Air Guitar: Amazon.ca: Dave Hickey: Books

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Dave Hickey's twenty-three "love songs," which make up Air Guitar, fly off the page to offer the reader a vista beyond the wasteland. In Hickey's "vast, invisible underground empire" of pleasure--record stores, honky-tonks, hot-rod shops, art galleries, jazz clubs, cocktail lounges, surf shops and the like--joy abounds and truth speaks. -- The Nation, Margaret Juhae Lee

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

Average Customer Review

3.9 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)

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1.0 out of 5 stars uh, now what, Oct 10 2003

By

Arthur Craven (MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Air Guitar (Paperback)

I'm ready- couldn't wait. Finished a book by Leo Marks who was codemaker for SOE during wwii which was very interesting and surprisingly compelling- even when he described the basics of codes and betrayals. But it tired me out in alot of ways. So Hickey seemed a good way to go: clear and noncant according to reputation. Plus I read an interview Hickey gave to a colorado newspaper where he was spot on even if his stevedoreness was a little droll coming from a man obvious bored with small pieties. Started it last night and I'm already wavering. My initial enthusiasm is slightly dampened by his repeated use of the word "quotidian" and his p'haps too obvious placement of himself as heavy meta dude who hangs with grass in Mexico and in the next breath is able for instance claim that Norman Rockwell is, in fact, a great democratic artist with impressive technical skills. He claims too that every artist he knows admires Rockwell. I always thought it was schlock- I could be wrong- (I think Rockwell leads to Tarantino) but what worries me is that Hickey seems willing to take a perverse position for the pleasure of taking a perverse position. Well that's OK but he isn't Panofsky. He's acrobatic and synthetic- but afterwards like any dance by Arthur Murray you wonder what you have experienced and when.
The book cover is terrible, almost the worst I have ever seen which again suggests a willful postmodern banality offered w/o irony which is the hippest position possible. Says Sean Puffy Combs, Puff Daddy, P Daddy, P Diddy: "its all good." He's a genius too.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Best Book I Read All Year, Jan 26 2003

By

James OReilly "baboone" (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Air Guitar (Paperback)

A chain of family and friends recommended this book to me--first my niece, then a younger brother, then an older brother, an age range of more than 25 years. I'd like to have a box of the books by my front door so I could give one to everyone who comes and goes, including the Fedex man, the mailman, friends and door-to-door salesmen. It is wonderful, intoxicating, and hilarious. Sometimes too wordy, but when it is, it is a little like Moe slapping Curly and then poking him in the eyes. Hickey always brings you back to earth after zooming around the clouds. The book should be required reading for academics and artists alike--you'll never think about what you do in the same way after reading this book, which in some ways might be characterized as a love song to life. Utterly delightful. I drove my wife crazy raving about it, now I have to get her a copy, since mine is all marked up with exclamation points.

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5.0 out of 5 stars From the Sublime to the Ridiculous ... & Back, Aug 20 2002

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VPerry_co_dutchess - See all my reviews

This review is from: Air Guitar (Paperback)

I love Dave Hickey. And not just cause he's some rich culture nut [with] on a MacArthur Genius Award. I loved him before he won it - when I first read this book - before some sleaze stole my copy & I had to save up to buy another one.
Regardless of whether you are, at any point, in agreement or disagreement with Dave (I call him "Dave"), his prose always elicits an admiration for its tingling velocity. Veering from the microscopic details of his tawdry life to his grand generalizations to the pompous rejection of Cezanne and ridiculous idolization of Chet Baker, Dave is a crash-test culture dummy.
Bravo for courage. He even re-invented "Beauty" (without whispering).

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars even if you don't know about postmodernism, etc.
this book is intelligent and accessible. It made me jealous of his grip on things.

Published on Mar 11 2002 by jeff jackson

3.0 out of 5 stars A student's view...
I had to buy this book for a class. I happen to disagree with a lot of what he says, but nonetheless it's a pretty good book. Read more

Published on July 30 2001