List Price: $22.95 Details

Save: $9.69 (42%)

FREE delivery February 8 - 9. Details

Select delivery location

In Stock

$$13.26 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

TextbookRush🍎

Ships from

TextbookRush🍎

Sold by

TextbookRush🍎

Sold by

TextbookRush🍎

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

$4.49 delivery Monday, February 12. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Big River Books LLC

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$8.77
+ $4.49 shipping

Sold by: Big River Books LLC

Added

Not added

$14.29
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: TextbookRush🍎

Added

Not added

$22.03
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: Amazon.com

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Bettye Kronstad

Follow

Perfect Day: An Intimate Portrait Of Life With Lou Reed Paperback – Illustrated, November 8, 2016

by Bettye Kronstad (Author)

3.9 47 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$13.26","priceAmount":13.26,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"26","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"m6dDEvDdw%2Fjcwfx6C%2FH6oChyt11UNEgjpZ9qYpmfFb4U8GmkxCVfghxLaxhqJ0IMWnXmaWMMxU%2FjO1X2SfeH52UkhelyPUICpZBPBEtSAy4dFaqWTH5EbktaW0Lbosam%2FYsKlszTMjn1KlnvUW4O4iIBlNxLVYuhZgGM%2FJR%2BpLNztHy4gdbwdQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$5.45","priceAmount":5.45,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"5","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"45","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"m6dDEvDdw%2Fjcwfx6C%2FH6oChyt11UNEgjiaMMiTR%2F7ggz1Msrcxog3AGJdtRrJ%2BM2ASLtxEWdyA4NoLILY9ckPpRfX0NZamZ4QW3DmyB4Qna7sdmdlBQ3pOdJ5ae%2BmAtIVwvBkd45t2jYQ%2BUCjTmjNvbayGOMZ60siM37%2BbYfD2BJSXQyjeuKfA%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

‘Hey, you! Beautiful!’

The voice was compelling—an order. So I turned around.

‘Yeah, you,’ he said. ‘What are you doing in here? You look normal.’

‘I am,’ I said.

Bettye Kronstad met Lou Reed in 1968 as a nineteen-year-old Columbia University student; they were married, briefly, in 1973. Their relationship spanned some of the most pivotal years of his life and career, from the demise of The Velvet Underground to the writing and recording of his seminal solo masterpieces Transformer, for which Lou wrote ‘Perfect Day’ about an afternoon they spent together in the park, and Berlin, which draws on tales from Bettye’s childhood.

In Perfect Day, Bettye looks back on their initially idyllic life together on the Upper East Side; Lou’s struggle to launch a solo career after leaving perhaps the most influential rock band of all time; his work and friendships with fellow stars David Bowie and Iggy Pop; and his descent into drink and drug abuse following the success of Transformer, which sent him spinning out from gentle soul to rock’n’roll animal and brought a swift and calamitous end to their relationship. The result is a powerful and poignant meditation on love, loss, writing, and music.

Review

"...Their time together aligned with a crucial period in Reed's life, straddling the fin de siècle Velvet Underground years; the period just after, when Reed flirted with giving up music and devoting himself to writing. It's Kronstad's proximity to Reed during that middle period, relegated to the margins in many grand biographies, that provides the freshest insight. Kronstad, a public school teacher and writer, doesn't flinch in giving us the dark side of the man who wrote one of his most touching ballads, "Perfect Day," about her, but her account is tempered by an intimate knowledge. In this remembrance, she confirms both the genius and the well-chronicled contradictions of her subject." --David Kleinindyweek.com/indyweek/bettye-kronstad/Event?oid=5105051

