Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

By (author) David Wojnarowicz; Introduction by Olivia Laing

From the author’s violent childhood in suburbia to eventual homelessness on the streets and piers of New York City, to recognition as one of the most provocative artists of his generation – Close to the Knives is his powerful and iconoclastic memoir. Street life, drugs, art and nature, family, AIDS, politics, friendship and acceptance: Wojnarowicz challenges us to examine our lives – politically, socially, emotionally, and aesthetically.

Reviews of Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration

David Wojnarowicz has caught the age-old voice of the road, the voice of the traveller, the outcast, the thief, the whore … Pick up this book and listen — William S. Burroughs David Wojnarowicz: still fighting prejudice 24 years after his death … Nothing I have ever read matches the fury and grief of this writing — Olivia Laing * Guardian * Wojnarowicz's writing fairly smokes with acrid ironies. It's passionate and personal * New York Magazine * David Wojnarowicz is brilliantly attuned to American talk and responsive to the moods and innovations of society's truants. He also has the best conscience of any writer I know. This fierce, erotic, haunting, truthful book should be given to every teenager immediately — Dennis Cooper Everyone should read Close to the Knives to understand the overall political agenda behind suffering … This isn't just David's story, it's our story — Karen Finley