ie They are NOT coming from overseas !!
WAITING FOR
KATE BUSH
- By John Mendelssohn -
Illustrated with Photographs
ISBN: 9781844494897
Publisher: Omnibus Press, London, UK
Published: 2004
Binding: HARDcover with Dustjacket 278 pages
Condition: UNread & displayed condition! HERE in MELBOURNE! A retired display
copy as illustrated!
Edition: FIRST EDITION: 1st printing 2004
TIGHT, SCARCE HARDCOVER WITH DUSTJACKET ~ IN MELBOURNE ...
WHY do ebayers buy from US?
Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item!!
Remains UNread - it was the display copy instore . It is Tight - neat, no inscriptions or marks within. Appears as in my photos - this is the exact copy!! A nicely preserved copy - superb!
No discernible shelf wear, the interior is tight and spotlessly clean with 278 pages. THIS copy is the FIRST EDITION: Only printing from 2004 - the UK publishing by Omnibus Press, London.
There are 8 pages of black and white plates.
SCARCE title - this is an UNread copy!!
In original black boards HARDcover binding, in publisher's dustjacket which is in excellent BRAND NEW condition.
(Stored with 2021!)
Measures approx. 9¾ x 6¾ inches or 25 x 17cms
SYNOPSIS ....
When Kate Bush came out of where in 1978 with her jaw-droppingly eccentric debut single 'Wuthering Heights', screeching like a banshee, flapping her arms as though trying to take wing, pulling alarming faces, people either adored or loathed her. One of the former was an American underwear model, Lesley Herskovits, who, in spite of his remarkable good looks, reserved his loathing for himself. By the time Kate had taken to keeping her fans waiting literally ages between albums, he'd found himself a boarding house near Kate's birthplace that accommodated only fervent Kate fans. Only his disinclination to miss her eighth album, after waiting more than a decade for it, kept him from leaping off a multi-storey tower block. In Waiting for Kate Bush - an unusual hybrid of satirical novel and music biography - the reader will out only laugh aloud at Herskovits' attempt to make sense of his life in an alien culture, but also learn in detail what Kate Bush - known alternately as the barmiest bird in pop, the Pre-Raphaelite nymph with Minnie Mouse's soprano and the greatest artist of the last 30 years - has been up to in the silent decade-plus since the release of her last and best album.
Unusual hybrid of satirical comic novel and music biography has two heroes: an American fan and the object of his fixation, the wildly eccentric singer Kate Bush. A fictional account. A hugely entertaining satirical pop story.
About the Author
John Ned Mendelssohn born in 1947, is an American writer, journalist, musician and graphic designer.
He has been writing about music off and on since long before 'Wuthering Heights'. The Guardian said, Worth the price [of Bloomsbury's 2003 anthology of music writing The Sound and the Fury] alone is John Mendelssohn's superb dismantling of the NWA myth... He also writes for the stage, acts, and directs, and composes and arranges, and designs.
Very Entertaining and Interesting read!
Reviews
'To straight biography, Mendelssohn introduces elements of fiction, telling the story of uber fan Lesley Herskovits. Like the singer herself, it is baffling as well as beautiful.' - The Observer.
Terrific read for fans ... A great critically acclaimed book on the singer. In "Waiting for Kate Bush", the reader will not only laugh out loud at Herskovits' attempt to make sense of his life in an alien culture, but also learn in detail what Kate Bush - known alternately as 'the barmiest bird in pop', 'the pre Raphaelite mymph with Minnie Mouse's soprano' and the 'greatest artist of the last 30 years' has been up to in the silent decade - plus - since the release of her last album.
FIVE STARS!!... Interesting tidbits on Kate Bush, a realistic viewpoint from an obsessed fan with issues of his own. I enjoyed the fictional aspect alongside this bio and picked up info I hadn't know prior to this. This is about human misery and many flawed characters - but written with humour, irony, and depth.
The barmiest bird in pop .... Terrific perspective on the self-absorbed, self-obsessed, selfish, vacuous majority of modern society members. The main protagonist is an ex underwear model obsessed with self loathing surrounded by Kate Bush obsessed residents at his lodgings, a surgically enhanced wife, estranged teenage daughter and the fat-addicted members of an overeating help group. Everyone we meet are totally self indulgent, concerned only about themselves, their looks, being loved or succeeding in life with the least amount of effort.
Personally, I find TV talent shows exploitative and tediously repetitive. The characters in this book watch or enter talent shows for members of the public with an eating disorder which will hopefully encourage people to vote for the contestants. The satirical depiction of these talent shows is hilarious, and emphasises the ridiculous aspirations of the talentless contestants coupled with the ever eager talent shares waiting in the wings to make a quick buck then unceremoniously drop their new client.
Each chapter contains a section based around the career of Kate Bush, and even though the main character is supposedly obsessed with her, his ruminations about her songs, voice and lack of output usually have a derogatory comment or two.
This isn't the easiest book to read if you are part of the self absorbed majority living in a developed country. However, if you understand that there is more to life than how you look, being a pop star, model or actor, being famous or infamous, then you will enjoy this book.
Easy Fun fast-paced read .... . Waiting for Kate Bush is funny, and an easy fast-paced read. The characters are full of interesting Dickensian qualities, quirky parallels, and twists which tease out the theme—that nothing is quite what it seems. Fame is a fleeting and strange quality, which others seek to feed off, and this is perhaps the thing that ties Herskovit's story to Bush's. Herskovits himself is a former model (the “Marcel Flynn pants bloke” - one thinks of Calvin Klein), whose sense that he hideously ugly and overweight is countered by the reactions of other people to him—his landlady's shock when he tells her he can no longer fit outside of his door or make it down the steps for dinner because he is so grossly overweight, or the outrage of other truly fat members when he shows up for a meeting at Overeaters Anonymous. Although there is much of Kate Bush in this novel, it isn't really a biography. Kate is ancilliary – a missing character that the other's use to offset their own neuroses. Her music surrounds the book, and is hummed, sung, quoted, and analysed. Her life is chronicled, timelined, and surmised.
This is a book which will certainly appeal to Kate fans. The centre of the book contains attractive photographs of La Bush, moving from grammar school years to her most recent public appearance in 2002. Real die-hard fans will probably know most of what the book contains, but for your average, “I like her music,” fans, the book will re-invigorate a sense of the music, as lyrics, critical appraisals, and performance highlights are detailed in recount by the obsessive Herskovits. Characters like Cyril, Nicola's father, a tiny hired thug who enjoys being brow-beaten by his huge wife, or Mr Chumaraswamy, Mrs Cavenaugh's other lover, a self-proclaimed anti-bullying vigilante. But no one is exactly as they seem. Bully and bullied are often consentual. Self-image isn't the same as other's perception. Mendelssohn cleverly discredits his narrator early on, and although this is a first person narrative, we can't take the narrator's account as reliable. This creates an interesting tension which leaves the reader wondering about the real relationship between Herskovits and his daughter, or about his relationships with other characters in his life; his wife or his schoolyard.
Marvellous Reading!
WHY do ebayers buy from US?
Because you KNOW what you're getting. My close up photos are of the actual item & form part of my description!!
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