MJSTAR is loving the new book by Jermaine Jackson. The following review comes from the British Newspaper “The Independent” – here are some highlights:
It’s hard to repress this memory when reading Jermaine Jackson’s account of the Michael he knew. To know all is to forgive all, and Jermaine, four years Michael’s senior, knows most things.
It’s true that their father beat them – one child had to go out and find a stick just big enough for his father to thrash him with – and it’s true that the Jackson Five practised at the expense of any normal upbringing. So is that what made Michael so weird? In part, and yet, there’s a control in the human experiment that is Michael Jackson. There were nine of these children, six of whom were in the Jackson Five (they had a subs bench, after all), and two of whom are La Toya and Janet.
Throughout this memoir, Jermaine Jackson is surprisingly sound. He has an answer for most nagging questions. On Michael’s translucent complexion, he explains all about the skin disease vitiligo, and how the cream can change the colour of acne-affected areas.
He suggests that it is a form of body dysmorphia: “Over the years I wanted to shake him and say, ‘Michael, can you not see how damn handsome you are?’ But it was such a sensitive issue… and he failed to realise that his self-esteem was not something a knife could correct.”
He is convincing, too, about the world of Neverland. After all, it’s possible to say anything about Michael and pass it off as testimony (he did it himself about the hyperbaric chamber in which he never actually slept). Dr Evan Chandler, whose son Jordie stayed at Neverland, was quoted by his ex-wife as saying that the relationship was “a wonderful means for Jordie of not having to worry for the rest of his life”.
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