Such colorful personalities as Pete Krebs, Tony Lash, and the Cavity Search founders abound.

Best of all in this section is JJ Gonson, who as Heatmiser’s manager should have kept a professional distance but found it “impossible not to fall in love with Elliott.” He called her “Pitseleh” (yes, the song is about her), and she called him “little bird”— which may explain why Elliott seemed to have a thing about birds. They would break up over his growing fascination with the very drugs she had struggled so hard to abandon. He would turn to Joanna, only to leave Portland in the belief that he had ruined her life.

Many interpretations of Elliott Smith lyrics are based on misunderstandings, which makes the title of this book especially apt. Schultz makes it clear on page 31 that he knows the phrase from “Go By” is “torn main sail.” He chose “torment saint,” a mishearing of the phrase widely prevalent on the internet, not only because it suits the way people viewed Elliott Smith but also because it fits Elliott’s attitude toward pop music. “True songs for me are about mystery.” A pop song could mean nothing, or it could mean anything; it could have as many meanings as there were ears to hear it. (I am reminded of so-called nonsense Appalachian songs like “Nottamun Town,” popularized by Jean Ritchie. These songs contained magic, it was said, and to try to comprehend them would be to break their spell.)

He lived for the music, even inside it. For someone who “internalized everything,” this was often a painful choice. His friend and confidante Dorien Garry recalls him selecting Roy Orbison’s “Running Scared” on a jukebox, only to leave the building and stand outside as it played. When she questioned him about it, he replied, “I’m waiting for the day I can just sit here and not let it totally destroy me.”

To a great extent, it was Elliott Smith who fashioned the “Smith Myth,” the public's image of him. He would come to say things like “I jumped off a cliff,” instantly changing the subject. Dorien was an eyewitness to this mishap, and describes it in detail. It wasn’t a jump. It was barely a cliff. No one else went off this this drop-off in a cul-de-sac with him, as is often claimed in other accounts. It wasn’t even an alcoholic freak-out in the sense that he was out of touch with reality. He was sitting in a car weepy-drunk and, humiliated that people were seeing him this way, got out and ran— and fell, impaling himself on a tree branch. Since a “jump” is more dramatic than a “fall,” he tinkered with reality to make it better suit his own reality.

So, does this make him a drama queen? Does this support Kevin Denbow’s theory that unhappiness makes for a “better backstory” than happiness? Does this make Elliott a liar? On the contrary, he was obsessed with honesty. He would later talk of carving the word “NOW” into his arm and hemorrhaging at the piano while he wrote “Everything Means Nothing To Me.” This may never have happened. But it was METAPHORICALLY true. “It was pain made beautiful: stoic, ‘saintlike’ torment.”

He created his own image, as we all do. But unlike most of us, he was an artist whose image was a work of art. He resented the critics’—i.e., the world’s—reaction to that image, reducing his multi-layered self to a caricature.

��…the conflict was internal, a clash between authentic self-definition and role-playing.” “Throw-uppy nervous” about going onstage, and not even certain he belonged onstage, he compromised: he didn’t present himself as an artist. He wrote and performed not to flaunt himself but to show “what it’s like to be a person.”

Schultz does not candy-coat times when Elliott comes off as anything but saintly. The book’s most startling revelation is the extent to which Garrick Duckler’s original lyrics remained in some of Elliott’s revisions as late as 2000. Garrick had consented to this arrangement as living proof of the depth of their bond, but it was less noble of Elliott to take advantage of it. (A version of “Junk Bond Trader,” co-written by Garrick, goes back as far as 1986.) Then there was the way Elliott pushed Brandt Peterson out of Heatmiser (he “could be mean,” Brandt stresses). Toward the end of his life Elliott saw this quite differently, but by then accuracy of memory was not a skill he seemed to possess. Then there was the time he tried to worm his way out of having to pay Nelson Gary for his collaboration on “Coast To Coast”…

After the white-hot creativity of the years 1996 and 1997, he began to unravel. The book, and Elliott, become increasingly ugly from this point on. From 2000 to 2002 Elliott made a career of addiction. The Brooklyn and L.A. chapters present a grisly phantasmagoria of what even Jennifer is forced to acknowledge was a “shell” of Elliott’s former self. A passive desire not to exist, which was always there, was beginning to look like self-fulfilling prophecy. Although Elliot succeeded in kicking illicit drugs, the ending of this book is still excruciating to read.

Jennifer steps in, though not exclusively, to describe the last days. Most of what she says sounds authentic, but I wondered about one of her assertions. She took credit for driving Elliott to his appointments, although on the morning of the last day of his life it was he who drove her: she had gotten a DUI. When did this happen? And how lucid a driver was Elliott at this point? I have a hunch the long-suffering Ashley was chauffeuring both of these characters.

