What We Do Is Secret (Paperback)

~ (Author) "This is supposed to be about Darby Crash, but I don't think it's going to be..." (more)
Key Phrases: hell fuckin, most defiantly, dog groomer, Animal Cracker, Thorn Kicf, Oki Dog (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* "This is supposed to be about Darby Crash," Rockets tells us at the outset, but most of the secrets the homeless, 13-year-old street kid shares are not about the leader of the formative L.A. punk band the Germs but about himself, instead. In his jittery, oddly addictive, street-smart, pun-spurting, stream-of-consciousness style, he tells us about a single night in the life two months after his sometime lover, Darby, has committed suicide. The beautifully realized setting of this semiautobiographical novel is Hollywood in 1980, when punk has captured the attention and imagination of a crazy coterie of Southern California kids. But punk, Rockets explains, isn't a style; it's a way of life that, in his case, is lived on "home street home." And, for an abandoned-at-birth child of drug addicts, it's an identity. After all, Rockets was one of Darby's boys. But who is he now, and, if he survives this drug-riddled night of hustling, narrow escapes, frenetic music, and death, who might he become? And where will he find love? Like his first novel, War Boy (2000), Hilsbery's second is a hauntingly up-close-and--personal look at the hellish life of a troubled, baffled, different kind of kid for whom many readers will come to care enormously. Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Description

“Why am I a punk? Because I wasn’t anything before, except different. And now it’s like I’m different, but with a vengeance.”

It’s been months since the suicide of Darby Crash, L.A. punk rock icon and lead singer of the Germs. He checked out on the same day John Lennon was shot: December 8, 1980. But for Rockets Redglare, it feels like yesterday. Darby was the hot-as-sun center of Rockets’s world. Part ringleader, part god, and all charismatic manipulator, Darby was as close to family as a hustler and street kid like Rockets might ever get.

Now, as Rockets amps up for another night looking for tricks and scrounging a meal, Sex Pistols and X lyrics on repeat in his head, he knows he’s come to a turning point–the scene is changing, and nothing’s as easy as it was when Darby brought him into the fold.

From the underground clubs to the back of the giant “H” in the Hollywood sign, Rockets and his crew of friends spend the night burning bridges, building new ones, tripping and talking and searching for answers. As the dark gives way to early morning, the punks and the cops engage in their ritual standoff–and Rockets faces the ultimate choice: Should he stay or should he go?

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Villard (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812973097
• ISBN-13: 978-0812973099
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #318,274 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Speechless...but I'll do my best., April 14, 2006

By	D. Elliot "Abolish the A.o.C." (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kief Hillsbery is a god. Ok, so clearly I'm star-struck. But, if you've read his first book, `War Boy', then you are already aware of his genius and will not be surprised that this latest book has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award (results due out 13 May).

Like all significant works of fiction, `What we do is secret' is not concerned with a `plot' per se - instead, the stimulation comes from a symbiosis between the individual characters and the breathtakingly original prose. Rocket is a young teenage punk with a compelling mix of naivety and world-weariness. In a sense, he's seen it all...at least regarding the darker side of human nature - abandoned by drug addict parents, homeless, he turns tricks in Hollywood to make cash. Haunted by the death of his mentor, Darby Crash, the punk god who committed suicide a year previously, Rocket is unsure where he stands in relation to the world. Long since integrated into a life of punk culture and hustling, in `What we do is secret' he tests his boundaries as regards sex, relationships, drugs, the ability to trust, and the deeper conundrum of whether to live or die.

It is impossible to categorise this work, since its originality demands that readers must experience it for themselves. Indeed, this is not a book that can be passively read, but is rather a work of art which with which the reader must actively engage. The prose is immersed in a scintillating rhythm. Reading this work is almost like being on an acid trip - where your brain is so liberated that individual words can spark off connotations and associations which you just `get' without them having to be vocalised. By way of (admittedly a fairly extreme) example:

"Where priest is priest and West is West and never the Twain shall trick or treat, not whore's truly, Brooklyn-born with father dead, brother a father with God in his head, he flies me out and flows me in, but reading for pleasure's a (chortle) sin."

Reading `What we do is secret' in some ways resembles living life: it can be exhilarating, frustrating, passionate, confusing, surprising, disturbing, erotic, dark, intense and incredibly poignant. You will be ruminating about it for a long time afterwards. The only downside to experiencing a Kief Hillsbery book is the realisation, once you've finished, that you have to wait (and as Rocket would say, "waiting is basically wanting") for the publication of another masterpiece from this author.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art-Full, January 25, 2006

By	Benoit Lamy (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

I was drawn to this book by the cover photograph that you will also see in the Beautiful Losers exhibition and book. And like the artists and photographers of Beautiful Losers, Thorn Hillsbery is the real thing in this time of fakes like J.T. Leroy. The adventures of Rockets on one night in the Los Angeles punk world of bands like the Germs and X and TSOL are told in the voice of a street kid who knows the streets and the street life but is brave enough and smart enough to choose creation over destruction. This, I think, must be the author's story, and many real-life people are included. It is written in a way that grabs you and shakes you and never completely lets you go. Just like the best punk rock and the best street art. Don't miss this.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow... just... wow., January 12, 2006

By	Natacon "Natacon" (North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews

I recently picked this book up while just browsing through a store. At first, I was kind of unsure about the book. The wording is certainly different from what you'd expect, but after the first 50 pages, the book gets going. I recommend it for anyone who has just a little bit of patience. Once it starts, you'll quickly fall for Rockets' way of wording the book.