From the Author

I decided to write this book after giving several interviews for biographies being written about Lou Reed after we lost him in October 2013. I was a writer and editor, I thought, why not write the story myself?! My story is a compelling one, which no one knew or could write about as honestly as myself, as it entailed the early years of Lou's solo career, beginning with the period when he decides to leave the Velvet Underground and strike out on his own as a solo artist. Of all the biographies out there I had yet read one that truly revealed Lou Reed -- the man and the artist -- with whom I spent five years of a particularly crucial period in his musical career. In this memoir of our time together I have strived to provide a portrait of the man I fell in love with that illuinates the striking complexity of his nature, resulting in his art. It is my intention to let the world know what Lou Reed was really like: his extraordinary ambition containing equal parts confidence and humility -- which contrasted with his devastating insecurity and dependency -- as well as his deep tenderness, privately seen only by his partners, friends and family; along with the part I played in Lou's success and in his life. I wrote this book because I wanted to tell our love story, which many people can relate to in their own lives -- their first great love. My story is one of a young girl who experiences her first great love, and her journey as she grows into a young woman at the side of a great, but increasingly troubled artist struggling with the demons of alcohol and drug abuse/addiction.I wanted to bring attention to the special challenges of those who are in a relationship with or are related to a person who has an addictive personality. No matter how brilliant, they are deeply affected by this affliction, along with their relationships, their friends, and their family. With all the practical considerations most of us face nowadays in our challenging economy, and the political unrest that has once again befallen our country and throughout the world -- just like in 1968, when I first met Lou and lived through that incredible period in our history -- this book is especially topical today. It spans the period of the US when great student unrest occurred on college campuses marching and protesting alongside its citizens across the country against the extraordinarily devisive Vietnam War; the feminist marches in NYC heralding the Feminist Movement; and the birth of the LGBTQ movement, which began with the storming of the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, June, 1969, all of which I participated in and explore in this memoir. My years with Lou Reed were tumultuous, sometimes frightening, incredibly creative, quite an education, but they were rarely boring!

From the Inside Flap

In this powerful and pognant meditation on love, loss, writing, and music, the author looks back over 40 years ago when the couple launched Lou's solo career after he left the Velvet Underground, perhaps the most influential rock band of all time, to his descent into drink and drug abuse, sending him spinning out from gentle soul to rock 'n' roll animal.

From the Back Cover

"...In this intimate and revealing memoir, Bettye Kronstad finally tells the full story of their five years together, offering a fascinating new perspective on the life and legend of one of rock 'n' roll's finest sons."

About the Author

Bettye Kronstad is a teacher, freelance writer/editor, and theater professional. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in theater at SUNY Purchase/Empire State, and attended the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, studying with Sanford Meisner, and Bill Esper of William Esper Studios in New York City. She attended Iona College for her master’s degree in English education and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University for a master of divinity in education. For over twenty years she has taught English and theater in inner-city public high schools in the Bronx and Harlem, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New Mexico; and Texas; she has also taught college composition, literature, and speech in these areas. Recently, she moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her beloved cocker spaniel, Elroy. She has two daughters and three grandsons, the loves of her life.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Jawbone Press
Publication date

November 8, 2016
Dimensions

6 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

1911036068
ISBN-13

978-1911036067
See all details

Frequently bought together

Perfect Day: An Intimate Portrait Of Life With Lou Reed

$13.26

Get it Feb 8 - 9

In Stock

Ships from and sold by TextbookRush🍎.

+

The Life of Lou Reed: Notes from the Velvet Underground

$8.98

Get it Feb 7 - 12

Only 7 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by Shelden_Family_Books.

+

$11.88

Get it Feb 6 - 8

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by BooktownSolLLC.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Will Hermes
78
Hardcover
57 offers from $19.99
Howard Sounes
52
Hardcover
29 offers from $3.69
Anthony DeCurtis
504
Paperback
31 offers from $3.14
Lou Reed
45
Paperback
41 offers from $15.95
Heath
25
Hardcover
26 offers from $26.19
Lou Reed
427
Vinyl
6 offers from $19.98

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jawbone Press; Illustrated edition (November 8, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1911036068
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1911036067
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,289,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #390 in Mid Atlantic U.S. Biographies
- #3,136 in Rock Band Biographies
- #3,810 in Rock Music (Books)

Customer Reviews:
3.9 47 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Bettye Kronstad

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5

47 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

John S.

which I was happy to do

Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

First, I must admit that although we have never met in person, I have been Facebook friends with the author for some time. She asked me to read her book, which I was happy to do, but a little apprehensive. In her book, she tells of meeting, dating, living with, marrying, divorcing, getting back together, and finally leaving for good rock’n’roller Lou Reed of Velvet Underground fame back in the ‘70s.

