Description:
A landmark collection of poems by Bambi Lake, the beloved (and bad-mouthed) icon of San Francisco's counterculture.
Bambi Lake was a trans chanteuse performer, provocateur, and countercultural darling of the '70s, and subsequent decades. "The Glamorous Life follows me around," she wrote, and sang about in her ballad "The Golden Age of Hustlers" (later popularized by Justin Vivian Bond). Her life in San Francisco--including being on the fringes of the Cockettes, and a member of the adjacent Angels of Light--was "sort of legendary," sort of "sweet, sticky, nasty," and always precarious, lived in spite of addiction, homelessness, and the horrors that came from chasing and surviving her own desires.
Brief description: Brontez Purnell is a writer, musician, dancer, filmmaker, and performance artist. He is the author of eight critically lauded books, including Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse, Since I Laid My Burden Down, 100 Boyfriends (a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice), and more. He lives in Oakland, CA.
Review Quotes: "Bambi Lake's work pulses with raw memories of nights spent searching for her place. The writing is gossipy, diaristic, and armed with levity. The punk-cabaret chanteuse and underground superstar tells all. Who slept with who. What happened between the sheets. Rejections and heartbreak. Always exuding glamour and attitude."--Blush Bullseye, The Whitney Review
"Reading this collection, I see a mission fulfilled. Devour Me, Again made me think less about the work of writing and more about the work of living. Bambi charts a destiny for the fab transsexual artist in the 21st century, in a collapsing timeline, where history comes to us as a balm. . . . Devour Me, Again, ultimately, is asking: Do you even know what it feels like for a girl?"--willow wilderness hour, The Poetry Project Newsletter "[T]his is the first retrospective work to be published after [Bambi Lake's] death, and it is a well-deserved tribute. . . . what really makes this collection sing [are] the interviews with Lake, both because they allow her to define her own world, and they give us context for the content of the poems and lyrics."--Michael Flanagan, Bay Area Reporter "Devour Me, Again showcases Lake's wry playfulness, rhyme, and raw rage. . . . The tone seems spat out by a sophisticated teenage Sylvia Plath who has seen and done it all. Lake's writing is here for us to devour, truly, again."--Brendan McHugh, 48 Hills "There's something upbeat and vulnerable in Bambi's memoir in verse, beckoning us with a wink to hear her heartache, wit, loss, and triumph."--Brontez Purnell "Bambi Lake loved beauty. Bambi Lake wanted to be famous. Gradually moving the needle, Bambi Lake's haunted words are turning the trick, growing her fame, shooting like stars. Even in death, still, she's making an entrance."--Justin Vivian Bond "A moving firsthand account of not just the author's own life but the city of San Francisco as it changed beyond recognition. It's like a little bit Balzac's Comédie Humaine and a whole lot of 'the most interesting woman at the bar has decided to tell you about her life.' Which, thank god. Obviously. You hope she never stops."--Harron Walker "It's good to see that Bambi has put out books about her life because it has been one-of-a-kind and an inspiration for anyone who wants to stand up for themselves. I admire her guts and her sense of humor. Sometimes you might think that nothing gets to her but that's not true--something gets to all of us. It's how you ride it out that tells the world where you're at. I believe she carries herself rather well. Long may she wave."--Henry Rollins "Bambi is a one of a kind story of talent, free spirit, and determined survival. And imagination! Half the stuff in her Jello poem is sure news to me. But stretching things never hurt Hunter Thompson . . ."--Jello Biafra