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Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed

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Joe Andoe must be fifteen years younger than the artists and poets I'm most familiar with who hailed from Tulsa--the WHITE DOVE REVIEW crew of Joe Brainard, Dick Gallup, Ron Padgett. His book JUBILEE CITY rivals the memoirs of Brainard (I REMEMBER) and Padgett (OKLAHOMA TOUGH, MY FATHER KING OF THE TULSA BOOTLEGGERS) as far as getting the lowdown on one of America's most exciting, durable, and dreamlike city-states. When I picked up this book, out of curiosity towards all things Tulsa, I had never heard of the painter Joe Andoe, and now that I've read it I realize he's one of the most famous artists of the world and he's shown all over the known universe. Somehow he flew under my radar but perhaps I have my head in the clouds or buried in the sand like a West Coast ostrich, what do I know? In any case Joe's childhood was like a real-life version of JT Leroy books, except for one stabliizing factor, his father was a real man's man who didn't say very much but Joe always knew that, no matter how many juvenile shenanigans young Joe got his sorry butt into, there was always going to be one man who had his back, his dad.

The saddest part of the book was when Andoe Sr., a relatively young man, had a heart attack and Joe had to bundle him into the car and drive him to the hospital, simultaneously talking him alive, keeping him going. But I think Mr. Andoe didn't want to stay alive not smoking, having to watch his diet, living as "half a man," and so, it wasn't long before they were carrying him back to his Maker.

Joe's interest in art went into high gear when he found out that his chichi society drawing teacher could sell a drawing or a watercolor for 900 dollars--900, as much as the car Joe was driving cost. "He looked like veal to me, all soft and white." And Joe was skeptical of the teacher's talents, thinking to himself, if his s**t flies, then mine will too. At college he learned about men like Robert Smithson, Dennis Oppenheim, other hipsters like himself, but as he says, it wasn't until he saw one of Warhol's pink Marilyns that art got its hook into him once and for all. The teacher told him he should have more humility but Joe just looks at him sideways and says, "I don't know what that word means--is it like humid?"

He had to deal with rapacious and uncaring dealers who tried dicking him every which way from Sunday, and he wound up with a Smith College alumna girlfriend in NYC who, addicted to heroin, had him breaking into his own kids' piggy banks for nickels and dimes. His brushes with the law were frequent and outrageous, and if you read THE BASKETBALL DIARIES or seen the movie with Leo Di Caprio you will agree with me by admitting that Joe Andoe was the baddest boy in many moon,s but he never lost his soul and he never lost heart. His story further proves the continuing vitality of Tulsa and Tulsans, who include also Garth Brooks, Leon Russell, Gene Autry, and David BREAD Gates in music and, in other fields, Jennifer Jones, John Hope Franklin, Sammy Sosa, Larry Clark, Alfre Woodard, S. E. Hinton who wrote THE OUTSIDERS, and Wes Studi. What do these folks all have in common? They're tough and they're cool, ubercool.

Reading Joe Andoe's memoir is like walking through a collection of his paintings. Sublime, sensual and haunting. His words reach right into your soul as do his paintings.Unlocking ghosts of distant memories.For anyone who has lived outside the box ,or for that matter looked inside and not quite know how to fit in there is comfort in knowing you are not alone. Loved it.

My son is incarcerated and I sent this book to his cell mate who is an aspiring artist. He loved it. He has talent and someday, maybe, we will all be buying JP Kennedy's!
Thank for sharing the story-you never know who'll you will be inspiring to stay straight and focused.

It starts out simple- like some Little Rascals' hold over- HILARIOUS.
But then all of a sudden the story takes a turn and the mood plummets; there's a true depth of feeling that Joe takes with this book because there are really funny and amusing ups but when he can hit those low gritty notes too- it makes you wonder if I should have been getting drunk and stoned and driving really fast down back roads to old strip mines and skinny dipping with drunk girls with sun bleached denim cut-offs and collecting on some of those 'life stories' ... rather than going to those writing workshops.

True feeling: look out for the story BABY NEEDS SHOES- and once you read past that chapter you'll see the book is like a really good Fellini film where your favorite characters are both honestly terrible and deceptively holy- they can be the worst people you could imagine and yet! they're so animated and they're so believable- everyone's really good and everyone's really hungry at the same time.

It's a really tight read and I finished it in one day.

So, world-renowned (and successful--which isn't so easy to pull off) artist Joe Andoe has written his memoir. Why do you care? Because Joe grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma - an unlikely breeding ground for an artist. Because Joe grew up misbehaving in all sorts of ways, had more close calls with the law and death than he can count, until he finally moved to New York City to make his name and to find his fame. Joe's voice, as a writer, is like an undertow -- before you know it, you're miles off shore, completely sucked into his world of all-encompassing love (for his children, his painting) and lust (for women, alcohol), as he paints and parents his way to recovery and redemption. The life presented here is one lived on Joe's terms, with sparkling moments of bigheartedness, crazy humor, and poignant regret. I was entranced by his bad boy youth in Oklahoma, full of muscle cars and dewy teenage girls, the insider details of the world of art galleries and agents, and most of all by how he sorted out all his inner demons and rebuilt connections with his family, friends, children.

JUBILEE CITY is one of the most moving and unusual memoirs I've ever read. It's snapshots from an artist's life that are often funny and heartbreaking all at once. They are always moving, and often universal experiences. Andoe has a fresh and unique way of expressing himself. I loved this book and found myself reading stories from it over and over again.