My Pinup
by
67/99
Critics' Rating Index
20/99
Readers' Rating Index
n/a
Scholars' Citation Index
77/99
Volume of Reviews
20/99
Volume of Reader Ratings
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?"
Reviews
"an examination that feels deeply personal but somehow intentionally vague and frustratingly opaque."
"Als is able to allow that psychic distance between him and his would-be lover here, but Prince can't quite achieve permission to not be one single being."
"At fewer than 50 pages, this book is too short to address Prince's protean nature in depth."
"My Pinup is less about what Prince actually was or did than it is about the role of Prince's image in Als' emerging identity."
"Don't be fooled by the page count, Als conjures entire worlds between these covers."
"A journey well worth taking, this distinctive, poised, compact book is an education and more."
"Prince is very much a presence in this little volume...Nonetheless, My Pinup is more about Als—about one queer Black man's real and imagined relationship to an artist whose career spanned much of his life ..."
Preview
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!