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Fire In The Belly: The Life And Times Of David Wojnarowicz (2012)

by Cynthia Carr(Favorite Author)

4.54 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1596915331 (ISBN13: 9781596915336)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bloomsbury USA

review 1: I'm so glad to have stumbled on this in-depth biography of David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992), whom I was aware of as an AIDS casualty and a wonderful writer (Close to the Knives) and an angry, out gay man, but not so much as a visual artist, since I was in my early twenties when Wojnarowicz died.Cynthia Carr's bio goes deep into the heart of David's harrowing childhood. I found details I did not know because David never talked about them, for example the fact that his abusive father, Ed, committed suicide by hanging himself in the mid-'70s. Carr also fleshes out the figure of Dolores, Wojnarowicz's mother, as much as she can. It turns out that his mother was just as disturbing a figure as his father, and left as many (if not more) emotional scars, because she ended up abandoni... moreng all three of her children in their teen years. The bio also includes the disturbing but not surprising fact that Wojnarowicz was molested by his father, something that he never spoke publicly about.The details of David's years of artistic success in New York are fascinating, though I find it so cruelly ironic that he had only a few years to enjoy success...if indeed he ever actually enjoyed it. The enigmatic relationship with photographer Peter Hujar is explored beautifully. Even David's tentative relationships with women are explored, showing that each time he came too close to a female friend, he would end up pushing her away. His scary rages at his friends and lovers are not whitewashed and his troubles with intimacy are made all too clear, but his loving nature and deep-thinking, poetic mind shines through as well.Since Carr was a personal friend, this bio is a very intimate portrait, harrowing sometimes, but one never gets the sense that Carr has become contemptuous of her subject. The only niggle I had was that Carr could have done more to bring us up to date with certain figures in David's life, like Tom Rauffenbart, his boyfriend. An early friend called John Hall is featured in a fascinating vignette and never mentioned again. I would have liked know what happened to David's mother, too.
review 2: Moving and masterful. The quality if the research and writing is exceptional. This isn't just the story if the visionary Wojnarowicz, it's also the story of the East Village art boom and its gentrification, how AIDS terrorized a generation and robbed us of amazing talents, the story of the start of the culture war and NEA scandals, and the story of transcending a fractured childhood. C Carr expertly weaves all of this information together to spellbinding effect. Indispensable! less

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