Face It: A Memoir

Nice quality paper. Littered with copies of pictures sent her by Fans. Rather more of these pictures than I would like.As Debbie Harry was so loved by the camera I was disappointed that there weren't more photos of her. There were some iconic outfits and classic photos of her published over the years and I expected to see them collated here.Sadly not.She skims over her break up with Chris and doesn't really explain why Frank and Nigel were so unwelcome at Blondie's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.Yes I know the break up is personal, but they were such a famous couple, I expected a little bit more about their split and this is a life story after all.Also I know that the ex band members took out a Lawsuit regarding royalties - but they were part of the Band when it sold its biggest number of albums and therefore had a right to be inducted along with the rest of them.Debbie doesn't really explain her side of how Nigel and Frank came to be "formerly of Blondie" and I expected that from this long awaited auto biography.Apart from these omissions I enjoyed reading the story of this true New York Punk Artist in her own words.She is a role model for the independant artistic woman with attitude and her little punky snarl is what I always remember about her, plus Blondie's appearances on Top of the Pops were always a highlight of my week.She was fascinating to look at. The band were excellent. Clem Burke is, I think one of the best drummers, ever.And during that 1977 - 79 heyday they were fabulous and Debbie Harry shone.I enjoyed the book.She will be Punk to the end.

The book is beautiful and was well worth the wait from when I pre-ordered it back in May 2019. Everything about the book is quality and very tactile, and the actual cover of the book matches the dustcover. I have read extracts from the book in The Sunday Times, but haven't actually read the book yet. Why, you may ask? Well, weighing in at a hefty one kilo plus, this is a substantial book yet Amazon, in their wisdom, decided to mail the book in a jiffy bag rather than the usual cardboard sleeve. As a result, the book was received badly damaged. I immediately ordered a replacement and this is now also on its way back. Yep - you guessed it: the replacement was dispatched in a jiffy bag and again arrived damaged. At this rate, the book will turn into quite a loss for Amazon. Get your act together, especially since these new jiffy bags you have started to use are not universally recyclable, unlike cardboard, and are not providing protection for heavy, hardcover books.

First of all lightning speed delivery well done amazon!!Love Debbie she was my absolute idol when I was growing up have all other books about her so couldn't wait to get my hands on this book and I love it!The only reason for four stars is the amount of fan drawings of her that have been put in this book. Yes maybe one or two would've been enough but not page after page. I would rather have seen more rare pics of Debbie herself. Just my opinion apart from that a great book. Thanks.

A friendly, chatty book, Debbie Harry flits from one memory to the next as though she’s picking the clearest ones out of the cloud of whatever substances were being imbibed whilst they were happening!At times she’s incredibly open on certain things - to the point of “too much info!”Yet what I really took away from reading this book, was that I’d learned more, in a way, from what was left untold.Debbie glides through her time with Blondie, relating anecdotes and describing the mismanagement and the constant exhaustion. There’s the sense that there was more going on amongst the band members themselves though - wounds that never healed - this she skirts around a little and we’ll probably never know what was behind the fall out with some of the members. What seems clear though, is that she was never really happy during the Blondie heyday.Similarly, Debbie (as she’s perfectly entitled to) skims over the break up of her relationship with Chris Stein, who she clearly still loves very deeply. There’s just one allusion later on to the fact that she’s unfairly blamed for the break up of Blondie, and then for leaving Chris.She relates a particular couple of events that for others would take up half the book; one of them is pretty horrific, yet she tells of it dispassionately, and this makes me sad on her behalf because it sort of sums up what I feel some of her life has been like; that she’s someone who went looking for adventure to fill a hole/ease the sense of abandonment created when she learned she was given up for adoption, had some horrible experiences along the way, which she just sort of accepts, and only at this later point in her life has she realised how much she achieved.Even the illustrations in the book are mostly pieces of fan art, rather than any behind the scenes personal photos. Although I think this is a nice touch, it also seems there’s a reluctance to open up too much.For all that, I like Debbie Harry even more after reading her book; she’s not just a pretty face, she’s a gutsy, ground breaking lady.Vive La Harry!

I'm a massive Debbie Harry fan, and have been for years. She was the woman I wanted to be when I was growing up, so when her autobiography was published, I bought it immediately. And what an epic disappointment it turned out to be. It looks lovely, but the writing is absolutely terrible - sub-tabloid pap with a demonstrably limited vocabulary and infantile syntax and grammar throughout. It was ghost-written, obviously, but that's no excuse for this shoddy, under-powered offering. Its banality is an insult to the intelligence of the reader and does an injustice to the fascinating and impactful life of its subject. I gave it two stars for the artwork, photographs and illustrations - without which it would get even less.