Customer Reviews

Edie Factory Girl

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

it's difficult to assess in a literary manner a book about edie sedgwick, because like her life, all works about her come through as fragmented/torn in pieces/collage-type depictions. it's only because edie's life really was like such. i had the book for a week before i started to read it and associate the text with images. i think david dalton did an admirable job of capturing the nature of edie's lightning flash through life, in and out of warhol and dylan, icons of the era, because it was like that, david was a witness, as were the commentators in the book, including myself. the book layout is helter-skelter, and so was edie's life. love it or leave it, the book is a faithful impression. it's not for criticism, it's to have for a midnight snack before being unable to sleep. all in all i can say if you want a real taste of edie sedgewick in the mid-sixties, this is it. billy name.

Each page has a gorgeous full color photo or photos of Edie, some of which I have never seen before but most of them I have in other books. A lot of the color photos also appear in Nat Finkelstein's The Factory Years which gives a greater photographic over view of "the factory". The pages are thick and glossy and technicolored like a Warhol painting and the font, utilizing many different font sizes in one paragraph, can be a bit challeging to read. The text is primarily a rehash of snippets from George Plimptons Edie: An American Biography which is far superior in content and photos although all of the photos are black and white. Over all a nicely done tribute to a fascinating and tragic person but more of a photo album/coffee table book than a biography. A definite must for any Edie fan.

A friend got me this book as a gift. It is filled with very authentic and stylish photographs. The writing is frank and honest - and I'm sure for that fact alone, certain fans will be uncomfortable with this gritty portrait of Edie Sedgewick. Still, the images and text seem to capture a loss of innocence. The sense of psychadelic drug-enduced desperation is visceral - almost reminiscent of MIDNIGHT COWBOY. I have seen Nat Finkelstein's other books and would say that this is some of his best work. I'm not usually a fan of the coffee table genre, but this sizeable tome would do any Charles Eames bench proud.

I bought this book when it came out after seeing an ad for it on TV. The photos are cool and its a nice book to have laying around to page through. However, I am trying to get through the text of the book and its a hard read to get into, so far, it's either put me to sleep or I find I have to concentrate so hard on the text that it puts me back to reading my college text books. Its pretty grim and it uses alot of ambitious writing to get this point across. Its as if the author was trying to impress a professor or something when he put this together, as if he was trying TOO HARD. So, if you are looking for a light read, I really can't suggest this one, its over the top in my opinion. A coffee table book if you are into cool retro imagery or a huge Edie fan, try it, the photos are cool. I can see how Edie devotees are pissed off in what I have read so far, its more of a portrait of a monster than a tribute in my opinion, so if you are in this camp, just look at the pics, leave the text!

This book is actually somewhat of a rip-off. Many of the quotes are from the book "Edie", which most people who would buy this book have probably already read. Though most of the pictures are candids, they are unlear, dull and don't give you any impression of Edie whatsoever. They are almost like bad pictures you might find in your basement that you meant to throw out. I was very dissapointed in this book. It's clearly another bad cash-in on Edie's posthumous fame.

As I've stated in a few of my reviews, I'm a huge Edie Sedgwick fan, so any book with Edie in it will automatically be bought and poured over endlessly. Now, I wanted to like this book. I really, really did, but some of the text is off putting and only dampens the whole spirit of Edie. Most die-hard Edie fans know that there are two camps of people who had the privilege of knowing Edie and who are still alive and kicking. For what I'm sure are a myriad of reasons, both camps loathe each other. Not surprisingly, each camp released a book that was perfectly timed with the released of the Sienna Miller (unintentional) disaster flick "Factory Girl". Some of that distaste (or feud, if you will) comes through in this book which makes for an uncomfortable vibe. There's so few people who made it through that era alive that it's quite disappointing that they all can't just put their petty differences aside and quit the one-upmanship game.

Edie wasn't a figure to be wholly admired, but I don't think she was figure to be mocked or ridiculed either. She had her problems and she wasn't perfect. None of us are. She may very well have been a vapid little thing, but I don't think anyone who lived their life as unapologetically and open as she did should dismissed. In my opinion, that's what this book does. I don't think anyone who takes the time to write or at the very least contribute to a book about a person should dislike them. They should have some affection for the subject and that just doesn't come through here which leaves me wondering why the book was released to begin with. The pictures are fantastic, but as others have stated, they've been seen and released countless times before. Again, I wanted to like this book, but aside from a few rude and thoughtless comments and a few (and I mean a few!) unseen photos, this book doesn't have a whole lot to offer.

I knew nothing about Finkelstein until I bought this book. His photographs of Edie Sedgewick are so absent of shading truth that at first I was startled by what I saw. Before this book, I'd seen her only in images of black and white, which leave the mind open to interpretation.
Color forces you to see intriguing and harsh truths. I spent hours studying his shading and her facial pores. Yet one of the most striking photographs he took of Edie was in black and white when she had a lace shawl over her head. One can play around with black and white photos in the dark room. But in one photo in particular, he captured a death's-head. He writes in this book that he saw what was coming and purposely took the photos of her in the shawl that showed her in such a dark way. Whether that's so or not, he captured a young girl with death already there.
Everytime I came across a picture that startled me or made me look twice, it was taken by Finkelstein. In this book and the other book that came out right before the movie, "Factory Girl," (Weisman's "Edie, Girl on Fire,") Finkelstein's photographs captured me every time. He shows a girl who is tired and pounding on the make-up in an attempt to seem like she once was. His photographs show that she was already dead inside long before she actually died at age 28. Where was he when Jean Stein's book, "Edie," first appeared in...was it 1981?
As for Danny Fields, he's a raw gem that has contributed to our history in a great way that he seems to underestimate. Maybe the "feud" with Finkelstein is just a ruse. When you're dealing with people from Warhol's orbit who are still floating around out there....You never know for sure.

How anyone could produce a photo book on Edie Sedgwick and manage to make it this dull is beyond me. Graphically, it's an eyesore--the too-small font, which appears in a myriad of colors and sizes, is difficult to read at least half the time, and the photos--far from capturing Edie at her peak as the product description reads, are largely unflattering, showing a tired and pasty looking girl in rumpled babydoll nighties-- devoid of the energy that made her so enchanting-- A falling star is depicted, rather than a rising one.

Her "peak" had undoubtedly already passed, in '64-65, and photos of her from that time are vibrant, vivid and inspiring. Although great photos of Edie continued to be taken (most famously from the original "Ciao! Manhattan" shoot), by '66-'67, the damage she was doing to herself was beginning to show.

In her best photos, she is alive, awake, alert and uniquely responsive to those around her. These photos, although some are undoubtedly good, are largely culled from only a few sessions, many showing her in a twilight haze that quite frankly is depressing, seldom looking at anyone, unfocused, daydreaming into space or looking down, not interacting with, but removed from her environment, forever applying makeup and seemingly lost in her own world. Lost she may have been, but she left a better photographic legacy than this. The Edie: Girl on Fire book comes considerably closer to catching some of her lightning in a bottle, is a better read, and infinitely more of a feel-good affair.

I don't know why there are a bunch of odd folks trying to convince people not to buy this book.
They must have there own agenda.
I am a long time Edie fan, and have several books about her, and this is by far the best photo book of her.
Billy Name was there and I would think he would know what he's talking about when he approves of this book.
It's beautiful...

Nice looking Edie book with rare interviews & photos. Unfortunately, seems to concentrate a lot on the negative aspects about Edie & her life. Better off buying a copy on Edie:Girl on Fire!