On Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson was once universally acclaimed as a song-and-dance man of genius; Wacko Jacko is now, more often than not, dismissed for his bizarre race and gender transformations and confounding antics, even as he is commonly reviled for the child molestation charges twice brought against him. Whence the weirdness and alleged criminality? How to account for Michael Jackson's rise and fall? In On Michael Jackson--an at once passionate, incisive, and bracing work of cultural analysis--Pulitzer Prize--winning critic for The New York Times Margo Jefferson brilliantly unravels the complexities…