Elvis Presley Book:

		List Price: $27.50		Publisher: Harvard University Press Salesrank: 1458556
		Our Price: $21.75
		Used Price: $3.75
		Media: Hardcover

Editorial Review:
A cultural critic explores the meaning of Elvis Presley's dream house to its owner and to the millions of fans who journey there, and what Graceland says about tourism and the mobile lifestyle of Americans in the postwar era. UP.

Description of Graceland: Going Home with Elvis:
Karal Ann Marling, a professor of art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, examines Elvis Presley, the cultural phenomenon, through the places he lived. From his place of birth, the two-room "shot-gun house" in Tupelo, to the fabled hilltop mansion, Graceland, Marling shows that despite international acclaim he never lost his Mississippi roots. Elvis often shared Graceland with "the guys"--an entourage of relatives, assistants and school pals--"like a teenager whose parents weren't home" and was not above putting a bullet through the television when he saw something he didn't like. Marling argues that through conspicuous consumption, compulsive refurnishing of rooms and garish decor, Presley knew he was thumbing his nose at good taste and consciously cultivating his own legend.

Graceland: Going Home with Elvis Reviews:
Interesting, but not for Elvis fans
2006-03-21 - The book generally present Elvis and his surroundings as seedy, degenerate. The 35 small, black and white illustrations, with their distorted dimensions, enhance this image.

I thought there might be a lot of information on Elvis's various homes. I was disappointed. The author wanders far afield of things Elvis. There is a significant amount of coverage on the homes of other celebrities, and there is an obsession with external columns. One chapter is devoted to William Faulkner. The final chapter describes the author's trip home from Memphis to her home in Minnesota.

I was surprised at the 12 pages devoted to "Sources". The book's text did not suggest extensive homework on Elvis, but the "Acknowledgments" give credit to four grad students for their assistance.

The page count breaks down as follow: Table of Contents - 2, text - 242 (including 16 chapters and an introduction), Sources -12, and Acknowledgments - 2.

The prose came across as meandering, often depressing, but eloquent blather, packaged under the Elvis name to sell copies. Perhaps writing in this matter purges the author of her own frustrations. Despite it's overall negativity, it was still interesting in its perspective.

A fascinating read, even for we non-fanatics.
2002-05-28 - My son brought this book home as part of a school project and I absentmindedly picked it up and started reading. It really hooked me from the start and I ended up reading it cover to cover in just a couple of days.

The author has a great way of meandering from subject to subject so that the book encompasses much more than just facts about Graceland. It studies how the houses that we live in represent where we have come from and where we are going, not just as individuals but as a culture and a country.

The book also looks honestly at Elvis Presley's life, without wallowing in the uglier aspects of his life and death.

Elvis and his homes.
1998-01-10 - Elvis was the unique product of a very specific time and place; a cultural expression of that sweaty, hardscrabble slice of Mississippi River Delta biracial culture which has produced so much of the authentic in American music.
The singer's unusual and deep attachment to his context is well understood in this perceptive biography, whose author views and interprets Presley through his homes, from the shotgun shack in East Tupelo to the "Peckerwood Palace" of Graceland. Highly readable and of value to students of contemporary American culture, but committed Elvis fans will not be comforted by this unblinking examination of the King and his world.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Graceland speak about Elvis...
1996-12-09 - Truly great book on the myth of Elvis Presley and also about the history of the past in the United States. We can understand in a better way what Graceland truly mean to Elvis... A superficial time-line concerning his life is also a great source of informations about the man behind the star... Edith Robitaille from Quebec, Canada.