I'll never write my memoirs
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In her first book, legendary performer Grace Jones offers a revealing account of her spectacular career and turbulent life, charting the development of a persona that has made her one of the world's most recognizable artists. As a singer, model, and actress, Grace has consistently been an extreme, challenging presence in the entertainment world since her emergence as an international model in the 1970s. Celebrated for her audacious talent and trailblazing style, Grace became one of the most unforgettable, free-spirited characters to emerge from the historic Studio 54, recording glittering disco classics. Her provocative shows in underground New York nightclubs saw her hailed as a disco queen, gay icon, and gender-defying iconoclast. In 1980, she escaped a crowded disco scene to pursue more experimental interests. Her music also broke free, blending house, reggae, and electronica into a timeless hybrid. In the memoir she once promised never to write, Grace offers an intimate insight into her evolving style, personal philosophies, and varied career--including her roles in the 1984 fantasy-action film Conan the Destroyer alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and the James Bond movie A View to a Kill. Featuring sixteen pages of full-color photographs, this book follows this ageless creative nomad as she rejects her strict religious upbringing in Jamaica; conquers New York, Paris, and the 1980s; answers to no-one; and lives to fight again and again.--Adapted from book jacket.
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So. I don't read memoirs. I've very little interest in them, usually. But, come on. I HAD to read Grace Jones'. So when my partner was finished, I picked it up out of curiosity–and discovered some lovely writing. So lovely that I decided I should read it.
Grace is a very interesting person. A contradictory person. Strong and vulnerable, confident and uncertain. A person mostly interested in discovering the new, in recreating herself constantly. She is also a bit paranoid and prone to unfortunate relationships, and prone to having men issues. It's interesting that a woman with such a strong personality often gets mucked up by her relationships with men. And it's peculiar, to me, as a Millennial, that such a fierce woman has a fairly gendered view of men and women, that in some ways, she's old-fashioned in her view of gender and sex.
That being said, she's fascinating and intelligent. Her stories of her childhood are chilling, and I loved looking at pop-cultural history through the eyes of someone who lived it. And the history of her home, Jamaica.
Even though this book took the longest time to read all year, and I'm not into memoirs, I still quite enjoyed it.
