Pussycat Fever

by Kathy Acker, Diane DiMassa (Illustrator), Freddie Baer (Illustrator)

"If one day, a bad girl named Dante met a mean dyke called Hieronymous Bosch, this is the book they'd make."—Jenny Livingstone, director, Paris Burning .
"Scarified sensibility, subversive intellect, and predatory wit make her a writer like no other" — The New York Times Book Review
Kathy Acker holds a unique place among American novelists, as a writer who constantly pushes at the frontiers of modern fiction, with each new work advancing further into uncharted territory. Pussycat Fever is a hallucinatory amalgam of emotion and desire. Join Pussycat and the anonymous narrator on a journey filled with sex and dangerous liaisons. Coming of age was never like this! Kathy's words are complemented by the artwork of Diane DiMassa —best known for her long running comic book series Hothead Paisan —and the intriguing collages of famed artist Freddie Baer.

Genres: Fiction, Comics

76 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1995

About the author

Born of German-Jewish stock, Kathy Acker was brought up by her mother and stepfather (her natural father left her mother before Kathy was born) in a prosperous district of NY. At 18, she left home and worked as a stripper. Her involvement in the sex industry helped to make her a hit on the NY art scene, and she was photographed by the newly fashionable Robert Mapplethorpe. Preferring to be known simply as 'Acker' (the name she took from her first husband Robert, and which she continued to use even after a short-lived second marriage to composer Peter Gordon), she moved to London in the mid-eighties and stayed in Britain for five years.

Acker's writing is as difficult to classify into any particular genre as she herself was. She writes fluidly, operating in the borderlands and junkyards of human experience. Her work is experimental, playful, and provocative, engagingly alienating, narratively non sequitur.

Reviews

[Mic Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in the bath and I leave the bath someone else, alongside those I forgot I had been.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kathy Acker is a literally genius.

[Olivia]

Short read which I really enjoyed. Was nice to be situated back into the Pussy, King world at least for a little bit, and I think this opening section which follows O is wayyy better when it's only at this length. Rest of it got a little stale in the full book imo. But anyway: continually in awe and inspired by Kathy's playful command of language. Thinking a lot about how she writes about sex/sexual organs changing, also duality/twins/mirrors... food for thought for the piece I'm currently working on. Just delightful as always!

"She was a boy who would never grow up. I shall be a boy too, as soon as I learn my sexuality."

[Gareth Schweitzer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Discombobulating and a bit dull. One of the only redeeming features of this is the large format print and bordered pages which reminds me of a young person’s book, which is in line with one of the book's main themes. Oh, and some of the illustrations are OK.
Whilst there is evidently autobiographical content, it lacks narrative drive, textural (textual) interest, and slides off the pages in all directions! Blergh!

[Coles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strange, definitely abstract, but a quick read with some good quotes.

[Phillip Goodman]

Let me just say, straight off the bat, this is a snap shot of a larger work, and thats not something i'd usually go for, abridged in my book is a four letter word, and a particularly nasty one at that, but pussycat fever justifies it through brilliant illustrations, collage art, design and even typesetting, something that the publishing world has largely forgotten about. Uncanny, dark and surreal in form and content, brilliantly twisted, the only thing that could be better than this is if the whole work of which this is an extract of were to be done in the same way.

[Nern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. I don't really know what to say about this one yet. I think I have to read it at least three more times before I can make a relevant comment. That didn't mean I didn't like it. You know how dreams follow half logic, like you feel it makes sense until after you wake up and really think about it? That's how I felt after reading some of the pages in Pussycat Fever.

[Lucie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was positively the weirdest book I'd accidentaly opened at work... It was quite amusing though but it very much reminded me of something I've read before... for the love of God can't remember what though. If Richard Brautigan wrote half pornography, this would be the result.

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t get it but at the same time I also really do. There’s some parts that just make total sense but it’s also like reading a dream that is all over the place. A fun lil read! Also the illustrations are swag.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I need to read more of her work, but at the moment I really don't think I "get" Kathy Acker.

[Doctor Cat]

After reading this book a second time, I still don’t know what to do with Acker.