On Michael Jackson | Granta

  • Published: 03/05/2018
  • ISBN: 9781783784202
  • 129x20mm
  • 160 pages

On Michael Jackson

Margo Jefferson

Michael Jackson: provocateur, icon, enigma.

Who was he, really? And how does his spectacular rise, his catastrophic fall, reflect upon those who made him, those who broke him, and those who loved him?

Almost ten years on from Jackson’s untimely death, here is Margo Jefferson’s definitive and dazzling dissection of the King of Pop: a man admired for his music, his flair, his performances; and censured for his skin, his erratic behaviour, and, in his final years, for his relationships with children.

A startlingly forthright consideration of what drove Jackson then and what drives our thinking of him now

Esquire

Dazzling

Tatler

Margo Jefferson's excellent, empathic take on the singer, encapsulating the pressures of being a child star, the most famous person on the planet and having a complicated legacy that can sometimes make people forget about the music

‘Best Summer Books’ selected by Nikesh Shukla, Observer

The Author

The winner of a Pulitzer Prize for criticism, MARGO JEFFERSON was for years a theater and book critic for Newsweek and The New York Times. Her writing has appeared in, among other publications, Vogue, New York magazine, and The New Republic. She is the author of On Michael Jackson and is a professor of writing at Columbia University School of the Arts.

More about the author →

From the Same Author

Margo Jefferson on Granta.com

In Conversation | The Online Edition

Interview

Margo Jefferson & Guy Gunaratne

Guy Gunaratne interviewed Margo Jefferson after the winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize was announced, and they discussed her prize-winning book, Constructing a Nervous System.

In Conversation | The Online Edition

In Conversation

Leslie Jamison & Margo Jefferson

‘The self is the work of art. Criticism puts that self in the service of other art.’

The authors discuss the multiplicity of the self, the idea of necessity, and how to work with what you lack.

Essays & Memoir | Granta 140

Monster | State of Mind

Margo Jefferson

‘Today’s a day for you to feel blocked and impeded; a coward in work and love; resenting duty; suspecting pleasure.’