There aren’t many bands who would warrant this kind of approach, but given how much grunge and Pearl Jam dominated in the early-mid 90s, and given how political the band is, it made perfect sense, and it’s one of my favourite things about the book.
Cultural and socio-political landscape. 
So while it’s chronological it didn’t feel like your straightforward bio, as it chose to focus on specific moments and it often came at those events in a way that was refreshing, particularly in terms of how much it focussed on things outwith the immediate band, which leads me to:
Some of those events are specific concerts, albums (sometimes paired with political events of the time – such as Binaural with the 1999 Seattle protest), their attempt to take on Ticketmaster, the firing of drummer Dave, and so on.
The structure is built around some of the main events in the bands career, very much from a fan’s point of view. What’s refreshing about Not For You is it isn’t your regular biography: In one chapter, Givony mentioned his intense research process, saying he ended up “delirious, ranting about Ralph Nader.” I can believe it. I now know more about Pearl Jam than I ever thought I’d want to know I’ve watched numerous concerts of varying quality listened to/read transcripts of several Vedder rambles heard Alive, Even Flow, and Jeremy more times than is probably healthy in a short period watched bizarre animations, talk show snippets, and news reports on abortion clinics, only to emerge dishevelled, and as dazed as Vedder at the Grammy Awards mumbling “I don’t know what this means” before launching into a rendition of Black à la David Letterman (“Whyyyyy! Whyyyyy!”) while my husband rolls his eyes and regrets gifting me this book. I devoured it, simultaneously trying keep up (folly!) with the accompanying Playlist. This is how I came to be reading Ronen Givony’s Not For You : Pearl Jam and the Present Tense. Ronen Givony’s Not For You: Pearl Jam And The Present Tense The past two years have been a blur of obsession. I’d more or less abandoned them post-Vitalogy, so I had a lot of catching up to do. 
How could I forget how brilliant they are? How could I forget how stunning Vedder’s voice is? I casually thought, “Oh I haven’t listened to Pearl Jam for a while” and clicked. I was watching something on YouTube, happened to glance at the suggestions down the side, and there was Pearl Jam’s performance of Oceans from Unplugged. It’s been two years (“and counting”) since I fell down a Pearl Jam hole.
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