Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland
by James St. James
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Book Summary Information
Author: James St. JamesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-09-02
ISBN: 0743259823
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Book Reviews of Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland
Book Review: Yum Yum
Summary: 5 Stars
St James is magic - I'm convinced of it. His bio might have him listed as living in Los Angeles or some other such place but for anyone who's had the delight of finishing Party Monster knows that he really lives in some higher, sparklier realm of existence reserved for the Keebler Elves, Santa Clause, Marilyn Monroe and one of Liberace's fountain heads. If there's another writer on the face of the planet that can feed me the most horrific details of a murder, describe in detail the sawing up of a human being into little bits and chunks, then tell the story of how those bits and chunks came to be in a trunk that ends up idiotically bobbing up and down a river, and in doing so makes me run the full gambit of the emotional spectrum from cringe inducing, verge of vomiting horror to wet my pants laughter in the next moment I DEMAND to be shown them.
Most people know this story already - after all its old hat and has been repeated a hundred thousand times or more - if not here, then in other places across the world in different times. Boy meets boy, boy gets angry, power struggles ensue, fights break out, boy hits other boy with hammer and then injects Draino in his victim's veins before hacking apart the body. You know, real typical Byronian stuff. However what makes this book so gripping is not the murder its self, which actually is only a very small part of this whole ordeal, but rather the slow downward slide of madness that our merry murderers undertake on their way to the real Point of No Return.
Reading this story is a little akin to sobering up prematurely at a party before you've managed to leave or find someone to tumble into bed with. One moment you're laughing your head off and then the next you feel an unnatural silence take hold of you as you realize that that joke isn't funny anymore. There's a tragedy in this book and it's not the animal abuse, it's not the questionable sex scenes with minors, it's not the murder, god help me it's not even the fact that the most basic human rights to dignity were violated in more than one case - it's the waste of human potential. And when all's said and done, at the end of the day that's what saves a book like Party Monster from being little more than an amusing anecdote residing on anyone's book shelf. What we are as humans, what we have yet to achieve and what we see in our dreams is the stuff that makes life worth living, and when we rob not only ourselves but an entire subculture filled with lost and lonely kids of that as well, for however briefly, a crime of great magnitude has surely taken place. I only count myself as one of the lucky ones for having someone like James manage to survive the flying pieces of shrapnel and report back to me from afar as to what the extent of the damage looked like.
Summary of Party Monster: A Fabulous But True Tale of Murder in Clubland
When Disco Bloodbath was first published, it created a storm of controversy for its startlingly vivid, strikingly fresh, and outrageously funny depiction of the hedonistic world of the New York City club kids, for whom nothing was too outré -- including murder. Nominated for the Edgar Award for best true-crime book of the year, it also marked the debut of an audaciously talented writer, James St. James, who himself had been a club kid and close friend and confidant of Michael Alig, the young man convicted of killing the drug dealer known as Angel.
Now the book has been brought to the screen as Party Monster, with Macaulay Culkin playing killer Michael Alig and Seth Green as author/celebutante James St. James.
In 1996, New York City drug dealer and "club kid" Angel Melendez was bludgeoned, injected with Drano, dismembered, and tossed into the river. James St. James was there when the killer confessed, but before that, there were the clubs, the parties, the drugs, and the many fabulous (and some not so fabulous) outfits. Disco Bloodbath is "celebutante" St. James's story, equal parts confession and attempt at closure. This is no square-jawed detective's account of the investigation of the crime; St. James is a drug-addled clubster who wears a wedding dress out on the town and invokes Judy Garland as he talks about the scene in which he and Melendez immersed themselves before the murder. His story, despite its gruesome subject matter and frequent, shocking lucidity, has a chatty and anecdotal quality that's compelling, endearing, and unrelentingly human. --Lisa Higgins
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