But I have always been a fan of music in the Country genre and was not familiar with Lou Reed or his famous band. But while the book is about all that I mentioned above, it is more about a young girl getting caught up in the rock’n’roll fast lane, trying drugs and alcohol, and how she came to recognize that for the sake of her own sanity, she needed to get out of that scene.

While others who knew more about Lou Reed and his band may very well get more out of her book than I did, it is a very interesting read which can be enjoyed by all. I was even intrigued enough to go to Youtube and observe Lou and his Velvet Underground band on video. He really was quite a good singer and perhaps even a better writer/poet.  I can honestly say that the book is quite well written and a quick and very interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Josephine A.

"A Walk on the Wild Side"

Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

This a fascinating read of a young, naïve girl from rural America drawn into the counterculture of the late 60’s, early 70’s. As a teenager, drawn by the lure of love to an older man clearly living a life beyond any life she has ever known, the reader is taken on a parallel roller coaster ride into the subculture of the times. This is truly an eye-opening adventure into the behind-the-scenes view of life in the fast lane. Unfortunately, love alone is not sufficient for the author to overcome the pressures placed upon her and her dreams are irrevocably shattered.

This is definitely a must read for baby boomers - especially those who, like myself, remember the upheaval of the times, but lived in complete ignorance of life defined by Lou Reed’s himself as “A Walk on the Wild Side!” It is also a great read for the younger generations who wish to know more of the subculture their own parents and/or grandparents may have experienced.

The author’s recollections of those days seem honest and sincere and told in a no-holes-barred approach. Definitely a must read for young and old alike.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

HWJ VAN DEN BOOM

Even though it is not the best written ever

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Even though it is not the best written ever, I liked very much reading the book. Bettye takes a warm and supportive perspective to go through the many details of her relationship with Lou.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Larry

No

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book is simply not factual, as noted by other reviewers.

Helpful

Susan Doran

WARNING: this is not a good book BUT does provide a handful of unique insights unavailable elsewhere

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2023

Verified Purchase

How people could write glowing, over-the-top reviews--saying this book provides astonishing views into countercultural NYC in the '60s and '70s or whatever malarkey--is beyond me. Through no lens or perspective is this a 5-star book. Here''s what it is. This review is by someone who's loved, read about, listened to, seen live Lou Reed over 50 years. Also someone who knows a great deal about mid/late 20th century popular music, culture, history--from New York--knows a bit about good writing--and is a consumer of hundreds of biographies/autobiographies.

FIRST: I am grateful that Bettye wrote this account. It is a story only she could tell; I do wish she'd had help with it. It must not have been easy to try to spin her experiences and memories into cohesive narrative. Still: that's what editors and ghost writers are for.

The construction of this book is egregious and makes it difficult to get through, despite its modest length. It is choppy, uneven, repetitive, obscure, vague, has gaping holes even in the middle of anecdotes, jumps around, is unclear about dates and years, filled with what appear to be generalities, includes numerous stories without a punchline or takeaway, such that you're not even sure it that was the end of what she was trying to say, or what even she was trying to say.

She repeats possibly 2 dozen times the same phrase about Lou leaving the Velvets and casting about trying to determine his next steps as a solo artist. She sets down that statement and then adds (essentially): "And I was there to pull him through and make sure he was the success we knew he could be. That was why I was with Lewis, I told myself and believed it." Over and over and over. Sometimes within 5-6 pages, sometimes within 20 pages, sometimes in one paragraph next to another. It's baffling.

It is almost as if she had 5 drafts of this book, written at different times, maybe one intended as a article, one a chapter of a book, maybe background notes for someone, and a couple of attempts to actually write A Book--and someone (she or her publisher) just smooshed them all together and tried to match up roughly one version covering something with another version covering the same topic, but the result is a lot of muddled, redundant, sometimes even contradictory, or clashing information--and with different tones and vibe, all in one page or paragraph or anecdote.

Someone should have shaped all this into not only "her truth" but into broader contexts of the day--what was happening in the world, in New York, in the Lower East Side and Village, the music scenes in NY, Lou's friends and associates, and what was happening in 1970s America.

