Though Peter Hook wasn’t the lead singer in Joy Division or New Order, the bands he’s best known for, he was undoubtedly the most vocal personality in both. So it’s surprising that the outspoken, no-bullshit bassist wrote a book about his time in Joy Division—1976 to 1980—that largely feels tame. There are compelling things about Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division, but Hook deflates the story of a band whose legend has grown into dark, depressive myth, turning it into the story of four Manchester lads who liked punk rock, practical jokes, and fighting. Perhaps that was Hook’s intention, to demystify the group—and particularly singer Ian Curtis, who ensured his own dark legacy by hanging himself on the eve of the band’s first American tour.
