David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God

Arts journalist Ormerod debuts with a transfixing look at David Bowie’s life through a spiritual lens. Born in 1947, Bowie grew up as a choir boy in the Anglican church, but developed skepticism of organized religion as a teen that persisted throughout his life. Still, according to Ormerod, he spent his career investigating spirituality, from the Buddhism in such songs as “Silly Boy Blue” to the familiar, parochial Christianity that showed up in the title track from 2016’s Blackstar (which, a friend of Bowie’s commented, recalled “the psalms we sang in St. Mary’s choir together when we were kids”). Expanding the account’s scope beyond organized religion, Ormerod contends that a “fetid brew of occultism and esotericism” defined Bowie’s cocaine-fueled Thin White Duke period in the mid-1970s, while his performances as Ziggy Stardust earlier in the decade harnessed “the power of myths and messiahs.” Throughout, Ormerod sheds light on how faith both tormented and fueled Bowie, as he sought to capture the “unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable” in his music despite being “perennially dissatisfied with what he found.” The result is a fresh and revealing look at a much celebrated artist. (Jan.)