Talk to Her

by Kristine McKenna

Kristine McKenna's work as a journalist began in the late 1970s, when she covered the Los Angeles punk scene for various domestic and international publications. During the '80s and '90s she wrote art, film and music criticism, and profiled directors, musicians and visual artists for a variety of publications including Artforum, Playboy, Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times and New York Rocker.Talk to Her is McKenna's second collection (the first was 1999's Book of Changes) of favorite interviews culled from McKenna's files, and the book reveal's McKenna's highly intimate technique as an interviewer. That she manages to get such candor out of her subjects is remarkable.The stunning list of interview subjects includes: Filmmaker Robert Altman; Jackie Onassis's cousin Edie Beale; punk rocker and poet Exene Cervenka; the musician Elvis Costello; surf guitar legend Dick Dale; the postmodern critic Jacques Derrida; Beat poet Allen Ginsberg; Television's Richard Hell and Tom Verlaine; art curator Walter Hopps; Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde; country music legend Rickie Lee Jones; the Sex Pistols' John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten); singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell; the Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man; punk rock legend Joey Ramone; New York rock legend Lou Reed; the actress Eva Marie Saint; and the recently-departed Joe Strummer of the Clash. Also included are brief oral histories of Andy Warhol and Orson Welles.Talk to Her also includes portraits of each interview subject by some of the best cartoonists in the world, including Daniel Clowes, Charles Burns, Phoebe Glockner, Tony Millionaire, Jeff Wong and others.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Film, Biography

264 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

Reviews

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kristine is a friend of mine, so it's strange to say something about her book. But i will say it: I love it. She's a remarkable interviewer and the questions she asks to well-known individuals like Johnny Rotten to art curator Walter Hopps deal with deeper subject matter than their latest film or work. She doesn't pry into their lives, but they do tell her things that they don't normally tell other interviewers. Also she has a lot of respect for her subject matters and their work. She is also curious about their work or thinking methods. A good book for anyone who is studying up on the craft of doing an interview.

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an eclectic collection of interviews by long-time journalist Kristine McKenna, with b&w illustrations by various comic book artists. Some of the questions seem perfunctory, and could be asked of anyone, while others are quite personal. It was interesting to read her interview with Walter Hopps, as it was done during the period that I worked with Hopps in Houston. Some of it is pure malarkey, while other bits delve deeper into what a conversation with Walter could be reveal (although the malarkey is also part of that).

In her interview with Derrida, it seems like she was trying to show how smart she was, while his answers were alarmingly simple and heartfelt. The interview with Guy Maddin felt thwarted.

It is never easy being interviewed by anyone, and the chemistry between the interviewer and interviewee makes all the difference.

[Adriana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven, but interesting.

Worth reading for the Orson Welles chapter alone.

[Kiof · Rating 3 out of 5]

A let down after her first book, which is a masterpiece. No fault should be placed on the author, who ranks as surely one of the best interviewers of all time. The blame is on the subjects, who should be interesting aren't very. The Orson Welles part is great, though.

[HeatherNicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best.