This leaves us with the third question, and we may always be left with it. Elliott placed himself in self-destructive situations that when they went bad he just thought, Oh well. Ground coming up. Valuing music over his life, he even fantasized that it could go on as he himself ceased to be. In keeping with Elliott’s handling of the Smith Myth, even if he didn’t literally wield the knife, he had placed himself in a position by October 21, 2003 that put his life at risk. This comes very close to “blaming the victim,” but this isn’t what Schultz is saying. A “victim,” for lack of a better word, is a person whose life experience gives him the only perspective he can have. Therefore, that perspective is the only frame of reference he can have.

Is it possible to stab oneself more than once in the heart? Yes. In fact a young man named Kipp Rusty Walker did it in Oregon a few years back, in front of an open mic night audience that at first thought it was part of the act. Elliott could have written a suicide note on one of the Post-Its Jennifer left all around their home, and then “dissociated.” That is, he could have disconnected from reality in an unconscious, anxiety-driven reaction to the situation. Schultz didn’t say this, I’m saying it, so therefore I digress. It’s easy to do.

Torment Saint is a book that has incited debate even by those who haven’t read it yet— especially by those who haven’t read it yet. My advice to them is to read it now.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupidity Tries. People who liked this, who I presume are as starved for anything Elliott related as I am, need to take a step back for a moment and ask themselves if this book is worthy of such a fine talent. In my opinion it is not. It is badly written, poorly researched, and loaded with unfounded assumptions. While some of the anecdotes from childhood friends are lovely, the fact that the family (Ashley aside) was not included leaves a gaping hole in the story, one the author fails to bridge with his endless comparisons to other dead rockstars. My greatest contention is Schultz's inane presumption that Smith's interest in feminism created a seed of self-hatred in his psyche. Schultz labels radical feminists "sex-hating"and basically exposes his own ignorant anti-feminist agenda by projecting it onto the life of a dead man. I am forced to conclude that Schultz is a mediocre writer, a pseudo-intellectual, and a shameless opportunist. His writing style is all out-dated rock journalism, the kind of shit I'm sure Elliott abhorred. I hope for a better book in the future but I'm beginning to think that one that takes on the music itself is just too much to ask for.

[Stuart Godfrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was terribly written. I love Elliott Smith's music and enjoyed (probably the wrong sentiment) gaining a perspective on the genesis of the music. However, redundancy and the seemingly forced references made the writing difficult to take seriously.

[jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

it hardly seems like it's already been a full decade. i can recall, all too vividly, that late october afternoon in 2003: sitting on the couch, reading the philadelphia inquirer. national news, local news, sports... and then the front page of the arts & entertainment section. "elliott smith: sharp yet sweet" read the headline. strange to see an above-the-fold article about smith, especially as it had been a few years without a new album. but by the second sentence, my intrigue had bottomed-out, replaced instead by anxious dread and disbelief:

"but to a smaller constellation of listeners, smith, found dead in his los angeles apartment tuesday night from an apparently self-inflicted stab wound to the chest, was one of the most promising poets of the post-grunge era."

i remember being unexpectedly moved by the news and rather upset. celebrity musician deaths had never really affected me viscerally; not kurt cobain, not jerry garcia, not bradley nowell, not george harrison. sad losses, all of them - but elliott's death seemed especially tragic (if not entirely unanticipated). from my first listen of "alameda" (or was it "angeles"?) some six years earlier, elliott's music quickly worked its way into my regular rotation. save for the inevitable posthumous releases, there would now be no new songs to come. how did this happen? why? whatever for? and at only 34 years young.

with the exception of benjamin nugent's (not-so-warmly received) 2004 biography, elliott smith and the big nothing, and autumn de wilde's photo/interview book, elliott smith, not much has been published in the decade following the singer-songwriter's too-early passing. william todd schultz's torment saint, however, not only remedies that notable lack, but serves as what may well come to be the definitive elliott smith biography. as a professor of psychology, schultz offers, in addition to all of the requisite details about childhood and adolescence, critical insight into elliott as both an individual and an artist, as well as into the myriad influences that shaped his music and lyrical content.

schultz recounts smith's upbringing in texas - one marked by a tumultuous (perhaps abusive) relationship with his stepfather. smith's formative years in the lone star state defined much of his personality and outlook on life - baggage he was unable to escape even after he struck out on his own. it wasn't until he arrived in portland that he seemingly began to feel comfortable with himself or his talents (if, in fact, he ever truly did). tracing his musical ascendancy from the rose city to new york, and eventually los angeles, schultz portrays an artist deeply committed to his craft - perhaps in inverse proportion to how he felt about himself and his life, in general. quite a bit of time is spent on the industry side of things, recording sessions, record deals, tours, personnel changes, etc., but these details help lend the narrative more cohesion. while smith's alcohol consumption was always apparent, it wasn't until 2000 that his drug-taking took off in earnest (despite lyrical allusions throughout so many of his songs). very quickly, smith found himself in throes of addiction (heroin - though never injected, crack, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and other assorted pharmaceuticals), hastening his depressive spiral and disconnection from others. reading about smith's mental unraveling and emotional descent is at times very troubling. interventions, friends, lovers, record executives - seemingly no one was able to get through to elliott and convince him that his life was indeed worth living. the progressively sad story reaches its conclusion with the circumstances of his 2003 suicide.