Similarly someone should have shaped all this into MORE of "her truth," because what she shares about herself is superficial, contradictory, unselfaware, confusing. She skates over the surface of almost everything, and is embarrassingly self-congratulatory about her talents (as a writer, as an actress, as a woman in charge) but it's utterly unconvincing. Sometimes she claims she is a student at Columbia, sometimes she's a secretary, sometimes attending an acting school that none of Lou's very well-informed friends have ever heard of but she claims was the best in New York, sometimes claims she traveled the country doing theatre but never once mentions a part or production or any actors she worked with. She often discusses being a simple farm girl, riding horses and picking berries in the wholesome sunshine, a Norman Rockwell family she characterized as quiet, dignified, self-effacing, and implied upper middle class....but why did she leave home and end up in NYC at 16?

Well, 20 pages before the end we find out her entire family was awash in serious mental illness, her mother was accused of atrocities and lost custody of Bettye and disappeared for 15 years, her father had shock therapy, grandfather had PSTD, she had to uncimplainingly care for 5 children under the age of 8 when she was a child herself, on and on. Too little/too late. Bolted onto the side at the end.

If this book had been properly constructed and edited someone would have helped her draw the lines between her completely unhealthy toxic abusive childhood and how she ended up being the tireless nursemaid for abusive Lou Reed.

There are many times you'll be reading and thinking "Please do shut up. Please just stop." She goes into great detail about how she learned how to drive a John Deer tractor at age 8 on the farm....but will that allow her to drive Lou's parent's diesel Mercedes to the gay bar, once Lou is passed out and she doesn't know where she is? Then out of the shadows comes a drag queen who sits on the car and someone else says they shouldn't sit on the car and someone finds a notebook and writes out directions. And she drives off. And then she wakes up and she doesn't have pants on and Lou is on the floor calling her Princess but is so drunk he can't explain why they are in the guest room with no sheets on the bed, etc. but he has to tell her something urgently but the story trails off and you're not sure the point.

Previously I mentioned there's no broader context into which this story unfolds--and that omission is glaring and unforgivable. 1970s New York and even Long Island was a time of profound changes and shifts. Bettye as an author now seems only vaguely aware of that. She blithely waves off homosexuality, as well as debauched things, going on around her in Lou's world...saying "I never judged anyone by who they loved and lots of people in theatre are gay so it seemed normal to me." She just finished saying she was Pollyanna from Pennsylvania. And even for people who had gay acquaintances in theatre, Lou's crowd was several orders of magnitude beyond "the usual." But she does not mention anything, anywhere, anytime, that ever shocked her...in that circle many things were done with the intent to shock and were probably objectively shocking. She just talks about how Lou would disappear in gay bars and she'd just dance and dance because dance makes her forget all the cares in the world spinning with happy dancy people hoooray! Meanwhile Lou "flirted with everyone" - the takeaway from which was "He is such a great performer...if I did not already know that from the time Lou was leaving the Velvets and determining his next steps as a solo artist. And I was there to pull him through and make sure he was the success we knew he could be."

Ooof. OK. Whatever.

Did the 2 of them even have sex? Ever? No clue. Just lots of "nuzzling his curly hair into the nape of my neck" action.

So---there are 2 aspects on this book, as is, that make it worthwhile: (1) how "normal" and upper middle class his existence with his parents back at their house was--she may be very biased but it does not seem at all that Lou was going bat^&* staying with them--stories about how the 2 of them would spend days at the beach club having waiters bring them lemonade and cocktails, hitting the courts in their "tennis whites," and meeting up with the parents in the diningroom for Saturday night dinner "at the club" was sort of hilarious in how absolutely mundane it is--and how prototypically 1970s bourgeois upper middle class Rockville Center/Baldwin it is. Tale after tale where Bettye mentions driving around in the parents' Mercedes DL. Such a far 180-degree cry from anything else I'd known about him. I knew he was "middle class" but she brings to life what that must have been like. It also helps explain(?) why Lou decided--of all the neighborhoods in Manhattan--to settle in the Upper East Side. That's the most straight-laced conventional UN-Bohemian neighborhoods in New York. That Lou would choose the UES just tickles me...did he want that pretty upper middle class environment on some level? was he trying to deny other parts of him? was he comfortable in that milieu since it's close to how he grew up?

So, you're not going to find any simple narratives anywhere painting the bougy aspects of Lou's background and in that early '70s period like this does.

