The Pleasures of Death: Kurt Cobain's Masochistic and Melancholic Persona. By Saint‐Aubin, Arthur Flannigan, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020. 300 pp. $50.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978‐0‐80‐717349‐7

Thirty-one years have passed since the death of the iconic frontman of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, yet the worldwide popularity of his music, lyrics, and persona has not diminished. The Pleasures of Death: Kurt Cobain's Masochistic and Melancholic Persona by Arthur Flannigan Saint-Aubin is the first sustained academic analysis to consider the writings of Cobain, both his journals and Nirvana lyrics, as literary texts rather than personal confessional ones. Abandoning a biographical style, Saint-Aubin contextualizes the creative output of Cobain in the context of cultural theory, psychoanalytic aesthetics, and postmodern representations of masculinity. These approaches led to a thoroughly researched book on the artistry of Cobain and the cultural connotation of grunge. Saint-Aubin points out that Cobain consciously creates a persona of a white heterosexual male absorbing pain from society and channeling this humiliation towards creative destruction that would act as redemption. Presenting Cobain in a new avatar, the author showcases how the artistry of Cobain challenges mainstream representations of masculinity through self-destruction. Transgressing the traditional understanding of manhood, Cobain's conceptualization of masculinity incorporates feminized versions challenging common identity and stereotypes. Readers can enjoy a side of Cobain who is not just a leader of “Generation X” but also a compassionate soul who is questioning insensitive cultural taboos related to gender and sexuality. The money shot of The Pleasures of Death is the methodical choice to relate Cobain's writings as literature instead of the straightforward echo relating to the personal lifestyle of the rocker. Although the biographies and documentaries have always attempted to ascribe the artistry of Cobain to some form of trauma, addiction, or fame, Saint-Aubin argues that the works can exist independently as cultural artifacts. Cobain, in this aspect, can be read with the postmodern masculinity staged in twentieth-century American fiction, as well as with the nineteenth-century Romantic traditions that entangle melancholy, creativity, and death. Such literary contextualization assists in shifting Cobain's writing above its subcultural context so that the reader can view the lyrics of Nirvana and the journals of Cobain as subjects within historic and aesthetic discussions. The book also contributes much to theoretical discussions. Based on feminist, queer, and antiracist perspectives of psychoanalysis, Saint-Aubin interprets the writings of Cobain and employs them to reveal tensions within the psychoanalytical theory itself. Masochism, melancholy, and the death drive, which are frequently introduced as universal phenomena, are revealed to be bound to race and gender. When faced with alternative performances of masculinity, Cobain and his interest in the disintegration of bodies and masochistic pleasure, Saint-Aubin's argument reveals the instability of the categories of psychoanalysis. In that sense, the book sheds insights on the limitations of psychoanalytic aesthetics as a cultural theory. The discussion of the cultural politics of Cobain in the book certainly opens up new horizons for the study of grunge. Framing grunge as not just a musical subculture but also a literary genre and cultural practice, Saint-Aubin demonstrates the way in which the art of Cobain questioned race and gender. Cobain's self-conscious rejection of hypermasculinity is open to queer interpretations and projects several racial inequalities prevalent in American culture. Cobain's new avatar created by the author promotes the concept of alternative identity. Exclusion of several life narratives of Cobain might not tick for some Cobain fans, yet Saint-Aubin handles this limitation with insightful views on Cobain's artistry, which separates the rockstar persona from that of an artist dedicated to self-destruction for the sake of creativity. The Pleasures of Death is definitely not a hagiographical account of Cobain. Covering several areas such as death, race, culture, and sexuality, it tries to bring a new dimension to the study of Kurt Cobain and his work. Questioning several age-old perspectives of identity and culture in the background of psychoanalytic aestheticism, this book highlights the significance of Kurt Cobain's creation.