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Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment
Maybe someday
41
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
31/100Critics
50/100Scholars
Author:
John Giorno
Publisher:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date:
August 4, 2020
Before he died last year at 82, poet and performance artist John Giorno finished this memoir of his wild life amid New York's mid-century art scene, where he collaborated and had romantic entanglements with Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns.
What The Reviewers Say
... essential, joyous reading as we follow his adventures meeting soon-to-be-famous artists, dancers, musicians, and writers of Sixties New York.
... nothing short of Zelig-esque from the get-go.
... a Pac-Man sized chunk of the pie chart [of the memoir]...is devoted to sex. It was Giorno’s animating force, his reason for being, his means of communication, and often the heart of his poetry practice.
John Giorno (1936-2019) writes the following about being at a Ronettes and Shirelles concert with Andy Warhol at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre in 1963: 'By chance, I was smack in the middle of something extraordinary.' 'Well, when weren't you?' readers may find themselves wondering while devouring Giorno's edifyingly dishy book.
