The bulk of this tome is made up of "pen portraits", of varying lengths, of assorted luminaries from the world of music. These are broken up with other content, most of which relates to songs and albums which the author considers to be noteworthy in some way.
I found the author's quirky and impish humour to be endearing at first. In his views on music and musicians he does not seek to conform with trends and what is perceived to be cool. He makes it clear what kinds of music he is drawn to, and whilst I consider myself to have possibly the most eclectic musical tastes in the known universe, his arguments are bright and persuasive.
Although I did not agree with all of Berkmann's opinions, and did not concur with all of his reasoning, the anecdotes and stories were invariably entertaining and often very funny. He is not trying to appear as a contrarian, but rather comes across as honest, unpretentious and sincere in his inclinations. This is actually quite refreshing when I think of much of the music-related literature which I have been exposed to down the years.
The paragraphs contain lots of amusing tales of music-industry chaos, and in places these elaborated or expanded usefully on already well-known stories. All of this is delivered in a breezy and digestible style.
If I was to venture one criticism it would be that, as the book progresses, it becomes a touch "formulaic", and relies too much on the same styles of jokes and humour. It even threatens to become slightly smug. Then again, I don't think this was intended to be a major work of scholarship, or to be taken too seriously.
In spite of the minor criticism outlined above, I found this to be quite an enjoyable book.
