Customer Reviews

What We Do Is Secret

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Sexy, exciting, enchanting, and sad, this is everything one could ask for in a book. The emotions are genuine and the lyrical, poetry-like writing is incredible. You'll grow to love Rockets as well as the other well-developed characters. Kief's portrait of the LA punks scene in the early '80s is authentic and fascinating, with great refrences to X, Fear, Circle Jerks, and of course The Germs (and many others). Darby Crash looms other the novel as a fascinating figure that you love and hate and idolize at the same time. But as the opening states, this really is Rockets' novel.

A fresh work that's sexy and intimate, funny and wise. Its vocabulary is one unusual for this reader, but its idiom is a cousin to Salinger and the movie American Grafitti. Super-vivid in language and circumstance, the central character's journey sheds light on a "darker" side of our culture while breezily including the reader, trusting us, and investing in us a hipness and understanding that makes the piece all that more personal and satisfying. Get this book, and "let Rockets drive."

This is such a dazzling literary performance it ought to come with shades. Quite a recommendation when you consider it's all set on one night after the sun goes down. Thorn Kief Hillsbery is a writer in the tradition of Rimbaud, Joyce, and Jean Genet, with a dash of Patti Smith thrown in for good measure. Don't suppose you need to know or care about punk rock or punk rockers to appreciate this book. Rich in language and original in every detail, it takes you places you'll never forget, faster than you can say "Rockets."

Excellent snapshot of life in Los Angeles during the early years of LA's punk scene. Wonderful imagery and poigniant prose abound. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you enjoy books on the early punk scene or LA in general, you will enjoy this book. I'm off to find a copy of his book War Boy.....

...poetic, but in the most tedious way. I am at a loss...found the story to be compelling, but did not enjoy the writing style at all. it wasn't even what I would consider to be "challenging", but more of a distraction to what the author was conveying. needless

Horrible. This book is nothing but nonsensical babble. It's like the writer creates a whole new language that's tough to decipher and understand.