David Bowie and the triumph, mystery and struggle of his third act

Word In Your Ear · Feb 3, 2026 · 39m

Bowie’s early years have been scrutinised repeatedly but people tend to speed through the last act, from the early ‘90s to his death in 2016. Alexander Larman’s ‘Lazarus: The Second Coming Of David Bowie’ looks at his resurrection and the mystery of his final days in Manhattan in attractively honest detail, a book that’s as fondly critical of his artistic decisions as it’s celebratory. Under discussion here … … ‘David Bowie was a fictional invention and much of his life an act’ … how wrong so many album reviews turned out to be … “he liked to be liked and he put a lot of effort into being…