In his foreword to this best-selling biography of the late Doors vocalist, No One Here Gets Out Alive, coauthor Daniel Sugerman declares, “My personal belief is that Jim Morrison was a god.” The book’s biggest problem is that this belief, which is promoted throughout, is strongly at odds with the life chronicled here.

Morrison’s career and music certainly suggest charisma and high intelligence, but his offstage antics were anything but godlike. Morrison was cruel, disturbed, sexist, and just plain screwed up. Though I still love his music, I consider it amazing that anyone could admire the man behind it after reading—much less researching and writing—this book (whose other author is Jerry Hopkins). Recommended particularly to those who still think of rock stars as heroes.