Marvin Gaye, My Brother

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunately this is the Homogenized version!
Review: This book was a major disappointment and filled with half-truths and "cleaned up" versions of Marvin's Life. Yes this was written
by Frankie Gaye, brother of Marvin but his view is clouded, in an attempt to clean up embarrassing details in his family. For instance; his mother is quoted as saying her husband never loved Marvin and told her so, she also says her husband was a cross-dresser and wore her gowns, panties, and hose. Which is reiterated by Marvin. But Frankie in a couple of sentences says his father never cross-dressed and loved Marvin dearly and moves on. He claims David Ritz (author of Marvin's first Biography) only met Marvin briefly one day overseas, and that Marvin didnt open up or discuss much, but yet Ritz puts out his 1985 book filled with Marvin quotes and stories, including interviews from family and friends. Frankie also dedicates a whole chapter to Marvin's letters that were written to him while he was serving in Vietnam. Yet he was quoted as saying in the early 80's that he was so hurt that Marvin never wrote him back while he was in vietnam leaving his fellow soldiers to believe he was lying about Marvin being his brother. Marvin left Washington D.C. for Detroit and only wanted to keep in contact with his mother. But his father, brothers ,and sisters remained in her house for years and they kind of came with the territory. He deliberately kept his real family away as he started over again with the powerful Gordy family. He claimed them as the family he always wanted. Even the pictures in Frankie's book are skimpy and reprints of what we have already seen. Marvin makes very little mention of Frankie in interviews and claims Smokey and Harvey Fuqua as dear friends. Frankie means well in his book and wants to take the dark cloud from over his family's head, but the truth in the matter is Marvin's career and rocky life was not witness by Frankie firsthand. Although he knows Marvin better than we the fans know, he doesnt know him nearly as well as Motown, his women, and his dealers did.