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Fashion Climbing: A MemoirThe New York Times bestseller " An] obscenely enjoyable romp." The New York Times Book Review The untold story of a New York City legend's education in creativity and style For Bill Cunningham, New York City was the land of freedom, glamour, and, above all, style. Growing up in a lace curtain Irish suburb of Boston, secretly trying on his sister's dresses and spending his evenings after school in the city's chicest boutiques, Bill dreamed of a life
The New York Times bestseller " An] obscenely enjoyable romp." --The New York Times Book ReviewThe untold story of a New York City legend's education in creativity and style For Bill Cunningham, New York City was the land of freedom, glamour, and, above all, style. Growing up in a lace-curtain Irish suburb of Boston, secretly trying on his sister's dresses and spending his evenings after school in the city's chicest boutiques, Bill dreamed of a life dedicated to fashion. But his desires were a source of shame for his family, and after dropping out of Harvard, he had to fight them tooth-and-nail to pursue his love. When he arrived in New York, he reveled in people-watching. He spent his nights at opera openings and gate-crashing extravagant balls, where he would take note of the styles, new and old, watching how the gowns moved, how the jewels hung, how the hair laid on each head. This was his education, and the birth of the democratic and exuberant taste that he came to be famous for as a photographer for The New York Times. After two style mavens took Bill under their wing, his creativity thrived and he made a name for himself as a designer. Taking on the alias William J.--because designing under his family's name would have been a disgrace to his parents--Bill became one of the era's most outlandish and celebrated hat designers, catering to movie stars, heiresses, and artists alike. Bill's mission was to bring happiness to the world by making women an inspiration to themselves and everyone who saw them. These were halcyon days when fashion was all he ate and drank. When he was broke and hungry he'd stroll past the store windows on Fifth Avenue and feed himself on beautiful things. Fashion Climbing is the story of a young man striving to be the person he was born to be: a true original. But although he was one of the city's most recognized and treasured figures, Bill was also one of its most guarded. Written with his infectious joy and one-of-a-kind voice, this memoir was polished, neatly typewritten, and safely stored away in his lifetime. He held off on sharing it--and himself--until his passing. Between these covers, is an education in style, an effervescent tale of a bohemian world as it once was, and a final gift to the readers of one of New York's great characters.
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group
Published: 09/03/2019
ISBN: 9780525558729
Pages: 256
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 0.80d
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4.4 ★★★★★
Based on 875 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Five Stars
Format: Paperback
Brilliant, lucid, engaging and brave, a feminist chthonic journey shimmering with poetic bravado.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2014
★★★★★ 5
A Feminist Divine Comedy?
Format: Paperback
Let me start with this: The Descent of Alette is difficult to read at first. Notley "puts quotation marks around" "groups of words" "in lines" "that can be off-putting." Note that I'm not quoting from the book there, just giving an example of what the book's text appears like. This forces us to read more slowly, taking in each line a few words at a time. What appears to be awkward is in fact a great solution to the speed-reading most of us do these days. That being said, it's troublesome for the first few poems, less so after that, virtually invisible by the end of the first section.
When talking about this book, I immediately compare it to Dante's Divine Comedy, and I commonly see others do the same (see an earlier review here on Amazon.com). Exchange Hell for a subway, and you've basically got it: an underground realm ruled over by a Tyrant, poor souls being tortured, though in this case there is no indication that they have done anything to deserve it. Notley's language might not be quite as beautiful/harsh as Dante's, but her images stand with anything he created. After introducing two characters on a subway, a woman and her baby, both on fire, Notley writes:
"another woman" "in uniform" "from above ground"
"entered" "the train" "She was fireproof" "she wore gloves, & she"
"took" "the baby" "took the baby" "away from the"
"mother" "Extracted" "the burning baby" "From the fire" "they
made together" "But the baby" "still burned"
("But not yours" "It didn't happen" "to you")
"We don't know yet" "if it will" "stop burning,"
"said the uniformed" "woman" "The burning woman" "was crying"
"she made a form" "in her mind" "an imaginary" "form" "to
settle" "in her arms where" "the baby" "had been" "We saw
her fiery arms" "cradle the air" "She cradled air" ("They take your
children" "away" "if you"re on fire")
"In the air that" "she cradled" "it seemed to us there" "floated"
"a flower-like" "a red flower" "its petals" "curling flames"
"She cradled" "seemed to cradle" "the burning flower of" "herself gone"
"her life" ("She saw" "whatever she saw, but what we saw" "was that flower")
After surviving the horrors of the subway, Alette goes even deeper underground, passing through a series of psychological challenges that at times seem straight out of Freud, at times out of Classical mythology, at times out of collective dreams. Throughout it all, we learn more and more about Alette, who is not just a "hero" who goes through the motions necessary to the plot, but who considers and stumbles and is confused and learns.
