Danny Sugerman, Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess

Mislead by the title and by some of the reviews, I bought this book expecting to read about Sugerman getting mixed up with the excesses of The Doors and Iggy Pop while working as their manager. Instead, I got an autobiographic, tedious tale about a junkie who used to know famous musicians.

Readers should be warned that in this sloppily written book, rock'n'roll is relegated to the background. The story is strictly autobiographical about Sugerman, a rich teenager with daddy issues who got obsessed by Jim Morrison. The fact that Morrison was a singer seems almost coincidental. He could have been an actor or any other charismatic performer.

The first 200 pages are about lazy student Sugerman getting in trouble with dad (and stepdad) because of his obsession with Jim Morrison. A series of quarrels between Sugerman and his "dads" are described down to every excruciatingly irrelevant detail. Obviously Sugerman is always the wise guy and everybody else the as***e. Nothing could be screaming out louder "daddy issues" than Sugerman's hero worship for Morrison. but Sugerman actually needed a psychiatrist spelling it out for him far too many years (and pages) later.

The remaining 200 pages are about Sugerman getting stoned with all possible kinds of drugs, but especially heroine, both to overcome Morrison's death and because getting wasted seemed to be the only thing he liked. Throughout the mayhem of these years, Sugerman interest in music always seemed superficial, even if he acted as Ray Manzarek's manager for a while. .Actually, it is hard to believe that Manzarek trusted such an irresponsible dopehead to manage his career, but these are facts.

Sugerman narrates his (and his and girlfriend Tiffany) fall into obsessive drug abuse in far too many details. The description of their life in squalor and filth, waiting for the next fix is enough to provoke a reaction of bulimic disgust to drugs. Advertised as tales of glamour and excesses, the most glamour one gets is Iggy Pop pissing into the dishes of people eating in a fancy restaurant, which is not my idea of glamour.

But despite its sordid content, I could have put up with it if at least the book was well written. Unfortunately, this is just the diary of a troubled young man, written in a pedestrian style, over-repetitive and lacking any humour whatsoever. The fact that the book got positive remarks is disturbing and puzzling, even though "This is the best book I read" can hardly count as a well-articulated review.

One of my absolute favorite reads of all time. I have read it at least 6 times for the main reason that I can relate on so many levels.

Danny is a fantastic writer and I'm sad he did not write more. I liked this book more than No On Gets Out Of Here Alive.

It just holds my attention more and I love the way Jim Morrison is painted in the background. So mortal. So human. It's a side of Jim we never get to see anywhere else.

Wonderland Avenue: Tales of Glamour and Excess by Danny Sugarman was fascinating. A great insight into Danny's and the music industry's world at that time. I just absolutely loved everything about this book. Even the couple of lines of lyrics at the beginning of each chapter was genius. It played out like a movie with a fantastic soundtrack.

This book was great! I found a second-hand copy of it at a flea market and I have read it over and over...Danny Sugarman's autobiography is nothing short of laughs and sadness.

I laughed when he wrote about his pet python, Mr Big, and cried when he wrote about his awful father, and even his own stepfather.

This is a must read if you want to get a real insight to what life was like for a teenager during the late '60's and early '70's in rock 'n rollin' LA.

Loved the book! Very well written, Danny's story is extremely interesting from start to finish. Only bad point is that there were no photos in this book

Loved this book. Buy it, you'll love it too.

Such a great read - even if your not a Doors fan or a music fan at all, that does add to it... An enthralling book... Written by someone who lived am amazing life... Would highly recommend to all...