The subtitle of the book lets you in on the fact that this is not a straight-up bio but more of a personal essay type thing, relating to the topic of why any of us would have to learn to love Neil Diamond.

If you don't like the author's personality, you're not going to like the book, but there is not a false advertising claim to be made here.

Also, I can't tell if this was meant to be self-deprecating, so I'm deciding it was, in which case, good one!:

"The man never met a shitty joke or crappy allusion he didn't want to take home and make passionate love to."

Two artists whose enduring popularity I totally don't get, despite numerous peoples' patient attempts to get me on board:

* Neil Young
* Neil Diamond

The subtitle alone was enough to make me dread this author's take on things, so the review seems spot on. Disagreeing with the review by saying "if you don't like author's personality..." is off the mark. I love reading books by many deplorable people. It's the quality of the writing that makes it work. As a fellow Diamond fan, I would prefer to read a well researched and intriguing biography that captures the artist, rather than a lame "personal journey". We really need to put a moratorium on those and bring back real biographical writing. In other words, let's get Nick Tosches on the phone for a real Neil book.