Swimming Underground: My Years in the Warhol Factory

I'VE READ MANY BOOKS ON THE SIXTIES WARHOL FACTORY SCENE AND ITS FOLLOWERS AND THIS ONE WAS BY FAR THE FUNNIEST,MOST TRUTHFUL ACCOUNT OF THE WHOLE FACTORY SCENE THAT I HAVE READ TO DATE(I READ IT IN A DAY). I BELIEVE MARY'S ACCOUNT OF THE STORY BECAUSE SHE PUTS IT ALL OUT THERE AND PULLS NO PUNCHES. IF YOU READ SOME OF THE OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE FACTORY(DEPENDING ON WHO WROTE IT)THE WRITER ALWAYS TRYS TO PLAY DOWN THIER OWN PART IN THE MANIA. MARY DOES NOT DO THAT. SHE WAS A SPEED FREAK AND LETS YOU KNOW IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT.HOWEVER I THINK ANYONE WHO DOES NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT ERA WOULD HAVE A HARD TIME READING IT.

If you're expecting soup cans and canned supertars, you may be in for a shock. This is the squalid, squirming flip side of the swinging sixties, and Warhol is little more than an intermittent background hum. False advertising? not really, for Woronov-star of Chelsea Girls and other Warhol films-serves up a memoir tthat's both seedier, sleazier, and more sophisticated than the standard celebrity tell-all. Woronov is icily seductive, coaxing the reader into a tar pit of sex and death, of drugs and drag queens, of the twilight zone between real life and hallucination. All-night speed binges, Velvet Underground gigs, the woman without a vagina-this freakshow is closer to David Lynch or Hieronymous Bosch than any of Warhol's dry-cleaned imagery. The book reads like a flashback; one moment you'll feel there's nothing going on, and the next you'll be sent spinning by a cunning metaphor or appalling image. A sleeper of a book, but full of strange and affecting dreams.

Mary Woronov's Years in the Warhol Scene/Factory! I loved this Book! The style, the juxtaposition of Hard edged Woman & a lost little girl. I loved that she was "unlikable" This is the type of strong heroine the Suburban punkettes should be emulating. She knows who the fakers are and where they reside. She follows her Own path on her Own terms. When she almost allowed that Stalker girl to get hit by the train I was Jarred but secretly hoping for, as Mary was for an ending worth telling the Grandkids about! Don't be afraid to Swim Underground!

I read this book to get more background on The Factory. I suggest that you do not buy this if you are looking for a book with background. You have to know a bit about The Factory to understand what's going on. I really enjoyed this though, and I found it very intriguing. This is the book that really got me very interested in the Factory. I highly recommend this. I am withholding one star because it was a bit confusing, with many gaps the reader had to have previous knowledge to fill in. It was insanely interesting, however.

Before reading this book I only knew Woronov through her delicious work as the mild-mannered murdering dominatrix in the black comedy "Eating Raoul." This book exposes her early years as an actress in Andy Warhol's Factory. It is a scary descent into a drug-filled world filled with drag queens, celebrities, hallucinations, mole people and inner demons. Woronov paints a distinctly unflattering portrait of herself as a violent would-be artist driven to the brink of insanity by amphetamines. It is frustrating because as a protagonist she is so unlikable, but at the same time the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride that she takes us on is compelling. The frustrating part of this book is that we don't really see her ultimate redemption, just her trip through hell.