schultz, quite obviously, did considerable research in writing torment saint, interviewing nearly everyone who at one time or another figured prominently into elliott's life (or at least those that would agree to speak about it). most surprising about torment saint (or any rock biography, for that matter) is how beautifully written it is. schultz's prose is lyrical, vivid, and expressive - a fitting testament to a musician whose songwriting was roundly praised for its emotional eloquence and honesty. elliott smith's life was clearly a troubled one, with self-loathing, addiction, and self-destructive behaviors ultimately becoming too much to bear. while the legacy left behind in song is impressive, one cannot help but wonder what heights of musical accomplishment may have awaited elliott had he endured and overcome his demons. sadly, we'll never know, of course. torment saint, a decade after smith's suicide, helps piece together some of the more enigmatic aspects of his life and music. tender, compassionate, and non-judgmental, schultz's biography will obviously appeal to fans of the late singer-songwriter, but also to anyone for whom the connection between art and addiction, creativity and depression is of interest. torment saint, like elliott's music, is magnificently-rendered, often sorrowful, but tempered by candor and abundant feeling.

that he was able to make his art while fighting off addictions, holding suicide at arm's length, is astonishing. it's a testament to the power of his gift, which was irrepressible. there was no self-extinction drive in the gift, only the gift-maker. to live for one's art is a cliché, but for a time the music did seem to keep elliott alive, until the pain of living eclipsed the pleasure of the sounds and lyrics. as he put it once in a song, he was high on the sound, but there's no power in the air. the battle's on the ground.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Torment Saint is the biography of Elliott Smith, the singer-songwriter of numerous great albums like Figure 8 and XO, as well as the Oscar nominated song Miss Misery which featured on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack. Smith had a difficult life stemming from possible childhood abuse that led to a lifelong battle with depression and, eventually, drug addiction. Though a quiet, sensitive person he violently committed suicide in 2003 of two stab wounds from a kitchen knife through the heart.

I feel like I should preface this by saying I’m a huge fan of Smith’s music but it seems kinda obvious - who would read a biography of someone they weren’t deeply interested in already? But anyway: I’ve got all of his albums, I listen to them regularly, and his song-writing talent continues to impress me through the years. If you’ve never heard his music, I’ll leave a song-list at the end of this review and you can check out his best songs (in my opinion) if you like.

As big a fan as I am, I was disappointed with this biography. And here I’m going to say something that’ll make me sound like a brainless asshole: Elliott Smith, for the most part, led a boring life and maybe the reason why there’s never been a definitive biography of him is because there’s not a whole lot to say.

William Todd Schultz opens the book on Oscar night where Smith performed his Oscar nominated song Miss Misery before losing to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, which is an episode that instantly grabs the reader. There was an interesting look at Smith’s childhood where it was heavily implied that his stepfather, Charlie, had a lot to do with his mental state for the rest of his life. Whether the abuse was sexual or emotional, something happened to Smith as a child that would lead him to adopt a self-destructive lifestyle thereon out.

Then there’s the final 50 pages or so, from the tour of Figure 8 in 2000 to his suicide in 2003, which is riveting reading. Though he wrote about hard drugs like heroin for most of his musical career, he never tried it until the Figure 8 tour (smoking, never injecting). That was the beginning of the end as he would never break free of addiction again.

Heroin led to crack which led to paranoia which led to dozens of psychiatric medications. Up until the heroin Smith tried other drugs like marijuana, acid, mushrooms, and ecstasy but his main drug was alcohol and he had that mostly under control. Under those less harmful drugs he was able to produce the majority of his best work from his first solo record Roman Candle in 1994 to Figure 8 in 2000, including the final Heatmiser album, Mic City Sons, in 1996.

After the heroin use started in 2000 - nothing. He worked on and off on the record that would be released posthumously in 2004 as From a Basement on the Hill, which contains some incredible songs like King’s Crossing, and a double album of assorted songs recorded at various times in his life, New Moon, would appear in 2006.

But, to go back to my original, perhaps ignorant, point: those are basically the only interesting parts of the book. Twenty or thirty pages at the start followed by 50 pages at the end. There’s a yawning chasm of some 250 pages in between that is so full of unenlightening nothing that it took me over a month to read this and it’s only a 328 page book!

To summarise: it’s clear Smith’s a gifted child and he masters several instruments while in high school. He does well in school, graduates university, forms a band in Portland, makes albums, becomes moderately successful, then decides to work on solo stuff. The solo stuff takes off, leading to the eventual dissolution of the band, he writes one album that leads to a film that leads to the Oscars that leads to moderate commercial success. Still awake?

Sure, you learn a lot, but it’s nothing particularly engaging. Does Schultz help us understand Smith more than if we had just read a Wikipedia entry? Not really. But then again he doesn’t have much opportunity to. Family members and many close friends to Smith didn’t speak to him, so he hasn’t got much to go on. He ends up focusing on the song lyrics, not to mention interviews and concerts already on Youtube, and draws fairly banal speculations - but that’s all they are, speculations. If you were to see the interviews, concerts, and articles already available online, you’d know a lot of the stuff that Schultz mentions in his book - and it’d be more engaging that way too as Schultz’s writing style is very bland (not to mention weird, incorporating Smith’s lyrics into his sentences!).

