TT News Agency/Reuters Morrissey at a recent book-signing event in Sweden.

This week: a paper trail into the heart of Morrissey.

“Autobiography” is the 457-page life story of Morrissey, former singer for the Smiths, once and future hero for the misunderstood. It was rumored, scheduled, canceled, rescheduled, guessed to be a hoax; finally it appeared last week, published in England by Penguin Classics. (Ask an English friend to send you one.) It’s a mixture of slightly-above-the-ground metaphorical character sketches and bottom-line arguments for what he’s worth. And it amplifies some of his contradictions: preoccupied with art and manners but also business-minded; sympathetic to the powerless but spiteful toward those who disappoint him morally or visually; poetic but long-winded.

Jessica Winter, a senior editor at Slate, and Ben Ratliff of The Times, two of the few North Americans who took the unusual measure of reviewing it before its eventual publication here — talk about the book’s strengths and weaknesses, what Morrissey’s general project as a cultural force was and has become, and to what degree “Autobiography” resembles some of the many other pop-star memoirs of the last decade.

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Jessica Winter on Morrissey’s “Autobiography.”

Ben Ratliff on Morrissey’s “Autobiography.”

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

Tracks by artists discussed this week. (Spotify users can also find it here.)