Widow Basquiat: A Love Story

By Jennifer Clement

The beautifully written, deeply affecting story of Jean-Michel Basquiat's partner, her past, and their life together An NPR Best Book of the Year Selection New York City in the 1980s was a mesmerizing, wild place. A hotbed for hip hop, underground culture, and unmatched creative energy, it spawned some of the most significant art of the 20th century. It was where Jean-Michel Basquiat became an avant-garde street artist and painter, swiftly achieving worldwide fame. During the years before his death at the age of 27, he shared his life with his lover and muse, Suzanne Mallouk. A runaway from an unhappy home in Canada, Suzanne first met Jean-Michel in a bar on the Lower East Side in 1980. Thus began a tumultuous and passionate relationship that deeply influenced one of the most exceptional artists of our time. In emotionally resonant prose, award-winning author Jennifer Clement tells the story of the passion that swept Suzanne and Jean-Michel into a short-lived, unforgettable affair. A poetic interpretation like no other, Widow Basquiat is an expression of the unrelenting power of addiction, obsession and love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553419919
• ISBN13: 9780553419917
• Release Date: November 2014
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Window into another life

This book was a beautiful glimpse into the life and love in the world of art. A quick read, Widow Basquiat was inspiring and keeps you hooked until the very end. Just Kids, by Patti Smith is very similar and I would definitely recommend it if you enjoyed this tale.

absolutely a gem

knowing the parties involved. i was deeply touched and moved by this love story and psychological mining of its subjects. this is an invaluable insight to the back story behind an incredibly important artist living through a period of new york city history while honestly addressing the drugs that were so much a part of driving production of so many artists at the time. Basquiat was no exception to this and certainly not alone.

Hearts and Tracks

This book was a excellent book in the matter that it protrayed another perspective of Jean-Michel Basquiat and let us in on the life of one of his most enduring muses in his short and unfortunate addictive lifestyle and life. The books poetic writings give Jean-Michel and Suzannes life together a hard tragedy instead of a glamorous protrayal (tragedy is the actual matter of fact). Jean-Michel and Suzanne's relationship was truely bizarre and not understanding to the everyday person. People who know or know of Jean-Michel probably never knew the side of him that Suzanne saw, and it is refreshing and wonderful that we were allowed to read such intimate details of their life together. I titled this review "Hearts and Tracks" because the book is full of heart and the heroine abuse of Suzanne and Basquiat (including a discription of his unfortunate death).

Come to a free reading of this book in New York

On Sunday September 9th the author will be giving a free reading of this book, to celebrate it's US release, at St. Mark's Church, 131 East 10th street @ 2nd avenue at 7pm.......

INSIDE THE ARTIST'S LIFE

When I read this book I could not put it down...I had always been a fan of Jean Michel Basquiat's work and so was very curious to read this book. This book was absolutely beautifully written. It has a very poetic, surreal, childlike quality to it....the style it is written in resembles the style the artist painted in...It is clear that this author was intimately acquainted with both Jean Michael and Suzanne. This book is far from a journalistic accounting of the story...it is about the feeelings, the smells, the tastes....this book is a sensory account of the time...it takes the reader back there...it is amazingly moving. Bravo to Jennifer Clement. I am sure to hear more of her very soon. She is a brilliant writer.

LEGITIMATE GLANCE INTO THE ARTIST'S LIFE & 1980's E. VILLAGE

Unlike the popular movie "Basquiat" and other convoluted accountings of the artist's life, this book is a part of the "real deal" of what went down --- written by the author with the help of Basquiat's girlfriend of the time --two figures who were really there and in the artist's life well before he was ever heard of or given any serious attention by the likes of Warhol or anyone else with a famous name. This book is free of the hype and distortion that has sadly compromised other descriptions of what really went down. The book also depicts some of the rawness and flavor of what was happening in the East Village/Lower East Side during that time period.The book is written in a poetically hypnotic style utilizing a structure of short passages for easy reading. Hard to put it down once started. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!