Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration
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List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.17
Your Save: $ 4.78 ( 32% )
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Manufacturer: Vintage
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.19697920092
EAN: 9780679732273
ISBN: 0679732276
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 1991-05-07
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 1991-05-07
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Close to the Knives, David Wojnarowicz gives us an important and timely document: a collection of creative essays -- a scathing, sexy, sublimely humorous and honest personal testimony to the "Fear of Diversity in America." From the author's violent childhood in suburbia to eventual homelessness on the streets and piers of New York City, to recognition as one of the most provocative artists of his generation -- Close to the Knives is his powerful and iconoclastic memoir. Street life, drugs, art and nature, family, AIDS, politics, friendship and acceptance: Wojnarowicz challenges us to examine our lives -- politically, socially, emotionally, and aesthetically. "David Wojnarowicz is brilliantly attuned to American talk and responsive to the moods and innovations of society's truants. He also has the best conscience of any writer I know. This fierce, erotic, haunting, truthful book should be given to every teenager immediately." -- Dennis Cooper "Wojnarowicz's writing fairly smokes with acrid ironies. It's passionate and personal." -- New York "Everyone should read Close to the Knives to understand the overall political agenda behind suffering, whether that suffering occurs because of a dysfunctional family, religion, or government. Wojnarowicz explores all of his painful life experiences as a plea for all of us to become more compassionate and caring human beings. This isn't just David's story, it's our story, our nation's story." -- Karen Finley
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Mixed Results
Comment: David Wojnarowicz reveals his backstory in layers, throughout the course of this essay collection. Eventually a complete picture is conjured, of Wojnarowicz' dysfunctional family, his youth on the streets, prostitution, and same-sex lust. His writing is very natural; alternating at first between his sexual and suicidal fantasies, before unleashing his wrath for the American politicians who are deliberately withholding information about AIDS from the public (a condition which Wojnarowicz himself is battling.) The information imparted here is shocking; the insidious influence of the church in American government is uncovered here lucidly, and David gets personal -- introducing one of his dearest friends who eventually dies from AIDS. His grief takes on a political significance, as he has lost many friends to the disease, and is aware that this suffering is unnecessary, and could have been prevented.
This book is very intense, and David Wojnarowicz' prose is potent and often original, but towards the end it starts to unravel. He begins using more experimental techniques, such as dream sequences, interviews, and motifs ("Smell the flowers while you can"), as well as alternating between two seperate narratives, which I found self-indulgent and wearisome. Maybe it was cathartic for him as a writer, but from the reader's point of view, tying together these seemingly (and perhaps actually) unrelated threads just ultimately wasn't worth the effort. After being seduced by Wojnarowicz' prose initially, the final impression left on me wasn't particularly positive, as the message had been hammered home quite well enough by then, and I had to force myself to get to the end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece: More Timely Than Ever
Comment: 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. This is an AMAZING, STUNNING and thoroughly SUPERB collage of essays surrounding Mr. Wojnarowicz's battle with HIV, dealing with the politics and bureaucracy of the disease, justice, history, the ranking of lives as "important" and "unimportant" by the powers that be, and life in general. FIERCE, POETIC, and INSIGHTFUL these pieces compose a whole that packs an awesome whollop and is nothing short of GENIUS. This book lights fires and breaths fire with the energy of the words literally screaming from the page at points. CLOSE TO THE KNIVES is also sad proof of yet another life lost before it's time due to the AIDS pandemic. It is a call to action with a message that has not dimmed one iota since it's writing. More timely and pertinent than ever.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite artists
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This Mortal Coil
Comment: 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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