Face It: A Memoir

I'm halfway through this book and am enjoying it very much. I've always been a keen admirer of Debbie's so it's nice to read her story straight from the horse's mouth, as it were. I guess at first, in the writing, I felt like some of the details were more sparse and things were glossed over a little, but actually I think it's more riveting reading it that way, without getting bogged down in *too much* detail, making it too much of a 'heavy' read. Even though it's a heavy book! Nice quality though and artistically presented. It's like she's going along remembering various events of her life that were especially significant, or indeed rather hairy and shocking, filling in with relevant background details in a very open and honest way. I suppose having had a long and eventful life it's difficult to choose what to include and what to leave out! Without mentioning any spoilers I think that she certainly must have had several guardian angels working over time looking out for her at times.Initially I wasn't so enthused by the inclusion of a lot of 'fan art' photos in the book - a lot of which is very good, some a little bizarre - and thought there would be more photos of Debbie herself than there are. However, having read (in the book) about her own reasons for including so much of her fan's artwork in her autobiography I think it was a very nice gesture of hers and shows a generous spirit. Rather than it being a more obvious type of autobiography documenting her famous photogenic looks as there's more to her than just her pretty face of course! And even then she's always created her own unique look. If you want to see more photos of her I'm sure there are already many such picture books available. I must admit that I was hoping to see if there was a photo of at least one of her birth parents as I've been curious about what her birth parents looked like, given that Debbie has such striking features, but there isn't a photo of her birth mother or anything, so it will remain a mystery.I'd certainly recommend this engaging account of Debbie's life. She seems to have been open to and embraced all sorts of experiences in life that many people wouldn't have the courage to and followed her heart to try and live her life on her terms, even though it might have been easier if she had pursued a safer path. Seems like things were pretty tough and precarious at times, despite the later success and fame. However, along with her courage and talent and happy enduring personal a professional relationship with Chris Stein, her perseverance paid off. I think that she is an iconic figure but during interviews / T.V. appearances etc. she always comes across as so down to earth, polite and personable. I look forward to reading the rest of the book and it would be nice if there were more to follow.

I enjoyed this a great deal and was pleasantly surprised at just how self-deprecating Debbie can be. Plus, she's quite funny as well. I've been a Blondie fan since around 1978, I think it was. I was very pleased that Chris Stein took the cover photo and also wrote the Introduction of this book. As it should be. I always thought it was such a shame when they split up, though it's so lovely to see they're still the very best of friends and that Debbie's godmother to Chris' daughters. That warms my heart.....I love that she used the language of the time throughout and didn't pull any punches, either. Good for her. No woke BS to be found here, so don't be complaining if that's what you're hoping for, cos' you'll be sorely disappointed.I had to laugh at the totally outlandish names the people Blondie associated with used at the time. Blondie was pretty pedestrian in comparison to the likes of Gorilla Rose or Tomata du Plenty !! But the perfect moniker. Bish, bash, bosh, keep it simple, stupid !!!I was also fascinated to read of her dalliances with Penn Teller and Harry Dean Stanton......I always liked Harry Dean as well and adore Paris, Texas, too.I am now reviewing all the notes I have made of things to google....she made mention of quite a few photos and then didn't include them, which is a little annoying. Not quite why sure the publishers didn't include them once they'd been referenced by the author, really.....Impressively I was 42% in before I spotted a single error in the book and it was writing move, not movie. However, another mistake which cost it a star for me was writing Christ and not Chris at one point. Anything published with names misspelt is like a red rag to a bull for me, I'm afraid. Any self-respecting proofreader should've spotted this if I managed to !!The Opposable Thumbs chapter threw me a little-seemed randomly included apropos of nothing to do with the rest of the book, so most peculiar, I thought !!It was an interesting read, though, and I liked it.

Fascinating, well written memoir, couldn’t recommend highly enough 👌

I'm not a hardcore Debbie Harry/Blondie fan, although I do like a lot of their stuff.If Ms Harry wrote this herself, she's not a bad wordsmith, as it's a pretty readable music biography and manages to avoid the tiresome 'did this, went there, played this, took this' routine on the whole.I found the first part of the book, about her early life the most interesting, but even there it seems like a few 'snapshots' with events happening in isolation with no real sense of progression.Famous people appear, disappear, get 'made out' with and then she's in a band, and then she's not.It feels quite a disjointed, patchwork of a book.The 'fan art' is quite good fun and a nice addition and I certainly wouldn't say I didn't enjoy reading the book, I just felt that there was a more complete story to be told and that this was just a random collection of memories.Still, life's like that, so maybe it's unfair to expect the complete picture - Maybe even Debbie Harry doesn't remember it now.