The second element that I haven't seen elsewhere is less amusing. It's about Lou's alcoholic drinking. It's fairly revolting to read. Nothing lurid, but just exhausting. He drank every night to fall-down-drunk incoherence. He said he had to drink to oblivion due to existential "pain." The number of nights this book chronicles of Bettye having to physically carry him, drag him, beseech him to stop drinking for the night is astonishing. She wanted to be with him, no doubt, but being nursemaid to a sloppy self-sorry mewling puking belligerent drunk is zero fun. Especially when he would also be abusive. And be as dependent and fractious as a toddler terrified of being abandoned.

She doesn't "drag" Lou in sharing this info, but she is pretty plain about it, and how miserable it was. Some people claim she should have been honored to be his cop, nursemaid, mommy, truant officer, cheerleader but she makes a good case for finally getting out.

The book suffers from a lack of self-awareness---her part in things---how Lou truly saw her (which I suspect is less rose-colored than she often depicts it) and how he disrespected her to others (she mentions this once, but everything I've read of Lou would indicate she had even a harder go of things that she lets on or lets herself remember--or is willing to be honest about with us, her readers). But she does get enough across to paint a fairly vivid portrait of that one aspect of Lou--his alcoholism--and how that informed a lot of who he was and how he operated.

For that, and unintentionally amusing peeks into the upper middle class country club antics he seemed secretly to enjoy ("Tennis, anyone!"), I gave this book 3 stars.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Molly Moon

and the love she felt for the emotionally precarious Lou

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

I must admit, I was unfamiliar with Lou Reed's music, but had heard of the Velvet Underground, when attending college. After reading Bettye's most illuminating book about the rock music world, I can say I do know Lou Reed, and, in turn, many in the music world at that time. A rollercoaster ride, to say the very least. Bettye has an extraordinary talent, evident in her deep and meaningful metaphors describing something as simple as a day in the city, and the bustle of its people. I felt the weight she must have been carrying in her heart, and the love she felt for the emotionally precarious Lou. The pressure, likely insurmountable for most, was just another thing Bettye punched on through. Brutal addiction, love, compassion, excitement, sadness, and distrupting. I questioned Bettye's loyalty to Lou Reed though-out, yet admired her for that very loyalty. A great read for Boomers, but a necessary read for all of us.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ellen

Really well written!

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

Loved this book. A couple of times it had me gasping out loud in fear for the author when the action started to build. Super well written. Huge respect for a woman who couldn’t be bought or intimidated...Bravo.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Bernd Nigbur

Princess schmintzes

Reviewed in Germany on July 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

Poorly written.
Cash in on the legend.
A big bore.
Even for devoted fans not of interess.
Stay away from.

Shantiq

Thank you Bettye ... you really are brave . . maybe he was not a Gift to [All the] Women of This World ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

The tale here: vulnerable alcoholic boy prodigy is nursed by solid beautiful Scandinavian woman
Hard to see one of your heroes thus but it more than probably is a very fair account
Also on Bettye's watch he came up with Transformer AND Berlin ... arguably with Coney Island his meisterwerks
So thank you Bettye ... you really are brave.
A MUSTREAD for Lou-watchers
PS Oh Yes and he wrote Perfect Day for her .... they really loved each other
HOWEVER: throughout this tale we are time and time again reminded by Bettye of her constancy integrity faithfulness duty-drivenness ... as we are of Lou's numerable failings ...
since all of us will be reaching for this book to know more about Lou this can become a counterproductive exercise ... she divorces him then "OUT OF DUTY" sticks around so he can birth Berlin ... an album she says he partly [70% or so] borrows from her early life and fights they both had ... for someone who claims a love of literature surely she must have at some point thought about where writers get their stories from .... that part to me is disingenuous
PS: reading what former girlfriend Shelley Albin said in [DeCurtis 2017] all flaws described by Bettye are corroborated
"he wasn't happy unless he made someone more miserable than he was"
"he was not anybody i wanted to live with. It wasn't worth it. It was too much grief"
When you hear a tale once you think maybe; when you hear it twice ....

3 people found this helpful

jaappe

ok

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

nice 2nd hand book for very good price..

