Deborah Curtis - Touching from a Distance (Ian Curtis and Joy Division)

Publisher: Faber and Faber Limited; Year: 1995; Format: Softcover book

Very recently when reviewing the Warsaw "An Ideal For Killing" LP I had mentioned that I was reading Deborah Curtis' book about her life with Ian and of course Joy Division. Since it's a short read I thought I better review it immediately before my memory lets me down and my brain's hard drive gets too overloaded with information nobody really needs to know, including myself. Back in 2007 when I moved to London from Switzerland I remember that the movie 'Control' was just about to come out and was highly anticipated by the movie and music press alike. It was then when I became more intrigued about Joy Division's history and music alike as I have to be honest but throughout the decades somehow I never caught on the hype about the band which in retrospect is a shame but then again it's never too late and it's not like I have missed some great re-union show because of the laziness on my part. A good while ago I read Jon Savage's "This Searing Light..." book about Joy Division and highly enjoyed it hence I can recommend that one if you want to get a good feel about those particular times in Manchester's music history. Deborah's book is much older than the Savage one and was recently given to me by my favorite local record store proprietor (Cheers Jerid!). In all fairness it's a great short read if you are interested in the relationship between husband and wife and really how conflicted it was from the very beginning. Of course one could say that with Ian having died the reader gets to hear just one side, but I have no doubt that Deborah did not see any reason to lie or exaggerate. To be very fair to her I did not find her tone to be condescending or unfair in any shape or form. Actually it is quite the opposite where Deborah clearly has a feeling that she and others could have helped to prevent the tragic death of Ian. What I found most fascinating about the book is Deborah's very detail oriented memory where she would remember exactly what happened on a certain day or night or what record Ian would be crazy about in the year 1975 for instance. If time travel was possible then going back to '70s Manchester would be a highly fascinating trip, albeit a depressing one in many ways. Judging from the book and how serious Ian was about music and the bands he adored it all makes sense why Joy Division sounded the way they did. One thing must be said and that is that Ian knew very early on that the band he was to front will stand apart from others and I think we all agree that Joy Division achieved that. Something I can read about over and over are those very early days of punk where a handful of people were in the know and aware that something was bubbling under the surface waiting to explode and Deborah's book gives you a really good idea as to how everything evolved in and around Manchester. Of course you also get Deborah's view about how Ian connected with Annik and eventually destroyed their marriage, and even there Deborah takes a very fair and distant approach. If you are interested in the history of Ian Curtis and Joy Division than this is a must-read, but even from an outsider point of view this is a great read about a very unique time period in music history.