That said, I wonder if everyone had spoken to Schultz whether the biography would’ve improved. There’d be less speculation and fewer sentences that sound apocryphal (“So and so said that so and so believed that Smith was etc”), but does that change the basic facts of Smith’s life? He was a depressed person but an incredible artist who wrote some extraordinary music. He began using hard drugs to escape the mental anguish and, the sudden withdrawal of those drugs, combined with his lifelong morbid fascination with suicide, led to his early death.

Of course a good biography (usually authorised) contains first hand sources to create the most accurate portrayal of the figure in question, and it’s clear that Torment Saint is not that entirely. But also, a good biography is about someone whose life was interesting throughout, and not intermittently, often illuminated with an equally colourful supporting cast.

For me, Torment Saint featured a drab dude and a long line of talented but uninteresting people. In the end the phrase I heard uttered about Elliott Smith in connection with biography - listen to the music, that’s all there is to it - is completely true. As a person he may have been uninteresting though his talent produced art that was anything but.

As an Elliott Smith fan, I’d say check this out if you need to know a lot about him, but be prepared to wade through a lot of extraneous tedium that could easily be avoided by your own selective reading online. There are passages here that are really great but they’re few and far between and most of the time it’s a case of too much information without it adding up to anything too special. That, or don’t bother with any biography at all and just listen to his music - that’s his real legacy, and it’s stunning.

For anyone interested in Smith’s music, I’d recommend his albums in full – you can find lots of lesser-known tracks on them but they’re really all so beautiful and, out of 7 albums, I’d say there are only two songs total that I skip (Pretty Ugly, Amity). But for those looking for single tracks, check out the songs below for an utterly gorgeous sonic experience. My imaginary Elliott Smith concert:

Needle in the Hay (rock version)
Division Day
Brand New Game
Bottle Up and Explode!
Stupidity Tries
New Monkey
I Figured You Out
Angeles
A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free
Between the Bars
Independence Day
I Don’t Think I’m Ever Gonna Figure It Out
Georgia Georgia
I Didn’t Understand
Everything Means Nothing to Me
Better Be Quiet Now
Coming Up Roses
Son of Sam
King’s Crossing
Miss Misery
Waltz #2
Say Yes

[Morgan Blackledge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been an Elliot Smith fan since the mid 1990’s.

I don’t actually have a favorite Elliot Smith album.

I just love all of them.

Saying that I’m a “fan” falls completely short of what his music means to me.

His music is the soundtrack to the most painful and difficult decade of my life.

His music kept me alive.

His music is a part of my soul.

Music is my religion.

It’s my soul’s code.

And Elliot is (by far) the most important musician in my life.

I love him so much and I miss him and grieve his death to this day.

I have read some of the negative reviews of this book.

And I think they are valid.

But I have to push back a little.

First off.

I get it.

There were so many things about the book that riled me.

But my feeling about it is.

That seems like an inevitable feature of any book about art and people that you care about deeply.

It’s a sensitive subject.

There’s no possible way to do him and his art 100% justice.

It’s just not possible.

Given that.

I thought this book was thoughtful, and appropriate.

Far from perfect.

But…

Good enough.

I used every chapter as an opportunity to listen to each of his albums, and ponder their profound timeless beauty, and to reflect on each of them them, and to grieve his loss very deeply, and to grieve the loss of that time, and that way of life, and ultimately, to rest in profound gratitude that I am alive, and I survived. Because I love being alive now.

I just wish he was still alive.

His art makes life worth living.

I wish he could have stayed alive to experience to joy of it.

5/5 Stars ⭐️

[Tanya Hurst · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book took me forever to get through, and I really thought it was horrible. Several other folks have included long reviews on Goodreads regarding how bad it is (poor sources, way too many attempts at psychoanalysis with regard to Elliott and lengthy discussions/interpretations of his songs), so I'm not going to go into all of that in detail. All I can say is that if you're a fan of Elliott Smith or are interested in reading about his life, skip this one. It's a real stinker. :( And quite honestly, I don't understand how people can review this book positively. I think they're reading way more into it or feel that somehow through all of the author's convoluted interpretations of Elliott's psyche that they can somehow understand him better or make peace with his death. I felt very differently - and quite honestly, if what I have read about Elliott's personality in other books and articles are true, I think he'd be a bit chagrined to read this himself if he were alive. Hell, from what Schultz even writes, Elliott doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would like the way this book has been put together at all. Anyway, these are just my opinions of course, but I thought I'd put that out there.

