Prince’s unfinished memoir, The Beautiful Ones is a quick, but awkward, read. The preface is the most coherent, the story of how the editor, Dan Piepenbring, ended up being chosen by Prince to realize his autobiography. It shines an interesting light onto what it was like to be in Prince’s orbit, if only briefly.
Of course, Prince passed away shortly after the book was announced. He had started providing material to his writer in the form of notes and guidance, but only a few chapters worth covering his youth and early career. These notes, in their idiomatic manner of writing, e.g. “👁️ love u”, form the bulk of the book. The rest of the material are photographs and other notes collected with the help of Prince’s estate. They’re insightful, but not particularly coherent.
I’m relatively new to the deep Prince mythology. I suspect I got more out of the book than those already steeped in purple mystery would. There are probably better starting points for those who want to know everything about Prince or who are enitrely new to the Prince mythos.
