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62
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
32/100Critics
91/100Scholars
Author:
Alexandra Auder
Publisher:
Viking
Date:
May 2, 2023
Alexandra Auder's life began at the Chelsea HotelâNew York City's infamous bohemian hangoutâwhen her mother, Viva, a longtime resident of the hotel and one of Andy Warhol's superstars, went into labor in the lobby. These first moments of Alexandra's life, documented by her filmmaker father, Michel Auder, portended the whirlwind childhood and teen years that she would go on to have. At the center of it all is Viva: a glamorous, larger-than-life woman with mercurial moods, who brings Alexandra with her on the road from gig to gig, splitting time between a home in Connecticut and Alexandra's father's loft in 1980s Tribeca, then moving back again to the Chelsea Hotel and spending summers with Viva's upper-middle-class, conservative, hyperpatriarchal family of origin.
What The Reviewers Say
The past isn’t past, of course, and Auder does good work of describing the world from a child’s point of view.
It takes guts and a sense of humor to kick off your debut memoir with an insult from Andy Warhol.
Auder’s frustration comes through loud and clear, but so does a deep and abiding love, and she manages to reflect on her chaotic and unconventional upbringing with a refreshing lack of prejudice and judgment. In many ways, it seems, her mother raised her right..
Vibrant.
