The Life of Lou Reed: Notes from the Velvet Underground

They all do! Over 100 interviews and the consensus is that Reed was an awful person. How that affect's one's perception of Loopy Lou's art is up to the reader.

Neither slavishly adulatory nor overly critical (though it's hard to write truthfully about Reed as a person without some criticism). Very well researched with wide ranging sources who were close to Reed at various times in his life.

I knew most of what was written before.

i really enjoyed the book love lou reed

This is a deeply researched, well written biography of Lou Reed. It runs from his childhood to his death, and covers the major personal and artistic phases of his life from beginning to end. Countless people who knew Reed were interviewed. A little more than a third of the book covers Reed's youth through to his time in, and the dissolution of, The Velvet Underground. The segments on VU are the most interesting in the book, just as that was the most interesting phase of Reed's musical career. Anyone who adores Lou Reed and will be bothered by any criticisms of his creative work or general personality, will likely be offended by the book. Sounes praised VU/Reed solo music when the thought it appropriate, but didn't hold back on panning the albums he feels are weak. Likewise, the quotes he included from Reed's bandmates, ex lovers, family members, personal friends, music business associates, etc. often show Reed to have been a jerk: an egomaniacal, heartless, bullying, controlling misogynist. Personally, I admired the depth of the research and the quality of the writing, yet two-thirds in, I'd had all the Lou Reed life story I wanted to read about.