The Gospel

What a wasted opportunity to enlighten Lou Reed fans

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 5, 2019

Verified Purchase

I used to be one of the biggest Lou Reed fans in Europe.... well, until he stopped making an effort in his vocals (circa "Street Hassle"). I even got to talk to him once, very briefly. I followed his subsequent career (from an ever-growing distance), but have always yearned for more detail about his life and career, before the 80s at least.

When I head about this book, I became very excited. I know it was obviously promoted by his death, (as are most "exposes"), but nonetheless though it would be chock-full of anecdotes and snippets.

No so. The author seems less proud of the fact that she was married to a superstar than her claim to be "a writer", "an author", "a student of literature".

For a start, she details particular conversations between her and Lou that are often comprised of 40-plus exchanges each way. NO WAY could she remember that! Why, she even says herself in a few places, (when she's describing certain episodes rather than conversations), that things are a bit blurred after 50 years, and this is to be expected. But she can still remember so many sentences, verbatim?

It is only when one examines closer the actual conversations that the penny drops. It's like she's said to herself "Well I can remember the gist of the exchange, so I'll just embellish it to pad things out, and add a nuance to proceedings here and there. After all, I AM a writer!"

So we get paragraphs inserted to describe the surroundings, facial expressions, body movements, presumed mental reactions and moods, you name it. The irrelevant asides, and the choice of words to convey them, is often laughable. It's like she is desperate to prove her command of the English language! Put it this way - if she was recounting these events in the middle of an interview, she wouldn't come out with half the stuff she does here!

For those who think I am being harsh, look the title of the book : "A Perfect Day - An Intimate Potrait Of Life With Lou Reed". This books was written with Lou Reed fans in mind, not Bettye Kronstad fans. I don't know what other success (if any) she has had in her other writing, but this is NOT her autobiography. If it was, then she would be at liberty to describe her family's history..... though having said that, a lot of celebrities pad out their bio's with that nonsense, when all that is needed is a one- paragraph summary in case it had any direct bearing on the celeb's upbringing. Bettye does even worse. Three whole pages of photographs of her family. including one page with two virtually identical pics of her mother. For heaven's sake - people aren't interested in what her mother looked like! It does not have, nor had, anything whatsoever to do with Lou Reed!

Likewise, even though Lou Reed has talked about having EST in his youth (re "Kill your Sons"), the fact that her father also had some EST is completely irrelevant to either Lou's life of their marriage, and we didn't buy the book to read about HIS experiences.

As for the relationship, I'm not saying for a moment that she was wrong to walk out on Lou Reed. I always knew he wasn't the most noble of human beings. But the story is a bit one-sided. For instance, she comes across all holier-than-thou for making a stance with him, i.e. that if she ever caught him injecting heroin, she'd be off. Yet she herself openly took marijuana and cocaine with him, like "those two were alright". Pardon? I sincerely think that addicts don't realise how hypocritical they come across to the rest of us.

Btw, one wonders is she was under the influence of "something" when she wrote that she could hear the drone of John Cale's organ at the last ever Max's show? Even though he wasn't even there!

I thought I'd be getting (e.g.) lots of snippets from the "Transformer" recording sessions, and info about the songs, Bowie and Ronson, etc. but no such luck. I mean, who else was that close to him that could document those missing memories? Instead, we get a woman who continually bleats that no-one worried how "she" was feeling. As for her moaning that the storyline of "Berlin" was based on her own life in some way, nowhere does it mention her name, so how would any fan have the tiniest inkling that it was? Bizarre!

I'll give the book one star (for a couple of background facts it DID reveal), but can't give it any more than that.

2 people found this helpful

pernil

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

Intriguing, insightful insider perspective on Lou's early 70s.

See more reviews

Buy new: $13.26$13.26 FREE delivery: Feb 8 - 9 Ships from: TextbookRush Sold by: TextbookRush

Buy used: $5.45

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the author

Perfect Day: An Intimate Portrait Of Life With Lou Reed Paperback – Illustrated, November 8, 2016

Purchase options and add-ons

Review

From the Author

From the Inside Flap

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

Videos

Important information

About the author

Bettye Kronstad

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$13.26

FREE delivery: Feb 8 - 9

Ships from: TextbookRush

Sold by: TextbookRush

Buy used:

$5.45