Lust For Life: On the Writings of Kathy Acker

by Carla Harryman (Editor), Amy Scholder (Editor)

Kathy Acker was one of the most original, subversive and influential writers of the late 20th century. Known variously, and notoriously, as a consummate postmodernist, feminist, post-punk and plagiarist, her oeuvreover a dozen novels and novellashas inspired a generation of writers and artists.

Lust for Life is the definitive collection of essays on Acker’s inimitable work, including Peter Wollen’s elegiac primer, widely considered the best introduction to Acker, and Avital Ronell’s erudite meditation on friendship and mourning. Together these essays by scholars and writers reveal Acker’s profound and innovative project, and the ways in which fiction can penetrate the heart of political and cultural life.

Genres: Essays

120 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 2006

Reviews

[Heidi Nemo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Further proof: nobody quite knows what to make of Kathy Acker, not even those who knew her, loved her, fucked her, and/or studied her, as this anthology proves. Dense with po-mo theoretical bull (not in a good way). Frustrating, but does give some context.

[Tom Buchanan]

Some of these pieces were sympathetic and insightful, more than a few were insufferable. Some were both.

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these essays were great but some were not the one. Who writes an essay about another author and ends up narrating every thought they themselves has ever had.