[Elina T.C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I find it amazing how carelessly this writer approached writing this book. It's rambly, convoluted, and hard to follow. I never know where his train of thought will end up, or what the chapter signifies. He paces back and forth, repeats the same piece of information multiple times, and brings back one of the hundreds of badly sketched-out people out of nowhere to add one short quote that adds rarely anything to the point he's trying to make. There is absolutely no red thread in this writing, it's choppy as if I'm reading his preliminary notes.
The author cannot make up his mind about how neutral he wants to be in his storytelling. Nobody can truly be neutral in their writing, however, there is no clear approach to Schultz's storytelling lens. He constantly invalidates Elliott's view of his relationship with his stepfather, which makes it sound like Elliott just decided to become traumatized. We don't have any evidence, he claims. But then he adds a sentence about how one of Elliott's girlfriends might have threatened his life at one point, without a clear reference and critical examination. These subtle notes of personal dislike (and like!) he had for certain girlfriends of Elliott's keep showing up throughout the text. He doesn't necessarily conclude on the information he presents, it's instead as if he is winking at us to fill in the blank. Highly irresponsible to tell a story in such a way.
A cherry on top would definitely be his lyrical analysis, and how he squeezes it into the text wherever he can. A paragraph could consist of reciting multiple song lyrics, stitching lines, and phrases together to conclude on Elliott's mindset and situation wherever the author seems fitting. The author makes claims about the topics of the songs, and their explicit relation to Elliott's actual life, although it is a well-known fact that Elliott did not write about his life in such an easily accessible manner. Mixing lyrics into timelines as a tool for analysis of Elliott's state and thoughts on situations and relationships without concrete data to back it up is unnecessary and simplistic.
I'm all for humanizing the subject of your biography, showing different sides of a person, their weaknesses as well as their strengths. But it isn't gentle and respectful in this book. I say this because de Wilde's book was able to achieve that gentleness and honesty, and it allowed the interviewed subjects to have their stories about Elliott shown with integrity. In Schultz's book, there are no clear voices, they all disintegrate into a messy attempt at explaining who Elliott Smith was.
And who was he, at the end of the day? There is no conclusion. But we get a detailed description of Chiba's recounts of Elliott's last moments, a whole chapter of the back-and-forth between possible reasons for his death. To me, that felt like a gossip column in a local newspaper with the header saying "The death of the week!". The book concludes with Elliott's torment, making him a one-dimensional stereotypical sad guy who was really trying to end his life for a while. And yes, he surely was depressed and struggling, but is this really a kind way to go about the subject of your work? Especially when the acknowledgment chapter immediately names Elliott to have changed Schultz's life, making him the author's best friend despite them never meeting. Would one make such a conclusion about the personhood of his best friend?
I kept reading entirely because I wanted to see how this author would choose to finish the book, how he would assess his personal contribution to Elliott's legacy. And I see a detached description of a generalized portrait of a musician who has been subjected to such generalized remarks his whole career. But at least now I know that books like this exist.

[Alyson Camus · Rating 1 out of 5]

May be many of you would be interested to read what a family member had to say about the book. Of course, it's just a family member, who prefers to stay anonymous, but I can assure you I talked to somebody who was very close to Elliott:

'As ‘Torment Saint’ continues to receive rave reviews and to be quoted everywhere as if it was the bible bringing new revelations, I continued to dig into it and find inconsistencies, discrepancies with previous reports. Of course, this is based on what I know about the case, and most people don’t pay attention to important details, which makes Schultz successful in his demonstration toward suicide.

However, Schultz never communicated with the family, and I am lucky enough to say I have. A member of the family, who was very close to Elliott, just wrote to me about the book, and let’s just say that this person was very concerned and upset about the content of the new biography. It s clear that Schultz wanted to release the book for the tenth anniversary of Elliott Smith’s death, which made him do a very hurried work, as pointed out this person:

‘W Schultz did not take the time to do a good biography’.

‘He has high aspirations without being willing to work with intellectual rigor’…. ‘It reveals the damage that can be done by mediocrity and naivete combined with ambition, ‘ continued this person.

How could a serious writer write this bio without even talking to many members of the family? This person wrote that it was indeed impossible ‘to do a meaningful biography without being able to speak with the person you are writing it for and without being able to talk with most of the people closest to him.’ and that ’the so-called biography was doomed from the start when essential people were not available’.

In the last chapters, it is obvious that Jennifer Chiba is Schultz’s almost only source, and certainly the person who is at the center of the scene. The family person had this to say about this:

‘It saddens me that he didn’t make the effort to find out how unreliable and devious Jennifer Chiba is.’

This is totally opposed to Schultz’s deep conviction that Chiba was Elliott’s savior!

‘Valerie [Deerin] certainly deserves better. Jennifer Chiba was the successful stalker, not Valerie’, added the family member, who continued by saying that Schultz won’t probably never realize ‘how much he has done a disservice to Elliott’s reputation’

This is very clear, ‘My family deserves better ’ and I could not agree more.

http://www.rocknycliveandrecorded.com...

I know that Schultz desperately wanted to communicate with Valerie, but he couldn't. That said it wasn't a reason to swallow everything J. Chiba was telling him!!! Chiba was the stalker, that tells me everything.

