The History of Bones

The History of Bones
John Lurie
RRP:
NZ$ 48.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 38.40
Hardback
h235 x 156mm - 464pg
17 Aug 2021 US
International import eta 7-19 days
9780399592973
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
The quintessential depiction of 1980s New York and the downtown scene from the artist, actor, musician, and composer John Lurie. In the tornado that was downtown New York in the 1980s, John Lurie stood in its vortex. After founding the band The Lounge Lizards with his brother in 1979, Lurie quickly became a centrifugal figure in the world of outsider artists, cutting-edge filmmakers, and cultural rebels. Now, Lurie vibrantly brings to life the whole wash of 1980s New York as he develops his artistic soul over the course of the decade and comes into orbit with all the prominent artists of that time and place, such as Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Boris Policeband, and especially Jean-Michel Basquiat, the enigmatic artistic prodigy who spent a year sleeping on Lurie' s floor on East Third Street. It may feel like Disney World now, but in The History of Bones, the East Village, through Lurie' s clear-eyed reminiscence, comes to teeming, gritty life. The book is full of grime and frank humor-Lurie pulls no punches and bars no holds in his descriptions of the frothy whirlpool of the East Village at that time. His story is a journey back to one of the most significant moments in our cultural history, one whose reverberations are still strongly felt today. History may repeat itself, but the way downtown New York happened in the 1980s will never happen again. Luckily, through this beautiful memoir, we all have a front-row seat.
"There is a purity to John Lurie' s writing that feels almost spiritual--the stories unspool from him, seemingly effortlessly, with the fluidity of a great jazz player. Lurie has lived many lives--' More than once I have witnessed the inexplicable, ' he tells us--and this book moves us through them all. "--Nick Flynn, author of Another Bullshit Night in Suck City"No other human' s strange struggles and triumphs are like this. I was transfixed reading Lurie' s yearning to make sense of it all, slamming his fist through the precious veneer of the early eighties New York art/music scene. Yeeeooooow. "--Flea, author of Acid for the Children "Look behind John Lurie' s adventure so far and see how it flows from epiphanies: their arrival, their loss, the very possibility of them. Epiphanies consign an artist to life as a hunter-mystic, in a world where the impeccable and the tawdry are equally sacred--a hell of a place, and it' s from here that Lurie' s candor throws us epiphanies to take away. This is not a book headed for bookshelves; it' s coming to crash on your couch. "--DBC Pierre, author of Vernon God Little, winner of the Booker Prize"By turns comic, pissed off, and desolate, his raffish picaresque captures everything. . . . The result is an energetic, raucous reprise of an adventurously offbeat life. "--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Lurie proves to . . . be a wry, sly, furious, and vivid storyteller. His raucously frank, sardonic, sex-saturated, compulsively detailed, and hard-charging memoir is incandescent with illuminations of his musical mission, including his film scores, his friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and his conflicts with Jim Jarmusch. . . . Lurie leaves readers wanting more. "--Booklist
John Lurie is a musician, painter, actor, director, and producer. He co-founded The Lounge Lizards in 1979. Since then, he has recorded twenty-two albums (not including those by his alter ego Marvin Pontiac), acted in nineteen films, including Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law, composed and performed music for twenty television and film works, exhibited his paintings throughout the world, and produced, directed, and starred in the Fishing with John television series. His new series, Painting with John, debuted on HBO in January 2021.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780399592973
Published: 17 Aug 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: Random House Books
Publisher: Random House USA Inc
Format: Hardback
Height: 235mm
Width: 156mm
Pages: 464

In stock - for items in stock we aim to dispatch the next business day. For delivery in NZ allow 2-5 business days, with rural taking a wee bit longer.

Locally sourced in NZ - stock comes from a NZ supplier with an approximate delivery of 7-15 business days.

International Imports - stock is imported into NZ, depending on air or sea shipping option from the international supplier stock can take 10-30 working days to arrive into NZ. 

Pre-order Titles - delivery will vary depending on where the title is published, if local stock is available in NZ then 5-7 business days, for international imports it can be 10-30 business days. In all cases we will access the quickest supply option.

Delivery Packaging - we ship all items in cardboard sleeves or by box with either packing paper or corn starch chips. (We avoid using plastics bubble bags)

Tracking - Orders are delivered by track and trace courier and are fully insured, tracking information will be sent by email once dispatched.

View our full Order & Delivery information