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Outstanding
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The New Yorker
Guralnick, as in his biography of Elvis Presley, displays a feel for the culture that gave rise to the musician, and his account is a revelatory portrait of the rough-and-tumble yet familial world of black show business before and during the civil-rights era. [14 Nov 2005, p.95]
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Outstanding
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Booklist Gordon Flagg
An expert biographer, Guralnick shines at assessing Cooke's music, particularly the incessant live performances that took him from the chitlin' circuit to the Copa. [1 Sept 2005, p.38]
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Outstanding
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Publishers Weekly
Guralnick's revelation of the complicated man behind the music ultimately enables readers to rediscover songs like "A Change Is Gonna Come" as even more remarkable than before. [25 July 2005, p.57]
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Outstanding
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Kirkus Reviews
The writing is as relaxed, graceful and affecting as a superior Cooke performance. It's another unsurpassable work by one of music's most knowledgeable and sensitive chroniclers... To use a gospel-music term for a hot gig, Guralnick turns the house out. [15 July 2005, p.776]
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Outstanding
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Boston Globe James Parker
Patiently and faithfully, Dream Boogie gives us everything that can be known about him.
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Outstanding
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Houston Chronicle John Freeman
Dream Boogie succeeds thanks to Guralnick's magnificent storytelling powers. Like his subject, Guralnick knows we're all suckers for a dream, and he pitches Cooke to readers as an all-American kid with a gleam in his eye.
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Outstanding
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San Francisco Chronicle Joel Selvin
In his monumental, panoramic 700-plus-page biography, best-selling pop music historian Peter Guralnick etches a richly detailed portrait of Cooke as a driven, proud and independent spirit who flourished in a white man's world on his own terms but was ultimately undone by his own dark drives.
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Favorable
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The Nation Robert Christgau
As monumental as Dream Boogie is, it could have been more monumental still.
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Favorable
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The New York Times Book Review John Leland
Guralnick earns every one of his 750 pages, but in the way Peyton Manning earns his $98 million - no one could give you more, but you might have other demands on your time or money. Me, I like the full monty, but I'm geeky that way.
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Favorable
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New York Review Of Books Arthur Kempton
Barbara Cooke's voice stands out among the others in Peter Gural-nick's book the way her husband's had amid the aural clutter of Top 40 radio. It bespeaks an old pain. Gu-ralnick is not Sam Cooke's first bi-ographer but his book is enlivened by being the first to have her as source material.
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Mixed
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Salon Charles Taylor
While Guralnick the meticulous researcher and compassionate interviewer is present, the part of him that synthesizes and brings a critic's eye to the story is absent here.
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Mixed
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Entertainment Weekly Tom Sinclair
Despite the fascinating parallel tale Guralnick relates about how the commingling of religious and secular music helped spawn rock & roll, Dream Boogie feels overstuffed — like a five-CD boxed set by an artist with just one great album to his credit.
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Mixed
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Village Voice Keith Harris
But Guralnick's technique, which works for biography, falters when it comes to artistic appreciation.
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Mixed
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The Guardian Mike Marqusee
The scale of research is dauntingly impressive, but the narrative is often overwhelmed by the minutiae of recording sessions and financial negotiations. Though clearly a labour of love, the book lacks the personal engagement and social sweep of the author's "Sweet Soul Music" and his works on Presley.
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Unfavorable
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Daily Telegraph Tim Willis
And it's true that his account of Cooke's last day is not only gripping, but lends to his subject a sort of tragic dignity. However, that's poor compensation for the slog to get there. Alas, even Guralnik nods.
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Unfavorable
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The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Andre Alexis
It is a biography that tells one more, perhaps, than one needs to know about Cooke and, in so doing, makes Cooke's life seem a little monotonous and dull.
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Unfavorable
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Library Journal Lloyd Jansen
[Guralnick] is stubbornly coy about Cooke's importance; a frustrating lack of context leaves readers without a way to measure the singer's accomplishments against those of his peers. [1 Aug 2005, p.88]
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