[William Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't get a lot of the negative reviews of this book. It's beautiful. Some people have knocked the quality of the writing--Don't see that at all. Poetic language, great approach. Only a damn good writer could carry off a bio with the energy this one has. I don't know Schultz, had never read or heard of him before this but he's genuinely interested in anatomizing Elliott Smith's genius and melancholy. Some people have knocked Schultz for the stretches where he interprets Smith's lyrics--That didn't bother me. More often than not, I felt a deep insight re: the meaning of some song or another. Even if I thought something was a stretch, I enjoyed it the way I often enjoy far-fetched academic readings. Some people say this is a book that Smith would've hated. I don't know who has the right to say that. For me, it's an engaged and thorough appraisal of Smith's mystical gifts and curses. I don't think Schultz stretches to defend Chiba either--He's making a case for what likely happened based on the evidence at hand, including Smith's relentless depression, paranoia, and constant threats of suicide. This is an excellent study of Smith's rare genius, and it goes in depth on the sources of his melancholy. Those of us touched by the same sort of fire will find in Smith a tragic patron saint, someone who killed the pain before it killed him.

[Vicki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an odd book - the bones of a good biography are clearly there but it would have benefitted greatly from more judicious editing. The author has clearly tried to produce a thorough account of Elliott's life but was hindered both by never having met him (thus resorting to the slightly desperate claim that he's sure their paths must've crossed in a club without realising it) and the lack of people willing to be interviewed, particularly from Elliott's family.

Bizarrely the opening pages seem to focus more on Kurt Cobain than they do on Elliott Smith only for Cobain to be barely referenced again afterwards. Once the focus does shift to Elliott the book becomes increasingly repetitive and at times overly focused on minor incidents and details or hints and illusions to things that may or may not have happened. There are some interesting anecdotes and analyses of some of Elliott's songs but the latter too suffer from being too laboured at times, spilling into armchair psychology territory.

Elliott doesn't come across as massively likeable in this book and I have no idea whether this is a true reflection or not but his descent into the final throes of addiction and mental health disorder in the last chapters is harrowing nonetheless. The actual account of his death and subsequent legacy appears to get lost however by the author's shift in focus to staunch defence of Elliott's girlfriend Jennifer Chiba and an attempt to 'explain away' the coroner's undetermined verdict. The book ends as it started, with Elliott sidelined in his own biography.

[Nina · Rating 1 out of 5]

The supposition, pseudo-psychological analyses, interpretation of lyrics to fit the narrative, and lack of fact-checking are what make this book truly terrible.
The writing style is beyond the pale outdated and hackneyed “rock journalism.”

But it’s the best record we have in terms of aggregation of at least some objective facts and a sort of timeline emerges that at least helps those of us who came to be fans after he died to piece things together. The account of the last years and days is spotty but does provide at least a glimpse into the pain Elliott was in, and most of it is confirmed by more than one source. You get the feeling that even those who had been closest to him don’t exactly know what happened in the last days.

Elliott deserved better. What a loss. RIP

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starting the book with Cobain comparisons was very odd. I feel the same way reading any biography of any artist or musician or author: that's interesting, but that's not illuminating. Quoting twenty different people who knew Elliott in Portland might be great journalistic writing, but it feels like the worst part of the 90s: the infighting, the snobbery, the I Know-y-ness.

Did make me listen to Either/Or twice in one day for the first time since 2001.

[Bianca Carmo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glad I took my time to read this book because it feels like I was there with Elliott throughout his journey, getting to know him more and more with every page but that also means it was just too damn hard at times. An odd feeling of mourning someone I've never met, yet feel so connect with because of the way his songs have been there for me whenever I needed them the most.

It's heartbreaking.
It's beautiful.
Just like Elliott himself.
May he forever rest in peace.

[Onepoormisguidedfool · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nope nope nope. I really struggled with this book and ended up skipping a lot of it. I feel like 80% of it was the writer's analysation of Smith's lyrics and at times it felt like he was just too close to the subject in terms of being obsessed yet he actually never met Elliott Smith.

[berthamason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book about Elliott Smith that I've read and I really enjoyed it. Since reading it, I've seen some negative reviews about the accuracy, so I'm not sure about that part but it was enlightening to learn about his childhood and hear from some of his friends about his life, and death.

[Dimich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heavy, depressing, yet passionate and beautifully written.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

His music will hit different from now on.

[Trista · Rating 2 out of 5]

I definitely got a good picture of Elliott's time in high school playing music with friends and a rather thorough (perhaps a bit unnecessary) depiction of the music scene in Portland during his time there. I would say that, and the detail that Elliott also loved "Old Brown Shoe" by George Harrison (one of my favorites) are the big take-aways for me from this book. As I was reading I had the sense that perhaps it's still too early to get a great and detailed Bio on Elliott, the people that need to contribute can't or won't in many ways.

