(St. Martin’s Press) www.stmartins.com

From a vantage point almost 20 years on, it’s hard to believe that Guns N’ Roses were once the biggest band in the world, and even harder—given the caricature of a cartoon of a stereotype of a rock star that Axl Rose has become, not to mention the endless delays in the release of Chinese Democracy—that there was a time when the band deserved it. All of which makes a book about Axl Rose seem a bit anachronistic, but for anyone who still cares, Mick Wall’s bio mostly delivers the goods.

While much has already been written about Rose’s abusive childhood, Wall connects the dots to his adult behavior in a way that creates a portrait of the singer that’s sympathetic without being sycophantic. Nor does Wall let the fact that Axl called him out in “Get in the Ring” cloud his ability to recognize and convey what made Rose and his band so great in the first place. And if the last quarter of the book seems repetitive, it’s not Wall’s fault the extent of Rose’s activities for the last ten years has promises of release dates and concerts followed by cancellations. Then again, maybe this is a book that should only have been written when and if Chinese Democracy becomes more than just a punchline. ERIC SCHUMACHER-RASMUSSEN