Withdrawn Traces

A Journey in the Mind of an ill, Sensitive Soul

This was an interesting and engaging read that attempts to analyze the life of Richey Edwards, the rhythm guitarist of the Manic Street Preachers who disappeared without ever being found on the eve of the band’s US Tour, by looking at the man’s life from birth to disappearance and then extracting from that data possible clues that might be able to shed light or even find him.

As a lover of music and one who loves a mystery, I found this book to be a fascinating portrait of a man who was extremely sensitive, yet had an amazing sense of humor but also had an occult like curiosity of the darkness of life.

While I enjoyed the read, I noted a few typos (sill should have been still for example somewhere between pp350-410.

I also had issues with the conspiracy theories. The problem with conspiracy theories is that they do not bring one closer to the solution. Moreover, too many other obvious conspiracies were not discussed:

If you’re going to suggest that the band could have potentially been the blame, why not also suggest that the family could have been in on the conspiracy? Or his significant other Jo? Or the writer of this book? Or Me for example? Or anybody?

The other problem is that Anybody when you accept the conspiracy angle, would have a motive for Richey disappearing.

I did appreciate on the other hand how the incompetent investigation was revealed. Why the banks along the Severin weren’t scoured shortly after his disappearance was evident is to me tragic. Why the leads were not more carefully followed will ALWAYS be concerning!

I also wonder about the man who saw someone on the bridge on February 1. Why wasn’t that more written about and investigated. Lastly, the image of a person on the bridge: is that footage available??!

What we do know, is that he was a mentally ill man who the band naively wanted to believe was fit to tour Europe just days after being removed from Priory.

We also know that after that tour, he must’ve become more ill due to his sensitive, obviously introverted and introspective personality being exposed to extreme extroverted conditions (tours, interviews, attention). Add to that the the tragedies of a man who lost his snoopy, his aunt, and his girl (Jo), we see a person on the verge of a major collapse. We can easily see how on the eve of the band traveling to the US, he had no energy left in him to process the extreme outward attention that he’s exposed to. Given his need for a lot of alone time, the tour to noisy USA would have been painful enough for him to prefer death over continuing on as a performer.

We also see a man who couldn’t accept adulthood and was potentially hearing voices. Returning to home and symbolically the Severin Bridge, I think odds are he killed himself jumping off the bridge.

I think his body never being found was an incredible gift to him by fate. In a sense, reading this book gave me a peace that his never being found was perhaps the perfect blessing.