''Then It Fell Apart'' is a 2019 memoir by American

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...

musician

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

. Moby had previously written a memoir called '' Porcelain: A Memoir'', published in 2016, which covered his life pre-fame. ''Then It Fell Apart'' covers the subsequent decade from 1999 to 2009 when Moby released the album '' Play'' to acclaim and success.

Synopsis

The memoir predominantly deals with Moby's life from 1999 to 2009 with some flashbacks to his early childhood. In particular, the memoir deals with his surprise at the accidental success of '' Play'', his descent into alcohol addiction, and his decision in 2007 to finally go to rehab in order to stay sober.

Controversies and inaccuracies

In his memoir, Moby detailed several flings he had had with famous women, notably including actress

Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...

among them. In his memoir, he claimed that they were together for several weeks in 1999 when she was 20 and he was 33. Portman subsequently denied that they had ever had a relationship, also pointing out that there were 16 years between them and that she was 18 in 1999. In an interview with ''

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'', Portman said "I was surprised to hear that he characterised the very short time that I knew him as dating because my recollection is a much older man being creepy with me when I just had graduated high school." In response, Moby repeatedly took to his

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

to re-assert that they had dated. He later publicly apologized to Portman on Instagram, writing, "I accept that given the dynamic of our almost 14 year age difference I absolutely should've acted more responsibly and respectfully when Natalie and I first met almost 20 years ago." On May 28, 2019, due to the backlash he had received, Moby cancelled the remainder of his book tour. Moby also revealed that in 2001, he rubbed his flaccid penis on

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

at a party after being dared to do so by his then-girlfriend. Details of this incident were later called into question by '' Vanity Fair'', who revealed that, based on Moby's own description of events, the incident most likely took place years later.

Reception

Kitty Empire writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called it "funny and often harrowing".

References

{{Moby 2019 non-fiction books American memoirs Books by Moby Show business memoirs Books about Christianity Memoirs about drugs Faber and Faber books Literature controversies Natalie Portman