Customer Reviews

Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

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i read this book the summer Wojnarowicz died. I was living in New York City by myself, I was 18, and I had barely been out of Texas up until that time. This book made an indelible impression on me regarding what it is to be Queer in America. It is a beautifully written book, full of anger and wisdom. Every young person should read it.

David Wojnarowicz (pronounced "Wanna-row-its") was what used to be called a Renaissance Man. I use the past tense for two reasons: 1) he died before he could fulfill his potential, and 2) the very notion of a Renaissance, an artistic rebirth subsequently institutionalized, was both hateful to him and utterly appropriate. He wrote, painted, sculpted, took pictures, performed, sang in a band. He became famous, briefly, before his death, and knew a lot of famous people, from musicians to academicians, particularly in downtown NYC. With no training, he simply had a flair for creativity in general, turning the painful and difficult material of his life as an abused child, disadvantaged citizen, hustler, and person with AIDS into some of the most incisive, arresting, heartbreaking work. In _Close to the Knives_, Wojnarowicz does it just right: he tells it like it is, without sentimentalizing or self-pity, but gives his controversial subjects, including his unhappy sex life and the agonzing deaths of friends, a sublimity and meaningfulness that puts most other such memoirs in the shade. It's experimental while being accessible, angry while compassionate, explicit while gentle. A collection held tightly together by the force of Wojnarowicz's personality and talent, _Close to the Knives_ is all the more compelling for the promise it offered of its author's future, which has had its own sort of rebirth in the form of Wojnarowicz's enduring fame. It's simply one of my ten favorite books of all time: a book I'll continue to teach, and to read for its convulsive beauty, as long as I live

I first discovered Wojnarowicz in a "Village Voice" article in 1990. Everything about his work intrigued me. He had a passion for life, and a sort of well-placed fury that is invigorating without being negative and worked in almost every type of art medium possible. I did a Master's thesis on his works that include photography and writing in 1994.

I first picked up _Close to the Knives_ over 10 years ago and I've thumbed through it many times since. It's a combination of stories, essays, talks, and catalogue entries. The beginning is a bit difficult because there isn't a lot of punctuation. But the stories begin to slowly make sense, and get more grammatically correct. Throughout his writing wanders from being angry, scathingly funny, to erotic and back again.

I'd recommend him to anyone interested in gay/lesbian writing, outsider art, the history of AIDS and the anti-NEA battles in the early 90s. Apparently his estate is releasing more writings as time goes on, so I'm not up to date on everything available. But _Memories That Smell Like Gasoline_ is good, although depressing.

Books on his visual art are _Fever_ and _Tongues of Flame_ (both museum catalogues), and _Brush Fires in the Social Landscape_ (a book with essays by friends and great photos published by Aperture photography magazine). I can't easily describe his visual work, but he had a great visual style, a wonderful sense of composition. Early on he exhibited graffiti type paintings, and explored photography/writing more from the late 80s onwards. I like his photography the best, usually including his writing. He died of an AIDS-related illness July 22, 1992.

Enter the young male prostitute, performance artist, author, street monger, and angry prophet. He was all of these things and more until AIDS finally claimed him. But with Close to the Knives, he has left us all a very precious legacy--a frame of reference that begs us to truly witness the politics of suffering in American society and become more compassionate in the process. His omnivorous approach to our culture is dizzying, enraging, mysterious, beautiful, dangerous, heartbreaking, and very very necessary. When I finished reading it, I turned it over and started again. I will never be the same.....I have been galvanized.

Close to the Knives is David Wojnarowicz's masterpiece. He was an accomplished artist but I think this writing is where he really turned it out.

If any book deserves the title "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," it is David Wojanaorwicz's "Close to the Knives." A heartbreaking work of an amazingly talented man who could see the end of his short life approaching after finally seeing his life turning around. Staggering in the amazing prose control the writer has; moving between Burroughsian horror and Joycean steam of conciousness. A classic time piece of how America viewed AIDS victims, homeless, and those less fortunate than the true-believers of Reagan's America... Every highschool student should have to read this over a shallow, over rated piece like "Old Man in the Sea," (by a writer who cribbed everything in his style from the King James Bible). David's work is an amazing, in some places intentionally under, and other places intentionally over-written work which will make you laugh and break your heart from page to page. A rare and amazing American voice, taken from us far too soon.

CLOSE TO THE KNIVES is simply one of the most important books ever written by one of the most brilliant creative minds of the era. This is an AMAZING, STUNNING and thoroughly SUPERB collage of essays surrounding Mr. Wojnarowicz's battle with HIV, dealing with the politics and bureaucracy of the disease, justice, history, the ranking of lives as "important" and "unimportant" by the powers that be, and life in general. FIERCE, POETIC, and INSIGHTFUL these pieces compose a whole that packs an awesome whollop and is nothing short of GENIUS. This book lights fires and breaths fire with the energy of the words literally screaming from the page at points. CLOSE TO THE KNIVES is also sad proof of yet another life lost before it's time due to the AIDS pandemic. It is a call to action with a message that has not dimmed one iota since it's writing. More timely and pertinent than ever.

David Wojnarowicz reveals his backstory in layers, throughout the course of this essay collection. Eventually a complete picture is conjured, of Wojnarowicz' dysfunctional family, his youth on the streets, prostitution, and same-sex lust. His writing is very natural; alternating at first between his sexual and suicidal fantasies, before unleashing his wrath for the American politicians who are deliberately withholding information about AIDS from the public (a condition which Wojnarowicz himself is battling.) The information imparted here is shocking; the insidious influence of the church in American government is uncovered here lucidly, and David gets personal -- introducing one of his dearest friends who eventually dies from AIDS. His grief takes on a political significance, as he has lost many friends to the disease, and is aware that this suffering is unnecessary, and could have been prevented.

This book is very intense, and David Wojnarowicz' prose is potent and often original, but towards the end it starts to unravel. He begins using more experimental techniques, such as dream sequences, interviews, and motifs ("Smell the flowers while you can"), as well as alternating between two seperate narratives, which I found self-indulgent and wearisome. Maybe it was cathartic for him as a writer, but from the reader's point of view, tying together these seemingly (and perhaps actually) unrelated threads just ultimately wasn't worth the effort. After being seduced by Wojnarowicz' prose initially, the final impression left on me wasn't particularly positive, as the message had been hammered home quite well enough by then, and I had to force myself to get to the end.

Close to the Knives is an extremely explicit book on homosexual reations that include very violent behavior. It is about a man who is a prostitute and sells himself to make money. One should know before reading it that it is a pornagraphic book that pushes another life style on others.