Morrissey’s much awaited autobiography, “Autobiography,” published by Penguin Classics, appeared in bookstores today in the UK and Europe. It has not yet been published in the U.S.

The first reviews are in. In the English paper, The Telegraph, Neil McCormick writes:

“With typical pretension, Morrissey’s first book has been published as a Penguin Classic. It justifies such presentation with a beautifully measured prose style that combines a lilting, poetic turn of phrase and acute quality of observation, revelling in a kind of morbid glee at life’s injustice with arch, understated humour, a laughter that is a shadow away from depression or anger. As such, it is recognisably the voice of the most distinctive British pop lyricist of his era. It is certainly the best written musical autobiography since Bob Dylan’s Chronicles, and like that book it evokes a sense of what it must be like to dwell within such an extraordinary mind.”

Over at iJamming!, Tony Fletcher praises Morrissey’s writing ability. Fletcher says Morrissey’s description of his childhood has:

“…such vivid detail and such literary prowess that it competes amongst the very best writings on 1960s and 1970s Manchester.”

Over at Consequence Of Sound they’ve put together a list of all the most important revelations that are in book, based on what reviewers have written so far.

Here’s a few:

“Morrissey was upset to discover that The Smiths’ debut album was released in different configurations around the world (via Telegraph). He writes, ‘I vomit profusely when I discover that the album has been pressed in Japan with Sandie Shaw’s version of “Hand in Glove” included. I am so disgusted by this that I beg people to kill me.'”

And:

“Morrissey received a letter from Johnny Marr years after The Smiths’ broke up, which he reproduces in the book (via The Daily Beast): ‘I’ve only recently come to realize that you genuinely don’t know all the reasons for my leaving. To get into it would be horrible, but I will say that I honestly hated the sort of people we had become.'”

For more: Consequence Of Sound