The third section of the book is a rebirth, wherein Alette finds a source for a stronger power than the Tyrant's, and it is distinctly feminist in its nature. I need to note here for those who react to feminism in a knee-jerk way: Notley's feminism is not a militant feminism, though it requires brief "military" action on Alette's part. Men are helpful in the story, have purpose besides being the bad guy. If anything, what Notley attacks in the form of the Tyrant is the idea of a corrupt masculinity, a kind of Big Brother who would easily stand as an antagonist in any number of 20th/21st century literary works. Alette's feminism is the discovery of her place in the world, and that place is not slaving away mindlessly for the Tyrant, not acting as just a womb or pair of hands or pretty face. It's a nuanced message, despite the epic (and therefore presumably black-and-white) nature of the whole book.
The fourth section is the showdown with the Tyrant, a great deal of philosophizing, and an ending that I actually find more satisfying than that of Paradiso. I won't spoil it here, but it just works extremely well in conjunction with the themes of Descent as a whole.
If you want to be challenged, if you want to think deep thoughts, if you want surreality and magic, pick up The Descent of Alette. For even more interesting reading from the author and her partner, you could also turn to The Scarlet Cabinet, which contains but actually predates the on-its-own publication of Descent.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2010
★★★★★ 5
A Contemporary Epic
Format: Paperback
I have a complicated relationship with most of the books I've read by Alice Notley. I admire her facility with the lyric, her ability to get just beneath a concept or sentiment using a very talk-y style so that I always feel like I'm with whatever speaker she's using, inside that mind and her mind all at once. This is a good kind of complication. It's one I yearn for with poems.
The unpleasant complications are when I feel as though I'm just being subjected to her unedited notebook entries. Too much, too much, too much. It comes up especially with her book Mysteries of Small Houses.
I mention these difficulties only to sharpen the accomplishment of The Descent of Alette. Like other reviewers, I feel the tonal similarities to Dante's Inferno. Which becomes a subversive allusion considering Alette seeks after a male Tyrant in order to destroy him, while Dante sought after his Beatrice out of desire. But I read and reread Alette, because Notley continually subverts patriarchal conventions in the book.
I actually find I crave the speaker's intellect, and the mythic logic that gives the book its arc. I want it more. Yes, there are quotations around each fragment in the poems. I actually appreciate them for slowing my reading down, and for sharpening my focus on the use of Notley's language. And it's not just a stylistic tic, or something to be endured. It could actually be described as further subversion of The Tyrant Alette pursues.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2011
★★★★★ 2
Imagery and diction
Format: Paperback
This book was very challenging to read because everything was written in quotations however, it was intriguing as a different way of writing poetry.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020
★★★★★ 5
I tend to leave most books in this genre disappointed. I miss the classics
Format: Hardcover
I bought this book after hearing Stacey Lee speak about narrative tension at a lecture for YA writers - the talk was specifically entitled, "How to keep them up all night." The lecture (alongside Anna Shinoda) bit off a rather large amount of material. Neither woman mentioned vampires. The methods they discussed were smart, creative, and delivered with just enough humor to leave me wondering whether I'd be able to put their debut novels down.
I devoured GONE WITH THE WIND at least six times cover to cover between my sophomore and senior year. While I am more susceptible to the Historical Fiction page turner than the average girl, I tend to leave most books in this genre disappointed. I miss the classics. I opened this book determined to not judge it by its gorgeous pastel cover. I started slowly. I enjoyed the first four or five chapters - leaving each fully appreciative of Lee's craft. I particularly enjoyed her ability to pepper humor though tragedy. I often complain about writers who miss the mark here. Stacey Lee nailed that important believable balance for me. I liked her characters quickly. I left each chapter satisfied, but thoroughly able to get up and go on with my life. Like a jaded Thumper in Walt Disney's BAMBI, this book was more than nice, but I wasn't susceptible to any kind of teen-aged Twitterpation over it. After the sixth or seventh chapter - four or five days after I first picked it up, I quietly closed my copy, placed it on my nightstand, switched off my lamp, fluffed my pillow and turned over. I turned over again. I flipped on the light - OK, just one more chapter... I zombie sleepwalked to work the next day. That night I retired early, making some completely convincing excuse about being exhausted. I was certainly too tired to read. Flash forward to 6AM when I woke up with this novel on my face. I turned it's last page this afternoon, fully satisfied. I am truly sad it's over. This book transported me. It's one I'll want to have in my collection forever, alongside the beautiful books that mattered to me as a teen; JANE EYRE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, UNDER A PAINTED SKY. Classic in feel, subject matter, and voice - but modern in approach, I'd be as comfortable recommending it to my book club as I would handing it to any teen. Readers of all ages and walks of life will surely find something that resonates with their own stories too. As for me, I am sure I'll be back on the trail with these girls-- I mean boys, before long.
Now I'm off to try my hand at Anna Shinoda's LEARNING NOT TO DROWN. Well, maybe tomorrow. I need a good night's sleep and it's clear these authors know how to keep those pages turning.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2015