Edie: American Girl by Jean Stein
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Book Reviews of Edie: American Girl
Book Review: Comprehensive and Fascinating
Summary: 5 Stars
American Girl traces Sedgwick's ascent to counterculture fame, from her pampered childhood in California to her forays into film and modeling. Compiled interviews with her relatives, lovers, and friends trace the lineage of an entire family, re-create the "Silver Sixties" and provide an exhaustive account of Edie's life.
The Sedgwicks were an old-time wealthy family; Judge Theodore Sedgwick, "a political ally of Alexander Hamilton and George Washington," was Speaker of the House following the American Revolution. His descendants have been illustrious All-American lawyers, magnates, artists and actors - all beautiful and, it seems, all in serious emotional turmoil.
Edie was brought up in a fabulously luxurious but dysfunctional household. Her Cambridge classmates describe Edie's destructive relationship with her sculptor father, Francis "Duke" Sedgwick. In an attempt to resist Duke's stranglehold, Edie fled to New York at 19. There, she joined the pop art crowd and was Andy Warhol's muse from 1965 until 1966, when she left the Factory to pursue mainstream acting. She had, by all accounts, a marvelous screen presence, but in the end her acting career materialized solely in the inventive but forgettable 1972 release Ciao! Manhattan.
Following her failed attempt at movie stardom, Edie died at 28 of a barbiturate overdose. She never fulfilled her promise as a model, actress, or clothing designer - any of which, according to American Girl, she had the resources and potential to be. Sedgwick burst upon the art scene as an actress of great promise, only to die young as another drug casualty. Like many of her contemporaries, Edie faded away before burning out.
Stein's book also includes fascinating first-hand accounts of the social circles Sedgwick moved in. Interviews with members of America's elite upper class, the Factory crowd, and Edie's friends in a biker commune provide vivid descriptions of people and communities that have since changed drastically or ceased to exist. Stein warns readers that "Edie kept us all in different compartments," and that is accurate. Interviewees describe her alternately as cold and manipulative, loving and childlike, brilliant and boring. But whether readers consider Edie compelling or just another pretty face, American Girl provides insight on subcultures of wealthy moguls, starving artists, and everyone in between.
Book Review: A brief glamorous life in the fast lane
Summary: 5 Stars
The American counterculture of the 1960s took on various forms and strangely some of those differences seemed to depend of geography. There was quite a difference in style been the hip culture of the Bay Area as opposed to that of New York City. One thing this book does is spot light the counter culture of New York during the 1960s through the eyes of those who lived it.
These were the days when the movers and shakers freely mixed with the bohemian crowd.
The book is although arranged in a type of chronology of the life of Edie Sedgwick.
It also does an interesting thing in not only focusing on Edie but the two most important men in her life: her father and Andy Warhol. In that way it is an interesting psychological study.
Edie came from a family that was the closest thing to aristocracy in America. But by the time the Sedgwick family gets to Edie's generation is has become a very dysfunctional one.
And although the book does a good job chronicling the 60s is also is a tale of a life tragically doomed and the pace it follows through person accounts reads much like a Greek tragedy while the chorus of friends and lovers each tell the tale we get the strong feeling, even if we did not know a thing about Edie before we picked up the book, how the story will end.
Much of the book is about (as well as told by) the denizens of Andy Warhol's "Factory" and it gives a lot of insight into its culture. I think for most of us it is strange world and its characters are not always shown in the best light but each of the people interviewed for the book give their perspective usually in a fairly dispassionate way.
It is a book about many things: dysfunctional families, fame, the art world, Warhol, people morally set a drift, the counterculture and a butterfly squished on the automobile grill of life.
It actually covers quite a bit of ground on a number of levels and whether you find some of the characters distasteful or not between the lines there is quite a bit said in this book about human nature and American culture.
Included are black and white photos that help us come to know the major players.
It is an interesting book that is hard to put down.
