Jermaine still looking out for his baby brother

Approached this book with a fair amount of scepticism. After all, I reasoned, Michael Jackson's brother could hardly be expected to be unbiased when it came to discussing the more controversial aspects of the King of Pop's life.

And although I thoroughly enjoyed reading about his early life in Gary, Indiana, and was pleasantly surprised by Jermaine's straightforward approach when discussing Michael's plastic surgery and the child-sex charges, drug addictions, and failed marriages that plagued him later, deep down I couldn't help feeling he was doing what he had always done: looking out for his brother.

Few people knew Michael better than Jermaine did during the first half of his life, but he had surprisingly little contact with his baby brother over the last 25 years.

It wasn't Jermaine's choice. He tried hard to keep in touch, but Michael, for whatever reason, chose to keep his family at arm's length.

Therefore, his comments about Michael's later years are often not based on first-hand experience. He simply was not around his brother enough at that time to be certain what went on.

The early years are a different matter. The chapters focusing on their childhood and rise to stardom are full of great stories that only a family member could know.

Jermaine also offers a fascinating insight into Michael's last days when he was rehearsing for the tour that would never take place and helps to make sense of the conflicting reports about Jackson's health at that time, some of which said he was fit and healthy and some of which said he looked like death warmed up.

Apparently, both are true. Michael was in good physical shape at the start of rehearsals but then declined rapidly as the concert dates approached, only to suddenly recover again almost overnight. It was during this late revival that most of the rehearsal footage for the documentary This Is It was filmed.

This chapter and the ones dealing with the Jacksons' formative years are the book's great strengths. As for a definitive account of the last part of Michael Jackson's life, I'm still waiting.

 - Geoffrey Barnett is a Dunedin journalist.