Just read this small but perfectly formed book by the journalist and broadcaster Jon Ronson, a short biography, more of an extended article really, on and about the life of comedian/musician Frank Sidebottom and off course the man who lived inside that large fake head. The details of that life and the identity of the person who breathed beneath the mask are contained within the book and deserve to be read and discovered at the pace the author intended. It is a wistful and gently observed witness to a quite complex life situation. One that Jon Ronson explores with his usual humanity. As always he details the ordinariness that dogs even the most extreme lifestyle choices, his book THEM-ADVENTURES WITH EXTREMISTS was one I returned to again and again. Jon Ronson is a writer who plods along roads much traveled but which are quite despised by all other than those who choose to walk the extreme pathways of our times. He is a writer who quite often illuminates the shady and the grey.
Here is a little extract from the book which I hope is okay to repeat; NOTHING MAKES A YOUNG MAN FEEL MORE ALIVE AND ON AN ADVENTURE THAN SPEEDING DOWN A MOTORWAY AT 2 A.M.NEXT TO A MAN WEARING A BIG FAKE HEAD. I'D FURTIVELY WATCH HIM AS LIGHTS MADE HIS CARTOON FACE GLOW YELLOW AND THEN BLACK THEN YELLOW AGAIN.
Lovely writing from a lovingly crafted piece of work, honest, even optimistic. If not quite a celebration of a life well lived it is a story gladly told.
(artwork from my sketchbook.)
