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    Porcelain: A Memoir
    Unavailable
    Porcelain: A Memoir
    Unavailable
    Porcelain: A Memoir
    Audiobook11 hours

    Porcelain: A Memoir

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From one of the most interesting and iconic musicians of our time, a piercingly tender, funny, and harrowing account of the path from suburban poverty and alienation to a life of beauty, squalor, and unlikely success out of the NYC club scene of the late '80s and '90s.

    There were many reasons Moby was never going to make it as a DJ and musician in the New York club scene. This was the New York of Palladium; of Mars, Limelight, and Twilo; of unchecked, drug-fueled hedonism in pumping clubs where dance music was still largely underground, popular chiefly among working-class African Americans and Latinos. And then there was Moby--not just a poor, skinny white kid from Connecticut, but a devout Christian, a vegan, and a teetotaler. He would learn what it was to be spat on, to live on almost nothing. But it was perhaps the last good time for an artist to live on nothing in New York City: the age of AIDS and crack but also of a defiantly festive cultural underworld. Not without drama, he found his way. But success was not uncomplicated; it led to wretched, if in hindsight sometimes hilarious, excess and proved all too fleeting. And so by the end of the decade, Moby contemplated an end in his career and elsewhere in his life, and put that emotion into what he assumed would be his swan song, his good-bye to all that, the album that would in fact be the beginning of an astonishing new phase: the multimillion-selling Play.

    At once bighearted and remorseless in its excavation of a lost world, Porcelain is both a chronicle of a city and a time and a deeply intimate exploration of finding one's place during the most gloriously anxious period in life, when you're on your own, betting on yourself, but have no idea how the story ends, and so you live with the honest dread that you're one false step from being thrown out on your face. Moby's voice resonates with honesty, wit, and, above all, an unshakable passion for his music that steered him through some very rough seas.

    Porcelain is about making it, losing it, loving it, and hating it. It's about finding your people, your place, thinking you've lost them both, and then, somehow, when you think it's over, from a place of well-earned despair, creating a masterpiece. As a portrait of the young artist, Porcelain is a masterpiece in its own right, fit for the short shelf of musicians' memoirs that capture not just a scene but an age, and something timeless about the human condition. Push play.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 17, 2016
    ISBN9780399567346
    Unavailable
    Porcelain: A Memoir

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    Reviews for Porcelain

    4.5/5

    36 ratings2 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Loved this book. Found out so much about Moby that I never knew. His book was honest, funny and bizarre. I listened to the audiobook and his delivery was perfect. Would recommend to anyone that loves an honest memoir!
    • 4/5
      I stumbled upon a very positive literature review of this book by accident a couple of weeks ago when I was Googling Moby. I was having one of those "whatever happened to..." chats with my husband, and on this occasion was musing about where Moby has gone to. A couple of his albums accompanied many a road trip in our early years together, and I felt a little nostalgic for him.The good news is that the critic was right - this IS a very enjoyable memoir. It's funny, well written and provides an interesting insight into the dance and rave scene of NYC and beyond in the late 80s and 90s. This was gritty NYC before the zero tolerance clean up, when crack heads and dealers lived on many a downtown corner and late night subway rides weren't for the faint hearted (well, according to Moby anyway - what do I know).The bad news is that I still don't know what's become of Moby (other than being busy writing this book), as he doesn't divulge any recent info. In fact, (very) oddly, he doesn't divulge anything in this book about his major album successes, instead focusing more on getting started and his early success as a DJ and creator of a few big electronic tracks.He's an interesting character - a life-long vegan and one-time devout Christian, he went from years of sobriety, bible teaching and celibacy (despite working in the midst of the drug addled club scene) to heavy drinking and serial one-night stands with strippers. I have to admit he did come across as a bit of an a**hole when he hit the latter phase, but it's clear from his writing that he realises this himself but doesn't shy away from the truth. He'd ultimately like us to believe he lacks the confidence to believe in himself and risk being loved. Oh, and he's descended from Herman Melville.I found it interesting during his years of devout Christianity that he seemed supremely judgemental of rich friends who came from large houses and stable backgrounds, yet seemed completely at home with the druggy ravers and drinkers despite being sober himself. Even when he was on the up, he still washed with worrying infrequency and was quite happy living in the same clothes for days and living in rough neighbourhoods. Poverty was what he was used to, and he seems to find comfort in keeping his lifestyle in that vein of few important worldly possessions.4 stars - gritty and funny, this is a snapshot of a hedonist clubbing era. No prior Moby adoration is required - just an interest in a window on the world at a certain place and time.

      2 people found this helpful