Cost: $0.75US
Page Count: 288
Very rarely do I ever get to read two books and get two different perspectives about the same subject. I tend to jump from subject to subject because my curiosity and intellect apparently has the attention span of a gnat. But, that's ok...at least I read many books on many subjects. I'm a well-read and well-rounded gnat. A renaissance gnat.
Fall to Pieces, by Mary Weiland, is the other half of the Scott Weiland (of STP and stale review #27 fame) saga. She's the yin to his yang, so to speak. I've got to be honest, normally the memoir of a rock star wife would hold absolutely no interest for me. For some reason, Fall to Pieces called to me. So, I figured it was short and it could tell the other side to the STP story. I actually found Fall to Pieces and the Scott Weiland book, Not Dead and Not for Sale on the same night and spent less than a few bucks for both of them. Finding this to be a good deal I thought it might be fun to read both biographies and compare notes. Hint: Mary is a far superior writer.
Mary is candid. She holds no punches and appears to tell the whole story. I totally respect her candor and her bravery to digging into some really deep and really personal issues. And no, you hound dogs out there, she doesn't talk about her sex life. Scott was the opposite in his strict adherence to the vague. Mary's novel was like a Hollywood tragic love story. Scott's book was a PBS documentary. But, that's cool and to each their own, right?
Fall to Pieces runs you right through Mary's childhood, her meeting of Scott Weiland (while she was still a child of 16), their falling in love, her modeling career, their drug use and spiral into the drug abyss, the yo-yo of recovery and relapse for both her and Scott, Scott's arrest(s), their collective rock bottom, and finally her diagnosis with bipolar disorder. Now, this...THIS... turned out to be the interesting part. Turns out, I have never read anything that could actually portray what it is like within the mind of a person in both a completely manic phase of bipolar and also within their mind during those depressed phases. To this, I must give Mary kudos. Well done, chick. Undiagnosed and untreated, bipolar disorder is scary as fuck. For her to go through the steps to get diagnosed and then a proper dose of the proper meds took a lot of courage and I'm sure hard work. I'm sure that her being a recovering heroin addict didn't make the process any smoother.
So, Fall to Pieces was not normally what I would read and/or write about. But, in the end I actually liked the book. Mary does an infinitely better job at getting into some of the details that I like in a rock book: she tells a little about the bands and the process of creation. Even though she wasn't the artist herself (and was probably fucked up most of the time) Mary turned out to be a decent reporter.
If you can find this book give it a whirl. Particularly if you are in the mental health field or are interested in learning about bipolar disorder, I would definitely recommend.
*PSA: If you or someone you know is having difficulty functioning in this world with a mental disorder, please contact a mental health professional. Thank you and be well, people.
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