Rating: 
Summary: Calling Martin Scorcese
Review: A most ambitious and painstakingly researched epic, it starts out like a Steinbeck novel,during tha American westward expansion and ends up like "Raging Bull".(I would love to see what Martin Sorcese could do with the material from this outstanding book).Whether you view Pollock as an artistic genius or a violent,self indulged whiner, or both, this is a book that really gives you a feel for the period in which it's set.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, informative, biased, overly Freudian
Review: Absolutely essential for the serious Pollock scholar. It should be kept in mind, however, that Naifeh and Smith are journalists and not art historians. This becomes painfully evident when the two authors delve into art criticism and interpretation. Example: Naifeh and Smith would have us believe that Pollock's use of a screaming horses in drawings from the late 30s- early 40s has to do with his memory of an accident from his childhood years and is not a response to Picasso's Guernica, then on veiw in NYC. Guardians of the Secret in thier interpretation becomes an abstract family portrait instead of part of the discourse of modern art. To be sure,a Freudian approach can be overdone. Also, why all the facination with Pollock's may-be sort-of homosexual urges/practices? Possibly to sell more books? They are the only biographers to mention it, and they infact harp on the subject endlessly. In short, being homosexaul is important to understanding Andy Warhol's work, but not so Pollock. Finally, the authors make a big deal about getting Krasner's cooperation for this biography, but fail to mention that she spoke at length to many other interviewers. Her possible biases are never touched on. Also, was it just good fortune that Krasner died before the publication, or was it a prerequisite? I think she would have sued if she had ever read the book. I can not deny that this book is essential, but be warned, it has major flaws. History will rememember the contribution that Naifeh and Smith made, but we should remember their shortcomings as well.
Rating:
Summary: best biography
Review: best biography i've read. ever. buy it. you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Well-Researched
Review: Excellent index and thorough, chronological coverage of events in the life of this important American artist. It is a huge book but moves fairly quickly, since Pollock's life was really very interesting. Any art history student studying Pollock and the New York abstract expressionist movement will find plenty of insight here. Includes wonderful collection of black and white photos from all phases of the man's life. Pollock had a tough time dealing with the fame and notoriety foisted upon him as a genius of the New York school, and for many years Pollock has often been dismissed as the phony he himself feared he was. It certainly is refreshing to see Pollock as a whole man (talented, wise, adventurous, flawed, tenacious, alcoholic), not just as an overrated art star. (The recent Kurt Varnadoe book on his art is also excellent in this way). Self doubting artists may find some degree of comfort in this book, actually. Detailed, unbiased writing. One of the best artist biographies I've ever read.
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Summary: Who cares how many pages it is?
Review: I read this book when it first was published.
This book made me want to see the new movie!
I balked at it's cost but it is the best biography I have ever read.
It is well researched and written.
Things from the book at linger in my memory after all this time?
His hell raising at the Canal Bar,dealing with Peggy Guggenheim, his death and the strange notion that he claimed he would supposedly "know" when a woman had her period. Read this book, I'm going to again!
Rating:
Summary: Insightful biography
Review: I'm half way through, and enjoying every chapter. Stick with the first chapters on Pollock's childhood in the West, they do seem to explain something of his later psychology. The authors don't quite get to the bottom of the riddle of his mother, and her influence on his later trauma, although they do their best. Roy Pollock, his father, emerges as a truly tragic figure - in many ways an heroic figure, but a man doomed from the start by his own childhood history of neglect. The story will make a great movie one day.
Rating: 
Summary: Commits almost all of the sins of the biographer's craft
Review: The beginning of this book is hard to get through but once Jackson moved to New York, I was totally absorbed in his story. I'm sorry that the movie based on this book did not sweep the Oscars. By the time you finish the book, you feel like you know this man, but of course, he didn't even know himself. I recommend not only the book, but the movie, and the soundtrack, too.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story of a genius alcoholic
Review: The beginning of this book is hard to get through but once Jackson moved to New York, I was totally absorbed in his story. I'm sorry that the movie based on this book did not sweep the Oscars. By the time you finish the book, you feel like you know this man, but of course, he didn't even know himself. I recommend not only the book, but the movie, and the soundtrack, too.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent biography about a difficult man
Review: The Jackson Pollock as presented in this fast reading, well researched and impassioned (it is most obvious that the authors are devoted to placing Pollock rightfully amoung the giants of Art) biography, comes across as a sullen, abusive, self-hating, inarticulate, drunken visionary who, despite his many great personality flaws, changed the course of modern art forever. The subtitle of "An American Saga" is most appropriate considering the vast expanses of geographical and historical space Pollock journeyed in his short life. The authors wisely build a living frame of reference for Pollock to exist. There is absolutely no way a rule breaker can develop in a vacum and Pollock was no exception. The supporting cast of characters (including America's rich landscapes- so vividly captured here!) stands as a virtual who's who of American Art. Thomas Hart Benton, Peggy Guggenhiem and others recieve detailed sketches as do the WPA and other organizations that helped to shape Pollock's path. Pollock may not have been a "good man" in a moral sense. He comes across as boorish and self-centered, and tragically in many cases, the world's great artists frequently share Pollocks flaws. I seriously doubt that I would have enjoyed spending any time with Pollock the man. Luckily we don't have to, but we do have Pollock's rich legacy of Art in which we can all share. A must read for any lover or student of American Culture, Art or History.
Rating:
Summary: Commits almost all of the sins of the biographer's craft
Review: The Naifeh/White Smith biography of Jackson Pollock is extensively researched, and it's also (for what it's worth) fairly readable. But it's a pretty bad biography. The writers feel free to let their imaginations run riot, and indulge in weak psychobiographic speculation with little proof or justification, and they seem intent on "reading" Pollock's life as if it were a coherent and pre-written text (the most offensive example of this is at the end, when they seem to suggest Jackson's death, and his attendent criminally negligent killing of Edith Metzger, were somehow part of his artist's journey). I think a major artist like Pollock deserves a better and more responsible biography.
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