Jake Shears is smart enough to recognize the pitfalls of early memoir writing, but that doesn't mean he avoids them in Boys Keep Swinging. It's one thing not to embarrass your living parents; it's quite another to avoid offending practically everyone. He's good at describing environments--particularly his childhood neighborhoods and schools, and most interestingly of all, Manhattan's Lower East Side where he go-go danced and formed the Scissor Sisters (has a more beautiful butt than his ever graced an album cover?)--but the people he encounters on his rise to cult status are thinly sketched. A little friendly celebrity gossip livens his final chapters, but I l finished the book, likely drawn from journals, thinking he omitted the juiciest parts of his life, aside from a highly unfortunate and guilt-inducing consequence of his success. Or maybe I just can't relate to a fellow Bowie acolyte whose favorite song is . . . "Fantastic Voyage"?
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