I'm currently halfway through reading this book, and it's hard going.
Quite simply, Paytress is a bad writer, very non-linear. The story leaps backwards and forwards across Vicious's life from page to page - which makes it near impossible for the reader to focus on any developing storyline, or get taken on a journey of any kind through Vicious's life.
It's almost as if the book was originally written with the story going from A to Z, but then someone dropped the draft copy and shoved the loose pages back in random order...giving us a story which goes from X to A via C and Z by way of D and K.
The life story of Sid Vicious is pretty straightforward, and of course, short. So why does this author completely overcomplicate the issue? I'd assume to flesh out the book. I'm 70 pages into it, almost half way. And I feel like 2/3rds of what I've already read is complete filler, with maybe only 2 pages worth of new information about Vicious coming from the remainder.
The author also has a VERY annoying habit of devoting half a page to explaining how he met some interviewee or other in a coffee shop or somesuch, then just using ONE sentence of that interview.
I would say rather than buy this book, give the latest Alan Parker book on Vicious a try. I haven't read it, but it surely has to be written in a more logical and accessible style than this Paytress effort.
'Vicious: The Art Of Dying Young' gets a 1 star rating from me because Amazon doesn't provide the option of minuses.