The end of the book reflects well the mystery and mess that surrounded his death in that it's just a blurred rush. I'm not someone looking for a murderer, but the gaping hole in the story that is Elliott's end, alongside Schultz's attempt to condescend and insult those who suspect something other than a suicide seems to just be pacifying those who otherwise wouldn't cooperate if he'd hinted toward any other possibility. You can tell he really has no good thoughts about Valerie Deerin and I intuited that he was just a word away from adding something negative about her physical appearance. She also was not interviewed for this book. Ironically, I hadn't really considered in all seriousness the possibility that Elliott was murdered until I read this biography, there is something suspicious about the way the end leaves out details that I feel should be there and instead insists on focusing on the inaccuracies and lies around the idea that he was murdered. It seems like it would have been better just to leave the controversy alone if it was truly so mindlessly fueled.

[Thomas Kinservik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schultz's exhaustive biography is certainly a must-read for any Elliott fan, and dives much deeper than "Heaven Adores You", the documentary on his life. Schultz writes about Elliott's descent into addiction with stark clarity, refusing to romanticize the period in the slightest, as some have mistakenly done. The only reason I have knocked off a star is because his lyrical analysis can appear cumbersome at times. Oftentimes he is noting the same theme in four or five songs when it is understood by the reader after two. But it still overall a fascinating work.

[Brandon Nite · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compassionate and heartbreaking portrait. A must for any admirer of Elliott. Schultz packs the biography from cover to back with a fountain of intimate knowledge from those who knew Elliott from childhood to Heatmiser, blooming in Portland to tragic swan song in LA. Transcends the myth of Elliott into the beautiful, fragile, funny, deeply scarred and incredibly gifted human he was. Loved it!

[Tammy Quayle · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is a review by Lisa for this book and she summarizes the deficiencies in Torment Saint far better than I could. Elliott Smith was a profoundly gifted songwriter and I was hoping that this book will deliver more information on him. This book meanders, is in desperate need of an editor, and is almost unreadable.

[Moira]

Amazing review by Rhett Miller (more than made up for the shitty hatchet job on Flynn by Gaitskill) http://www.bookforum.com/inprint/020_...

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

When deciding which Elliott Smith biography to go for, I found ‘Torment Saint’ was the one most frequently recommended; I realise these things are very subjective, but for me this book was just okay.

Schultz has clearly done his research and cares about his subject, but the read felt almost constantly off-kilter. Copious time and detail is given over to eg teenage band minutiae, startlingly little to the massive event of Elliott’s death and the aftermath - resulting in sections of dull data-slog alongside blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pivotal moments. The author expresses opinion (sometimes weird and unnecessary opinion, like on the syllabus at Elliott’s college) and/or emotion here, but not there. Some contentious/debatable points are presented as such, others with clear, closed-off bias.

There is scant, what feels like arbitrary discussion of the odd circumstances of Elliott’s death, with the tone coming across as ‘this is silly, but I have to do it’ - the author clearly agrees with the ‘suicide’ conclusion, taking care to present this as common sense bordering on fact. I wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Alongside the general rush of the book’s ending - which is, of course, covering the end of Elliott’s life - it seemed an abrupt slamming shut of a case, a book, a coffin lid. It echoed reality, I suppose. It left me ill at ease, and disappointed.

I do not think this was Schultz’ intention, and there may well be all kinds of reasons that we, as readers, are not privy to, for any of the choices made in writing a biography like this. Having not read any other Elliott Smith books (yet), I can’t really say if I’d recommend this one or not, nor if others contain evidence of their authors facing similar challenges.

Finally, I must also add that I listened to the audiobook version, and with no shade to the chap who read it, I don’t think he was the right choice for this particular project. This somewhat detracted from the experience, though to what degree I’m unsure.

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely informative and overall generally excellent biography about one of the best songwriters of my generation, a man who was terribly haunted.

I only have two major gripes about this book.

1. Parts of the book are heavily based on the biographer's speculation and/or unreliable hearsay, and this can be a thorn in the side of any serious biography. Some of this appears to be unavoidable as certain people who knew Elliott well and were close to him, such as Deerin (his second last girlfriend) turned down the offer to be interviewed. I know that Humphries, a Nick Drake biographer, had similar issues when Nick's sister turned down an interview. It is not tke biographer's fault when this happens of course but it does dilute the overall portrait of the artist to some degree.

2. This is a relatively minor gripe and a somewhat subjective one at that. While i thoroughly enjoyed this book overall, here and there i didn't get behind the writer's style or point. For example, when he compared From A Basement On The Hill (never quite finished but released posthumously) to Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, i found the comparison completely incongruous. The only thing they have in common is that it was the 'swan song' for both artists and took up much of their time. That's about it. Finnegan's Wake, depending on how you look at it, is either an impenetrable work of mostly gibberish or an incredibly complex work of art (the "Great Book that nobody has ever read" as Burroughs once famously said) while From a Basement on the Hill is a solid work of exciting, rough pop and rock songs and is anything but gibberish or impenetrable. There were a few other similar instances throughout the book that grate on the reader's senses a bit.

Apart from that though, it's very informative and as far as i know, still remains the only comprehensive biography on Elliott Smith to date.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elliott Smith's music is undeniably genius and most of his albums are phenomenal. The final album he released, "Figure 8," is a masterpiece.

