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Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration Paperback – May 7, 1991

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David Wojnarowicz (Author)
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David Wojnarowicz (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 14 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; First Edition edition (May 7, 1991)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679732276
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679732273
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsSimply the best, most beautiful memoir about AIDS.
By A Customer on November 14, 1996
Format: Paperback
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
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5.0 out of 5 starsChanged my life
By Tex Clark on April 21, 1998
Format: Paperback
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.
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5.0 out of 5 starsOne of my favorite artists
By Ehringer on July 20, 2002
Format: Paperback
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.
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5.0 out of 5 starsThis Mortal Coil
By CRC on November 16, 2001
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
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.
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4.0 out of 5 starsForever Walking Hallways
By David Wineberg TOP 500 REVIEWER on May 23, 2014
Format: Paperback
David Wojnarowicz had the microscopic observations of a child. His descriptions were extraordinarily finely detailed and nuanced. But they were direct and stark too. His insights were fascinating. His narrative didn’t so much flow, as roll like a boulder. This is sharp, even piercing writing from a totally off kilter perspective. Most of us do not see life this way.

His world was peopled with damaged friends. He said everyone he knew came from a family of abusive parents, not least his own. His friends were all on the edge, leading fringe lives in which they all psychoanalyzed each other and the country at large from painful perspectives. They lived bizarrely. There was a lot of violence, a lot suicide, and a lot of AIDS. There is constant sex, sometimes romantic, usually brutal, often filthy, always craved.

He was never truly happy, but he was happiest outside his nonexistent comfort zone. “Transition is always a relief. Destination means death to me. If I could figure out a way to be forever in transition, in the disconnected and unfamiliar, I could remain in a state of perpetual freedom.” That’s the best definition he could admit to, and it’s more than most could own up to.

His thoughts and dreams were populated with hallways, often long, often dark. I’ve never seen the word hallway so many times in a book. Uncertainty played an outsized role in his short life.

The second half of the book is less enthralling, because it is transcripts of interviews he taped of his friends. It is their words, not his. The interviews serve to bring them closer, before they die off in rapid succession.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsSexual content too graphic

I liked the writing style but much of the content was too graphic for my taste. It was assigned reading for a memoir writing class. I would not have chosen to read it otherwise.

Published 13 months ago by BJO
5.0 out of 5 starsWow

A truly griping first hand account of drug addiction, life ,death, politics and AIDSin the 1980s. At times significantly harder to read then one hopes but not because of content... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Mikey Goodmark
3.0 out of 5 starsnot what I wanted. good points. for me this was a downer book.

Not what i wanted and expected. For me too scattered and debby downer. Good points and information in this book.

Published 20 months ago by Richard M Heredia
5.0 out of 5 starsRead it 3+ times

Incredible book of amazing depth and heart-wrenching power. I love this book. It inspired me to make a comic about him.

Published on December 30, 2013 by Katari
5.0 out of 5 starsstaggering, heartbreaking, classic

If any book deserves the title "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," it is David Wojanaorwicz's "Close to the Knives. Read more

Published on May 1, 2011 by monsterfashion
5.0 out of 5 starsA Masterpiece

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.

Published on October 29, 2006 by W. OBrien
4.0 out of 5 starsMixed Results

David Wojnarowicz reveals his backstory in layers, throughout the course of this essay collection. Eventually a complete picture is conjured, of Wojnarowicz' dysfunctional family,... Read more

Published on February 19, 2006 by Nadia555
5.0 out of 5 starsA Masterpiece: More Timely Than Ever

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. Read more

Published on November 24, 2004 by Owen Keehnen
1.0 out of 5 starsThe Rude Awakening of a Sophomore

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. Read more

Published on March 30, 2001 by Tessa

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