Lydia Lunch "So Real It Hurts" Book (2019)

Details: Lydia Lunch, member of NY no-wave band Teenage Jesus and The Jerks digs into her collection of raw and powerfully evocative essays and reflections.

Short Description: "Lunch holds nothing back, providing rebellious, raunchy personal stories, scorching perspectives on the notion of mandatory motherhood, a purging glimpse at the nightmare of insomnia, and other themes." - Kirkus

Grade: M (new stock)

Full Description: "Through personal essays and interviews, punk musician and cultural icon Lydia Lunch claws and rakes at the reader’s conscience in this powerful, uninhibited feminist collection. Oscillating between provocative celebrations of her own defiant nature and nearly-tender ruminations on the debilitating effects of poverty, abuse, and environmental pollution, along with a visceral revenge fantasy against misogynistic men, Lydia Lunch presents her exploits without apology, daring the reader to judge her while she details the traumas and trials that have shaped her into the legendary figure she’s become.

Author: "Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career was spawned by the New York City no wave scene in the 1970s, predominantly as the singer and guitarist of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Her work typically features provocative and confrontational noise music delivery, and has maintained anti-commercial independence from major labels and distributors. The Boston Phoenix named Lunch one of the ten most influential performers of the 1990s. Her collaboration with Sonic Youth called "Death Valley '69" was named one of "The 50 Most Evil Songs Ever" by Kerrang!"

Quotes: 

“So Real It Hurts is the perfect title for this collection. It’s a mission statement. A few bleeding slices straight from the butcher shop. A sampler from an enormous archive of work that will, no doubt, be pored over by grad students, book lovers, film historians, music nerds, and straight-up perverts a hundred years from now.” —Anthony Bourdain, from the Introduction

“Lunch holds nothing back, providing rebellious, raunchy personal stories, scorching perspectives on the notion of mandatory motherhood, a purging glimpse at the nightmare of insomnia, and other themes. Amid these punchy personal revelations, the author layers honed essays with a broader scope. . . [It] seethes with the kind of urgency that reflects Lunch at her strongest. Lunch fans will enjoy her unleashed musings and the healthy rage that abound in these fierce essays.” —Kirkus Reviews

“So Real It Hurts proves that more than 40 years into her career, [Lydia Lunch]’s lost none of her blistering anger and astringent eloquence. . . This slim collection of potent essays, profane rants and astute cultural critiques sometimes reads like the writings of a hypnotic Beat poet. . . they are confrontational, confessional, electrifying and unforgettable.” —Shelf Awareness

“Lunch’s work is defiant, thrilling and unflinching. Her latest release, So Real It Hurts, is just so: an anthology of new and established writings that include everything from violent feminist revenge fantasies to diatribes on pollution and politics (and yes, Trump) in the Anthropocene epoch. . . [Her] sense of humour is dark, delightful and revelatory.” —The Guardian

“A feminist-anarchist manifesto that documents and critiques the modern age with a caustic, deliciously poisonous humor. . .  In every essay, Lunch’s unique voice and militant perspective shine through—we live in a dire age, and she turns her lens on America and the world with a pen as raucous and painfully aware as its holder.” —i-D, VICE

“The collection is personal, it’s political, it’s self-indulgent, it’s empathic, it’s wise, its funny. It’s totally Lydia.” —The Pittsburgh Current

“Her prose is incantatory—a point is made, made again, sharpened, and stabbed. She delivers dark sermons of death, perversity, and need with relish. . . So Real It Hurts makes it obvious that Lunch has always been more than a heckler. She is a journalist at heart, a documentarian of the darkest impulses, unafraid to catalogue ugliness, to be ugly, and to mock.” —Vol. 1 Brooklyn

“Lunch most definitely still works her dark magic via humour, horror and healing. . . It’s a full-on predatory psychic attack.” —Dazed

“Lydia Lunch is a leg­end unlike any oth­er. The per­for­mance artist, writer and musi­cian is a fire­work unto her­self. . . she has an uncan­ny abil­i­ty to fuse words togeth­er like bul­lets. She doesn’t hold back. She’s the author of over ten books and she’s now releas­ing So Real It Hurts, a col­lec­tion of essays pub­lished with Sev­en Sto­ries Press, which includes 20 essays from diaris­tic rants to polit­i­cal scribes, with an intro­duc­tion writ­ten by Antho­ny Bourdain.” —The Face

“Calling the writing of Lydia Lunch ‘transgressive fiction’ falls way short of effectively categorizing the brutal, raw, obscene and honest words she bleeds. She has created her own genre of nonfiction and at present is its sole inhabitant.” —Michael Imperioli, actor and author of The Perfume Burned His Eyes

“Lydia Lunch’s utterly sane visionary madness goes right to the rotten core.” —Mark Cunningham, musician (Mars and Blood Quartet)

“Her latest book pulls zero punches while giving the reader an inside look at the workings of this incredible and unique mind. . . hilarious and painstakingly honest.” – Phoenix New Times