Home Books My Pinup

My Pinup

My Pinup

by Hilton Als

New Directions ·2022 ·48 pages ·Culture
Maybe Someday
Maybe Someday
I Index
48/99
Near the Top

71/99

Critics

Maybe Someday

26/99

Readers

n/a

Scholars

65/99

Rating

77/99

Volume

19/99

Rating

34/99

Volume

Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.


About This Book

In this brilliant two-part memoir, the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer Hilton Als distills into one cocktail the deep and potent complexities of love and of loss, of Prince and of power, of desire and of race. It's delicious and it's got the kick of a mule, especially as Als swirls into his mix the downtown queer nightclub scene, the AIDS crisis, Prince's ass in his tight little pants, an ill-fated peach pie, Dorothy Parker, and his desire for true love. Always surprising and stealthily—even painfully—moving, Als plumbs longing: "I inched closer to him as he danced to you, Prince. But already he was you, Prince, in my mind. He had the same coloring, and the same loneliness I wanted to fill with my admiration. I couldn't love him enough. We were colored boys together. There is not enough of that in the world, Prince—but you know that. Still, when other people see that kind of fraternity they want to kill it. But we were so committed to each other, we never could work out what that violence meant. There was so much love between us. Why didn't anyone want us to share it?"


Preview


Reviews

"So many finely wrought perceptions stand out."

John M. Clum· The New York Journal of Books Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"That is the solace of Als's account of close encounters, his flash of a songbook—that it honors Prince's commitment to being untranslatable, unsampleable."

Harmony Holiday· Bookforum Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"A triumph of loving erudition and studied panache conveying Als' passion for the mercurial musical powerhouse who was known as Prince ..."

Raúl Niño· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Als brings serpentine prose and acerbic wit to this slim, two-part take on Prince, desire, and loss ..."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"At fewer than 50 pages, this book is too short to address Prince's protean nature in depth."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"An often cryptically personal text, My Pinup occasionally addresses the late artist directly ..."

Laura Miller· Slate Read review ↗ Near the Top

Reader Reviews

0 reviews

Sign in to write a review.

No reader reviews yet. Be the first!