Book Review: Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guin
Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson by Jeff Guinn
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release Date: August 6, 2013
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
More than forty years ago Charles Manson and his mostly female commune killed nine people, among them the pregnant actress Sharon Tate. It was the culmination of a criminal career that author Jeff Guinn traces back to Manson’s childhood. Guinn interviewed Manson’s sister and cousin, neither of whom had ever previously cooperated with an author. Childhood friends, cellmates, and even some members of the Manson Family have provided new information about Manson’s life. Guinn has made discoveries about the night of the Tate murders, answering unresolved questions, such as why one person on the property where the murders occurred was spared.
Manson puts the killer in the context of his times, the turbulent late sixties, an era of race riots and street protests when authority in all its forms was under siege. Guinn shows us how Manson created and refined his message to fit the times, persuading confused young women (and a few men) that he had the solutions to their problems. At the same time he used them to pursue his long-standing musical ambitions, relocating to Los Angeles in search of a recording contract. His frustrated ambitions, combined with his bizarre race-war obsession, would have lethal consequences as he convinced his followers to commit heinous murders on successive nights.
Ever since the period in high school, when I only read true crime, I’ve been intrigued by Charles Manson and the Manson Family. Helter Skelter by Vincent Buglisiosi, the prosecutor in the Manson Family murder trials, is my favorite true crime book. When I heard there was a new book about Manson that was supposed to be great, I had to check it out.
I wasn’t disappointed. This book is a very comprehensive biography of Charles Manson. While Helter Skelter is a focused look at the investigation and trial for Manson and his followers, Manson’s focus is on the life of Charles Manson. It starts with his grandmother’s life and ends at the present day. Knowing the history of the women who raised Charlie, as well as how he was raised gives a lot of insight into how Charlie came to be the man he is.
I really appreciated how, in addition to telling the story of the people in the book, Guinn describes the cultural environment of the times. His account of the 60s and how the drugs and hippie culture could give a man like Charlie an opportunity to rise to the level of guru was especially good. Guin also delves into the back stories of the prominent family members like Susan Atkins and Squeaky, among many others. While I still can’t completely comprehend how people of normal intelligence could follow someone like Manson, I do understand somewhat better than I did before. It would be great if there was some video footage of Charlie’s preaching to give me and the world a better idea of what his charisma was like. Too bad there was no cell phone videos or YouTube back then! And from what Guin says in the book, the crazy way Manson acts in the television interviews he’s done since being in prison is all an act. That’s not how he acted when he was recruiting and leading his family members.
Even though I thought I knew a lot about Manson, I was surprised by a lot in this book as well. For instance, I didn’t know that Charlie and his family had a pretty close relationship with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. That struck me as really funny too because the Beach Boys and the Manson Family don’t seem like they would have too much in common.
I listened to the audio version of this book which was narrated by Jim Frangione. He was great – very professional and listenable. Non-fiction book narrators run the risk of sounding dry but Frangione has good energy. I have to add that before this, I had only listened to him narrating Black Dagger Brotherhood books so it took me a few minutes to get used to him talking about Charles Manson and not sexy vampires.
The print version of this book has some photos in it. I actually checked the print version out from the library so I could see the photos. There were just a few and they didn’t add anything to my experience of the book. If you choose to listen to this book on audio, I don’t think you’re missing anything. My only complaint about the audio version is that there were a lot of really long pauses and not just in between chapters. They were so long that most of the time, I thought it was time to change discs until I looked at the track count.
After reading this book, I’d like to re-read Helter Skelter, just to see how what I learned from this book fits in with Bugliosi’s side of the whole ordeal. In any case, Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson is a very well-researched biography of Charles Manson. I highly recommend it.
(I received this book courtesy of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)