I haven't read a lot of autobiographies in my life... too many disappointments for one reason or another, but I really enjoyed this one a lot! For me, it ties first place along with Cyndi Lauper's autobiography/memoir. Just like with Lauper's book, I didn't want this book to end.As someone who grew up with the music of Blondie and Debbie Harry, this was a really an insightful and engaging read. There was probably more in this book than I needed to know - Debbie is quite blunt about things, but it comes off as quite hilarious and I couldn't help but laugh at them. There are some not so great things in this book too. I think Debbie wanted to show people that life isn't always pretty or perfect, but it's how we let those things influence or affect us for the rest of our lives that matter. I think that's the real lesson she was trying to get across.I also liked the fan art Debbie included throughout the book. Most of the art is really outstanding, and I thought it was such a nice thing to do because it shows she appreciates her fans and the things they send to her.More than just Blondie fans, this book is for everyone. It's the story of one person's journey through life, something that we all have in common, and the path it leads you down.Highly recommended reading.

Judging this book by its cover indicates this is bound to be a winner. There is no book jacket for the hardbound book, but, rather, the graphics are printed directly on the book, giving it a wonderful touch of uniqueness. Then inside are 4 sections of professionally done artistic portraits of Ms. Harry along with numerous photos of Debbie and the band interspersed throughout the pages. Finally, there is the crisp easy-to-read text. These visuals promise a lot - a promise I'm look forward to seeing delivered once I have time to actually read the book. Ms. Harry is a wonderful entertainer and I have no doubt her story-telling skills will translate well to this new medium, producing a lively, thought-provoking book.

Amei!!

A precious edition in which Debbie describes the obstacles overcome to follow her vocation and express her talent. She still claims being a punk, which might appear curious considering some other punks, far from the sophistication of his most notorious band. Blondie was at the forefront and among the first groups, by their innovations, to break the hippie movement, which was effectively succeeded by the punk one. The first of these social phenomena had a luminous ideal, and perhaps drawing its origins from a mysterious and extraordinary event (see below), summed up by the slogan "peace and love", but which sadly degenerated into "sex and drug" missing at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, as sung in the musical "Hair"; while the second, the punks, starting from a noble anti-system principle ended up generalizing in most cases to an antipathic and presumptuous anti "who is unlike me". To this pathetic "sex, drug", they could have cynically added "and violence" and introduced the pessimistic "no future".I discovered there the existence of 2 obscure songs in 2 of their 1st albums, which she discusses succinctly. Another disturbing aspect to me is the use of hard drugs for at least a long time. She doesn't seem to deny these "unsane" sides, which I don't see the need for, even for fun, and which leaves me a little bit confused. On the contrary, she seems to take her distance from episodes where she behaves in an exemplary manner, but which she takes care to justify by the circumstances to make them normal, while she has great merits in them, as to mask an aspect that may reveal vulnerability. A question of survival? Humility, false modesty or refusal of a self that she did not want to find or rediscover, know or recognize, with perhaps the fear of reduced freedom as well as an impediment to entertainment, a complex mix of all that?The search for and affirmation of an identity, at individual, sexual and artistic levels, is a constant in this memory as in his life. And I found it very interesting thinking back to Pascal and the search for the identity but of mankind through history and the 2 great groups of contradictory philosophies he had identified: the sceptic Pyrrhonians and the dogmatics, as to demonstrate the absurdity to refer man to itself. He concludes that in man there is a part of baseness and a part of grandeur, a sign of our decadence in the sense of fallen beings. And we do not cease to deceive the recognition of our misery by the distraction of vain amusements. We are torn between instinctiveness and sensuality on one side, and, on the other, in its opposite, in rationality of which man is only capable to a certain limit. "In medio stat virtus" or in a 3rd way independent of these extremes, spirituality: irrational and unsensible? And the greatness of man lies in the fact that he thinks, the self-consciousness, which Debbie strongly perceives, the awareness of the Consciousness that I am proposing.Beside to its commendable commitment to the environmental issue, Debbie shows great respect for others, perhaps more than I would. Astonishing, even more for a so-called punk, but the definition of this term remains vague and leaves room for multiple interpretations. A beautiful thought for Phil Spector while he was still alive and in jail or other considerations of a deep humanity. She emphasized a noble habit of Andy Warhol, of which she was the muse, and which I will strive to follow, making me a better man. A photo of her with him could not be missing and she is beautiful, even if it is not my favourite, among other splendid ones, of all the periods, even more recent. With the addition of her portraits drawn by her fans which she preserved throughout her career and exhibited in a sumptuous series. A nice thank you from her for them and from me for her.She enriched the exciting and well-written narration of her life with moving poetry, deep thought on coal and diamonds (which I also had and shared privately with friends years ago), encounters and anecdotes related to VIPs, detailed descriptions of New York, its life, districts, fashions, evolution but also on the mechanisms of show business or others purely engineering ones. She never ceases to amaze but what leaves me most curious are her "para" normal experiences and sensitivity (and I wonder if she knows anything about UFOs...).For my part, over the years and still now after having swept through different musical genres, I like to listen to the Blondie songs old or recent but also to watch their videos where I often found a comic side introduced by this pretty and fascinating woman, oddly enough. An excellent and rare set.Where I think I see her natural and maybe also the happiest is when she participates in musicals: she sings and she disguises herself at the same time, the game she prefers and that she does the best, I believe . One of those music halls really surprised me and made me laugh so much imagining her in her role. Lots of surprises in this book.

La historia de Debbie es muy interesante y y el libro es de una excelente calidad. El diseño del libro me ha gustado mucho.