Recommended
Jim Connell "Hallstatt Prince"
Book Review: Glamorous, Fabulous, and Pathetic
Summary: 5 Stars
Edie Sedgwick was one of the hottest media events of the mid 1960's, a burning star enjoying the newest kind of fame - celebrity, i.e., being well-known for doing nothing except existing. Like so many of her generation, Miss Sedgwick crashed and burned (literally) at the end of the 1960's, dying of a barbituate overdose at the ripe old age of 28, after a series of well-publicized drug freakouts, accidents, and "rest cures" in mental hospitals. As other reviewers have noted, the conceit of telling Sedgwick's story through interviews with those who knew her is brilliant, producing a riveting narrative exposing to public view the inner workings of the many worlds in which Sedgwick moved - high-society, art, California biker, and East Village drug addict. Ultimately, Sedgwick impresses the reader as a force of nature, incredibly charismatic and compelling to those around her. Sadly, her glamour was not enough to save her from herself. What emerges from this book is a disturbing portrait of a world obsessed with money, fame, fashion and "fabulousness." As far as I could tell, this "glamourous" lifestyle seemed to consist chiefly of dressing foolishly, ingesting enormous quantities of drugs, copulating with anyone who showed an interest (of either sex), and living in a dreamworld of eternal youth and unending fame. Despite the vivid recollections of the interviewees, Sedgwick's life and "career" have left very few traces. Her death certificate described her as an "actress," but what Sedgwick "performances" can you think of today? She broke all the rules, but ultimately accomplished little. Not only was Sedgwick self-destructive and superficial, so was everyone else around her. The book is a stunning chronicle of an impatient era and a self-absorbed society convinced that the world belonged to it alone and that the party would never end. "Edie" is the perfect epitaph to the 1960's, a decade which "trumpeted fulfillment but achieved only confusion." (C. Paglia, 1991)Book Review: Disturbing/fascinating look at a lost soul in pop-era NYcity
Summary: 5 Stars
As a small-town west coast preteen in the 60s and self-absorbed teen in the 70s I was peripherally aware of the "pop" scene in New York City (mostly from my mother shaking her head over the photos and stories in "Life" magazine). When "Edie" was published I ran across it in a book club review and it just sounded intriguing. I ended up reading "Edie" so many times the cover practically fell off. Then a few years ago it mysteriously vanished from my bookshelves -- did I lend it to someone who was as morbidly fascinated as I by the tragic rise and fall of "Warhol's little queen" (as the Cult song says)??? One thing's for sure: Edie was a victim of Warhol's astounding ego -- or madness -- sucked into the black hole of his twisted little soul. Of course, she came from a long line of borderline personalities in a high-society family. The excesses of the 60s were absolutely the end of the road -- or rope -- for many of these types. As one who "missed" the whole self-indulgent and uncontrolled scene, after reading "Edie" I finally realized that I'm much better off having just read about those times. It's a real collage of that generation's high-fliers and fringe dwellers that will not cease to amaze. So why am I writing this review now? I just heard the song I referred to earlier, the Cult's "Edie," and I am now ordering a new copy of the book. Plimpton's word-of-mouth writing style brings the viewpoints of so many people who were there it's like theater in the round, or something -- you see and experience the scene from every angle. You don't hear just from the heads and freaks, you hear from the spectrum of New York's inhabitants, plus many of Edie's kinfolk. I recommend the book to anyone who likes to see how the stranger half live and who wants to experience the story-book coming of age and final degradation of a fragile, lovely girl who was caught in the sordid vortex of the pop culture.Book Review: Faery Child
Summary: 5 Stars
The oral history form is perfect for "Edie" little-girl-lost, who streaked across the '60's horizon like a falling star. Despite her grace, fragile beauty and charisma; Edie Sedgewick was almost born to be doomed even before the drugs did her in.She was born into a wealthy old family that had a history of instability. Her father, also breathtakingly beautiful, had crushing psychological problems. Two of her brothers committed suicide. Her mother was ineffectual with her large brood. She was raised on an isolated ranch with her seven siblings with almost no contact with the outside world. When she hit Cambridge at 18, she was pathetically ill equipped to be in the larger world.
I couldn't agree more that she found herself in the midst of horribly decadent people. Andy Warhol gets a particularly bad rap in this book, but to me, he was no better nor worse than his hangers-on, just a shade more self-absorbed. What really saddened me was that I don't think it really mattered who Edie took up with. She was destined to spin out of control. She had no focus, no inner strength, and was dangerously self-centered and delusionary.
"Edie" is compelling reading whether or not you have experienced the '60's. It is good to keep in mind that Edie herself and the contributors to the book all were a part of a very small stratum that whistled through this confusing decade. They were no more representative of the rank and file than Emmerin is representative of this decade.
Such a lovely child, such a terrible waste.