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A review by 1outside
Face It: A Memoir by Debbie Harry
4.0
It took a while to get used to Debbie's style of writing - shorter sentences, up to the point, not revealing what she doesn't want to (she's punk, after all!), but once I did I ended up really enjoying the book and found it an easy read.
As someone who likes many Blondie songs but isn't a hardcore fan there was still a lot of new info in the book for me. I suppose I would have welcomed a wee bit more insight into the creation of the individual songs on the albums but I guess if I ever really needed that in the future (which is doubtful) there are probably biographies that could provide those.
Debbie is not just some poster girl for "women in rock", she's definitely a whole multi-faceted person, defying brackets and labels while still mostly operating within the blonde bombshell form. That's fascinating all on its own. (And people in some reviews bitching abt her mentioning her looks repeatedly throughout the book are, frankly, missing the point.)
I'm glad she wrote this. It's great to see her point of view as a punk: not conforming to what was proper when she was young and frankly, with her obvious resistance to being viewed as a victim (of rape, stalking, misogyny), not conforming to the most broad current mainstream feminism either.
Even if she is private (after her breakup w/ Chris you won't get to know anything about her private life in this book), she reveals enough for us to be able to view her as a true original and one of the most important and influential people in the history of popular culture.
As someone who likes many Blondie songs but isn't a hardcore fan there was still a lot of new info in the book for me. I suppose I would have welcomed a wee bit more insight into the creation of the individual songs on the albums but I guess if I ever really needed that in the future (which is doubtful) there are probably biographies that could provide those.
Debbie is not just some poster girl for "women in rock", she's definitely a whole multi-faceted person, defying brackets and labels while still mostly operating within the blonde bombshell form. That's fascinating all on its own. (And people in some reviews bitching abt her mentioning her looks repeatedly throughout the book are, frankly, missing the point.)
I'm glad she wrote this. It's great to see her point of view as a punk: not conforming to what was proper when she was young and frankly, with her obvious resistance to being viewed as a victim (of rape, stalking, misogyny), not conforming to the most broad current mainstream feminism either.
Even if she is private (after her breakup w/ Chris you won't get to know anything about her private life in this book), she reveals enough for us to be able to view her as a true original and one of the most important and influential people in the history of popular culture.