Edie: American Girl by Jean Stein
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Book Reviews of Edie: American Girl
Book Review: It's like reading about a dream and a nightmare
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not the 'artsy' type but I found myself watching Basquiat one night. That -and listening to the Velvet Underground a few times got me interested in Andy Warhol a bit. So I looked him up on yahoo and lo and behold, the most beautiful faces kept appearing on screen. It was none other than Edie Sedgwick. I figured she must have frequented the "Factory" of Andy's but still earned a lot of money as a top fashion model, a-la Twiggy.I read the reviews here, though and heard a much different life story. When I finally got and read the book, i realized how lost this girl was. The drugs, the sex, the shopaholism,even pyromania!
Still-at the same time-she was such a strong character that right until the end, she was still influencing people and going through a lifestyle that she never could've gotten away with today.
Despite her tragedy, her legacy is still there, and still ripe for the picking, so to speak. She still remains my fashion muse...Edie has inspired me to get into the fashion scene in some kind of way. Also, her sense of style-the chandelier earings, falsies, and that amazing hair- is UNMATCHED.
I thank her for all that she influenced upon me and other girls that simply cannot be put into words.
Book Review: Edie Sedgwick: American Girl
Summary: 5 Stars
I enjoyed the style in which this book was written, with excerpts of conversations of siblings and friends, people who knew Edie personally and the Sedgwick family history and revelation of mental illness that ran through generations. This book is excellent in getting to know the truth and is well written by Jean Stein and George Plimpton and is articulate in exposing the dynamics of this complex family and dysfunctional problems that existed within the family long before Edie entered Radcliffe and moved to New York City. The authors did an excellent job of chronicling every aspect of this generation of the Sedgwick family and introduced the reader to the famous "Sedgwick Pie" and is a personal perspective of this family's lineage. Even though it was written in 1982, this book does not read dated at all. In recent years it has been suggested that Edie may have suffered from a type of personality disorder, but there is no denying the mental illness that affected her father and two brothers. Interesting pictures of family, Edie, and friends are included as well. This is probably the best book ever written about this troubled girl.Book Review: Edie:An American Review
Summary: 5 Stars
Although this book is over twenty years old, it is still a good source of info about this "Girl of 1965", Edie Sedgwick. Not only does the book document the rise of Edie at Andy Warhol's Factory, it chronicles her wacky childhood of privledge and turbulent teen years. Her sisters and only surviving brother give detailed accounts of Edie and her struggle with eating disorders and frequent hospitalizations. The family also talks about the abuse they suffered at the hands of their father, Francis Sedgwick, and the effect it had on the entire family. "Edie" is a great read on a life of a woman whose life ended long ago in a time that seems unreal to most young people of today. "Edie" not only documents a time in pop history ,but a life which was lived tragically wrong and gave out all too soon.Book Review: Psychology of a tragic heroine
Summary: 5 Stars
It's funny how a person's childhood experiences can set a person up for success or failure as an adult. However, in the case of Edie Sedgwick, her failures as an adult were definitely unfunny. I loved that this book relied only on quotes from the people who had met/known her. Exceptional research into every stage of Edie's life to uncover people who experienced her in each incarnation and brilliant editing make this an extremely special biography. It is evident that the choices the adult Edie made which were ultimately destructive were foreshadowed by events in her childhood. I don't think it's necessary for you to be fascinated by the scenes Edie lived through to enjoy the book. If you approach this as a psychological study of an individual, it becomes mainstream reading, not just a pop-culture chronicle.Book Review: The 60's " with her fog, her amphetamine, and her pearls".
Summary: 5 Stars
This amazing book shows some of the less constructive aspects of Andy Warhol's at times manipulative pop guises. However, it gives us a glimpse of an American woman struggling to come to grips with the "melting" of traditional gender and class roles. Rather than being a case story in the damage that drugs cause, Edie Sedgewick's life seems to be a very vivid depiction of overly punitive drug laws. Edie seems to have suffered from undiagnosed ADD and Tourette's Syndrom (TS). Rather than being pesecuted by her family for her abuse of amphetamine (as Stein's book horrifcly demonstrates), Edie should have been on a comfortable dose of d-amphetamine and a tricylic anti-depressant with some Clonidine. Stein's book gives us an example of why we need a more "poetic psychiatry".