Bob Marley Chapter Summaries

Starting with Marley’s birth to Cedella Malcolm, a Black Jamaican teenager, and Norval Marley, a middle-age White Jamaican, Moskowitz traces Marley’s short, but incredibly eventful, life. However, Marley’s life cannot be characterized as a seamless, upward trajectory from humble beginnings to wealthy, reggae star; there were too many stops and starts along the way, too many heartbreaks and disappointments, and too little time to fully achieve ambitious goals. To this end, Bob Marley: A [End Page 285] Biography does an excellent job navigating this biographical minefield. At the conclusion of the book, Moskowitz discusses Marley’s musical legacy, legal controversies, and provides short, but illuminating, minibiographies on Marley’s large family (Rita Marley and twelve children). While the book does tend to drag in the
At least a third longer than Moskowitz’s book, Steckles provides an even more in-depth coverage of Marley’s life. The book begins with a series of quotations from a wide variety of admirers (including reggae expert Roger Steffens, Carlos Santana, and former Miss World, Cindy Break-speare who gave birth to Damian Marley), which should dissuade readers from assuming that Marley was simply a reggae musician. Following the same chronological pattern as Bob Marley: A Biography, Steckles expertly narrates Marley’s early hardships and his later musical success. Bob Marley even sheds new light on Charles Comer’s role in shaping Marley’s international profile and popularity (Comer was Marley’s publicist during the 1970s). After describing Marley’s sad and depressing decline and death, the author concludes by discussing the reggae star’s continuing popularity, and the unfortunate legal chaos that included Rita Marley and members of the Wailers (he even included excerpts from court documents). The writing is smart and engaging. The examples and narratives are expertly drawn from a variety