I became a fan of Smith's in early 2003. In September of that year, I was excited to hear that he was playing a free show at Redfest, just a few minutes from my house. As I was driving there to go meet my friends and watch Elliott perform, the band I was in at the time called me and said that I needed to be at a show right then (they hadn't informed me about the show previously). Reluctantly, I turned the car around and went to play with a band I didn't even care about, frustrated about missing the Elliott Smith show. To add to my distress, I found out later that the band dropped and replaced me without so much as a courteous conversation or a simple email. My anger at this unprofessional act was only compounded by the fact they made me miss Elliott's show; I should have gone anyway and left my band alone to play without me. A month later, my irritation turned into extreme sadness when I heard that it had been his last show; he had killed himself with a kitchen knife. That was ten years ago.

I've read a lot on Smith since then and come to know his music intimately. His music, in the same spirit of Nick Drake, in my opinion, is always fueled by beautiful sadness. But, unlike Drake, Smith's music exhibited a lot of rage, too. Smith was an artist that always created moving and beautiful music, but people sometimes forget to mention the force of his songs too. He was the rare artist that could create a simmering intensity without having to resort to heavy distortion of his guitar. He would do it all with the hiss of his voice and his virtuoso acoustic finger-picking.

This book is part of a trio of great pieces on Smith that I've read. The book Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing by Benjamin Nugent was the first I read (I own it and have read that one twice now). Pitchfork recently released an excellent oral history of Smith's called "Keep the Things You Got." (http://pitchfork.com/features/article...) Finally, Schultz has released this book, which some have called the definitive biography on Elliott Smith. (There's also Autumn De Wilde's book Elliott Smith, which I now feel like I've read too, since it was quoted so much in Schultz's book.) All of the above are tragic and heartbreaking, which is to be expected considering the life of the subject.

Schultz takes a different tack in this book; he's an academic and a psychologist by trade. This is interesting for a rock bio author to be coming from this background, considering that the field is dominated by rock magazine journalists. But his background is an asset; he uses his expertise in psychobiography to inform his approach to Smith. Consequently, most of the book dwells on Smith's fragile psyche, using interviews of Smith's friends, coupled with his haunted lyrics to yield those insights. The psychological analyzing did get to be redundant, but I suppose it was necessary because the depression in Elliott's life seemed to be ever-present. Still, I was curious to hear more about the songs, and the creative processes behind the songs. Elliott was clearly a musical genius and any more insights into his recording process and the songs (beyond the dark messages of his lyrics) would have been welcome.

My favorite part of the book is the first third; his intro, "The Smith Myth," is fascinating and well-written, as is his look at Smith's experience at the Oscars. His telling of Smith's childhood in Texas, as through the reminiscing of Elliott's childhood friend "Pickle," is very insightful and interesting. Schultz goes into a lot of detail about Smith's early bands and recordings. The book seems to be disproportionately focused on this era of Smith's life, and this is probably because much of this history hasn't really been told before.

Unfortunately, once the narrative gets to the Either/Or era and on, the quality started to diminish a bit, in my opinion. Much from this part on ends up rehashing what de Wilde and her interviews have already stated. Still, regarding sources, Schultz does his best with what he can. He does cite JJ Gonson (from Elliot's Portland years), Dorien Garry (from Elliott's NY years), and Nelson Gary (from Elliott's LA years) a lot. The book would have been more complete if he could have acquired interviews with Joanna Bolme, Neil Gust, Jon Brion, and others in Elliott's circles. But you can't fault Schultz for lack of trying; many of Elliott's friends and family have been reticent to go on record, as a result of contrarian fans and journalists finger-pointing and defaming for one reason or another. One gets the sense that most of Smith's friends/family don't want the spotlight because of the personal nature of their relationships with Elliott and the pain that resurfaces from revisiting that, and that's understandable. Still, given Schultz's carefully researched biography, you wish that more would have consented to add their voices to the discussion about Elliott.

Much of the last few chapters shifts Schultz into the role of apologist for Jennifer Chiba, Elliott's girlfriend at the time of his death. This, Schultz explains, is necessary, given that her name has been demonized from some of Smith's fans, claiming that she must have been responsible for killing him. It does add a major contribution to the history of Elliott Smith, to hear her side of the story.

Overall, Schultz discusses Elliott's death even-handedly (as does he earlier in the book when the question of Elliott's stepfather's alleged abuse comes up). As per his academic pedigree, Schultz is cautious and thorough throughout the book, the effort of which Elliott's fans should be grateful.

[Lola Pianaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Se eu entendo a vulnerabilidade e paixão como entendo hoje em dia eu devo muito disso à ele.
Pra sempre grata por tudo que aprendo e todo amor que sinto a partir do que ele deixou no mundo.

"It’s much easier to represent the presence of something, or a situation. People can be chaos, but it’s hard to fit it into some creative piece. People try to do it over and over, and it’s good that they do, but it’s hard.”"