Neverland Lost: A Portrait of Michael Jackson [ハードカバー]

This is a beautiful picture book of extremely close-up photos of Michael's items- many of them pieces of his clothing. The famous "gold pants" and the gold "onesie" are even included.

I loved looking at the construction of these iconic costumes- makeup stains and all. All I could think of was that these held his wonderful, rhythmic body and I thought of all the performances I watched on YouTube of him performing in them.

It was also very sad to see items wrapped and taped to be removed from the house. Neverland was Michael's dream home. A place where he could have the fun he never got to have as a child. A place where inner city kids and children with terminal illnesses, could have one day of fun- even when he wasn't there.

IMO, it is a shame that the DA, Tom Sneddon, and his seventy some officers desecrated it. I think the term "overkill" could apply here. Their ransacking of Michael's home made it a place to which Michael vowed never to return- and he never did. His dreams had been shattered.

This book allows us to see the magic that was Michael Jackson. He is now finally free of the non-stop media/tabloid bashing. It is a scary world in which a human being could be so methodically and sytematically set upon to be destroyed as Michael Jackson was. I'm surprised he survived as long as he did and that he still ws able to keep his loving and giving heart. As Maya Angelou wrote, "We had him. And we are the world." Too bad we didn't take care of him.

I'm not sure what I had hoped to find in this book...maybe I thought it would finally show the world the "essence" of Michael - what made him tick, so to speak. Maybe I hoped for stories about the items, like who made them, or when he obtained them. There have been so many books recently published about Michael that one has to admit he affected THE WORLD in many ways, whether they listened to his music or not. Once and for all, I hoped it would be positive attention for the man that gave us so much.

This picture book opens our eyes to a few of the items the photographer had access to during his initial assignment to photograph the iconic white glove for which Michael Jackson was so well known. During his first visit, Leutwyler saw a "story" aching to be told. Although he waited years to tell that tale, he did a fair job of it in these pages.

Published with no dialogue, save the Epilogue on the last two pages, Leutwyler shows us the detail that went into Michael's costumes and gloves. He shows us a few of the pieces of simple art and magnificent jewelry that Michael owned -- and the care that went into each piece is evident in the crystal clear photographs. Some of the costumes show wear or makeup and that allows us to see Michael as more than a musical genius, more than an icon, more than a humanitarian. Perhaps, he would not personally have chosen these items for this book, but he was willing to part with them at auction someday (which means he was willing to allow us to see them in this state of disrepair at some point).

The child-like quality of some of the items lets us see into Michael's heart and how much he yearned for a more complete childhood than he had...remember, he worked on stage since the age of 5! Looking at his collection of Wizard of Oz characters and his dog-eared copy of Peter Pan, we see the tenderness his heart possessed. Viewing the actual gold pants and the glittered shoes, we are able to remember the moments we first saw him wear them, which takes us back to the days when he could do no wrong.

The throne and crown were definitely befitting a king; there will never be another King of Pop...and really, who could ever overcome this man's giant footprint on our culture? Michael Jackson was one of a kind, as many of the items in this book reveals. He had an eclectic taste that spanned all genres, all cultures, all ages, and strove to sustain them in his home - far from the maddening glare of the world's attention.

When Sneddon destroyed Jackson's blissful peace at Neverland, he took more than a house from Michael; he took a large amount of joy from him that could never be replaced. Joy that Michael had created to restore himself after tours and personal appearances; joy that Michael had provided for countless underprivileged children through visits to Neverland; joy that showed his goodwill to others even when they had not shown him kindness. After Sneddon was finished, the home was only a shell - a place that had been mercilessly ransacked and had issued -- nothing but innocence. That joyful peace was taken from him, as so much else was taken during the years through virulent media presentation. And yet, Michael still believed he could somehow Heal our World up to his last day.

Yes, he was rich; yes, he was famous; yes, he traveled the world freely; yes, he had the adoration of millions of people everywhere. But what made him happy? Perhaps, these trinkets tell a part of that story. After all, who among us does not collect something in our lifetimes? What would our books of prized possessions contain? This book makes you "think".

We can never know what might have been, but we can look back at the things that once gave him a smile. Maybe I did find what I was looking for when I bought this book -- a small peek into Michael's "happiness" wish list. Inanimate objects cannot lie about you or cheat you, and sometimes they can provide great comfort in times of stress...and we know Michael was given a lot of stress during his lifetime! As I looked through this book many times, I found something new with each viewing.

Neverland Lost does not show us ALL that was Michael Jackson, and there are no stories inside...but it shows us something many people forgot in his later years...that this famous, mesmerizing personality was human.

Inanimate objects - gilded, spangled, autographed, stained - provide insights into the man missing from every picture. Lush yet stark images mirror the complexity of their owner. There is an occasional glimpse of a larger story, such as packing crates in the background or makeup on a collar. But most photos are of a single, unadorned object and viewers must remember, deduce or imagine the context. A tour de force.