Customer Reviews

Chelsea Girls

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eileen Myles has an incredible gift for nailing down a moment, or for that matter, a sweep of years. Each image is carefully chosen and tacked into place, and what rises is the edifice of a life. The metaphor is probably too static. Myles's prose is exhilarating even at its bleakest, it's full of breathless speed. There's plenty that is bleak here--a sad alcoholic father who dies before his daugher's eyes; an awful, floundering gang-rape; poverty, drugs, booze, ambition thwarted and bitterly fulfilled. It's the great American sadness, and it would be unbearable if Myles didn't write with such wit, elegance, and an utter lack of self-pity. The writer that comes to mind is Henry Miller, but a Henry Miller who didn't hate women.

This book is a series of stories about the author's interesting East-Village life. The stories are NOT told in chronalogical
order, but somehow seem to flow together seamlessly.
From her small, working-class town childhood in Massachusetts, to her wild teen years, to multiple rapes, [bad] summer jobs, struggling NYC artists, drug addiction, and un-healthy lesbian relationships.... Myles covers all subjects.
This book reads quickly, and is of particular interest to any young artist in NYC (or any major city.)
Oh. And, by the way, the hardcover edition is absolutely beautiful - bound in cloth and in wonderful autumn colors!