Scan barcode
A review by bkish
Great Demon Kings: A Memoir of Poetry, Sex, Art, Death, and Enlightenment by John Giorno
5.0
where to begin with this review...
this is one extraordinary book and I waited for it for a few months and was able to get the book book from my library in SF CA. This is definitely not a book for all to read. It has must have a particular audience of readers. Many may read it and say its not well written or its too sexually graphic or it is boring or anything rather than to recognize that this is a special book about a time in history and with its focus on NYC and the art scene and the artists and then further on it is about the life of a gay man who is very sexual and who did lot of drugs and alcohol. This is also a man who was an activist. Nothing about him or his life is "usual" ....
John giorno knew everyone in NYC then in 60s and most of the book is about that period yet not all. It is also about his own development as a Tibetan Buddhist and his time in India.
I would say this is a very rich book for some people...
The great demon kings in his title are those powerful famous men he knew who survive thru their Egos...
John Giorno finished this book in 2018 after 25y and it could not have been published I think during his lifetime. He died in 2019. the book was just released now in 2020.
John Giorno was a gay Italian American from outside of NYC in Roslyn Heights and his parents were wealthy and loved him. This book isn't about his childhood tho it begins when he was young. He met Warhol when he worked on Wall Street and he left the job to Be a poet and his parents supported that and him. He was an important Poet and very well regarded by many people in New York City. This book is about his life and his beliefs and his fears and his depressions and his affairs and his loves and his inner struggles.
I wish I had known him...
from Judy g
this is one extraordinary book and I waited for it for a few months and was able to get the book book from my library in SF CA. This is definitely not a book for all to read. It has must have a particular audience of readers. Many may read it and say its not well written or its too sexually graphic or it is boring or anything rather than to recognize that this is a special book about a time in history and with its focus on NYC and the art scene and the artists and then further on it is about the life of a gay man who is very sexual and who did lot of drugs and alcohol. This is also a man who was an activist. Nothing about him or his life is "usual" ....
John giorno knew everyone in NYC then in 60s and most of the book is about that period yet not all. It is also about his own development as a Tibetan Buddhist and his time in India.
I would say this is a very rich book for some people...
The great demon kings in his title are those powerful famous men he knew who survive thru their Egos...
John Giorno finished this book in 2018 after 25y and it could not have been published I think during his lifetime. He died in 2019. the book was just released now in 2020.
John Giorno was a gay Italian American from outside of NYC in Roslyn Heights and his parents were wealthy and loved him. This book isn't about his childhood tho it begins when he was young. He met Warhol when he worked on Wall Street and he left the job to Be a poet and his parents supported that and him. He was an important Poet and very well regarded by many people in New York City. This book is about his life and his beliefs and his fears and his depressions and his affairs and his loves and his inner struggles.
I wish I had known him...
from Judy g