Somebody to Love: The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury

The team behind the ill-conceived Michael Jackson biography 83 Minutes returns to weave together the histories of Freddie Mercury and HIV/AIDS, the disease that took his life, in this clunky and poorly constructed work. Richards and Langthorne use a handful of broad historical coincidences to tie man and illness together in the name of heightening the melodrama that so intensely suffuses their narrative from its beginning. Clarity-fogging run-on sentences do the heavy lifting of actually delivering information about the spread of HIV so that more energy can be spent on speculating on Mercury’s sexuality. The authors’ consistent insistence that Mercury was gay rather than bisexual is faintly stunning, given Mercury’s passionate relationships with women such as Mary Austin and his own statements confirming his love for both men and women—many of which are not included in this book, apparently because they violate the authors’ thesis. It’s a shame that Richards and Langthorne’s ostensible purpose—to pay tribute to the needless victims of AIDS and homophobia—is overshadowed by their desire to sensationalize the life and death of an international music icon. (Nov.)