“Moonwalk,” written by Michael Jackson, is a great autobiography that only has one major downside which is the pacing.

Fun Facts

According to Wikipedia, on February 1st, 1988 the novel was originally published . It was released about five months after the release of his album “Bad.” The autobiography was named after his signature dance move, the moonwalk. When initially published, the book was able to  Additionally, according to Barnes & Noble, the novel was re-issued on October 13th, 2009, about four months after the singer’s passing. The original novel had 283 pages while the re-issued version had 320 pages. The book was published by DoubleDay both with the original and the re-issued version of the book.

An Overview of the Book

This autobiography details the beginnings of Michael Jackson’s life. He goes into heavy detail about his childhood and explains his father’s harsh disciplines as they rose to fame. The later chapters of the novel explain more of his solo career alongside his adulthood, which help give the reader a better understanding of his entire life. His relationships with celebrities like Diana Ross, Paul McCartney, Berry Gordy, and Quincy Jones as the novel progressed. The readers get plenty of information about how the Jackson 5 was formed. Furthermore, Jackson’s experiences of being a young performer and his plastic surgeries are explained in detail.

When speaking to Hephzibah Ayanbukola, a freshman at Colonia High School, she explained she did not know the true severity of his childhood. “I always knew that Michael Jackson’s childhood was not as good as it was thought to be but I never realized it was that tragic. Hearing about the stuff with his dad beating him and his brothers during rehearsals shook me to my core. No child should have to be put through something like that in the pursuit of fame of money. I found it so brutal that he had to go through all of that at such a young age,” said Ayanbukola.

The Pacing Problem

This novel is an autobiography, which makes it difficult  to critique simply because it is the story of his life. However, the pacing of the book was the major downside to it as a whole.  A majority of the book focused on his childhood and rise to fame throughout it. Meanwhile,  more recent life events were lightly touched upon by Jackson during the novel. As he explained his humble beginnings, he also rushed through many events in his adult life, which are equally important in an autobiography.

When speaking to Giselle Salazar, a freshman from Colonia High School , she explained she also had a problem with how the book was paced. “When reading this novel, I was really hoping to learn a lot more about Michael Jackson’s life in adulthood. Specifically I wanted to know more about the Pepsi Incident, which was a traumatic incident for him. The special effects lit his the back of his hair on fire and they burnt his scalp terribly. In the end, he ultimately talked about it for about three pages max, which disappointed me slightly,” said Salazar.