It's a decent book in places, though proportionately very little is "about" The Smiths, the first two thirds are tedious - I don't mind reading about Morrissey's school days, but the detail about random pupils I simply don't care about is dull beyond belief. What should be background information is stretched out to be the bulk of the book.
The research is thorough in terms of presentation only, as it SEEMS thorough but drops off as soon as the interesting sections begin - that being the actual careers of Morrissey and Marr in the Smiths. Rogan was unable to penetrate that inner circle obviously.
I mentioned the presentation as thorough, but only because of the dubious substance: I do wonder how Rogan could describe what was in Morrissey's diary- for example, the allegation Morrissey wrote about Pakistanis having a foul aroma needs to be substantiated. The obvious suggestion is that he READ a diary Morrissey kept, but how? I don't see Morrissey's faithful mother handing over a childhood diary of her son to some anon scribe. And how he knew how Morrissey was feeling on a given day - this crops up over and over, his suppositions litter the book, and casts doubt even on what is factual.
It's about a 6/10. It was the first book about The Smiths, and not the best. It's readable and occasionally interesting, providing you have more than a pinch of salt at hand and are willing to wade through dry reams of text with only tenuous links to Morrissey or Marr. While I think Rogan has superb analytical skills, I think he had far less meat than the heft of the tome might suggest.
I refer to it as the Severe Dalliance, in my customarily poor attempt at humour.