Year On Earth With Mr. Hell

A controversial but highly acclaimed memoir by writer Young Kim, A Year on Earth with Mr. Hell, traces her intense relationship with pioneering punk rocker Richard Hell. An erotic account that retains sensitivity and taste, Kim''s memoir has been celebrated by luminaries including Bret Easton Ellis and has received plaudits in GQ and The Times. Noted journalist Matthew D''Ancona likened the text to the work of Nin and Bataille.

Set in a Warholian swirl in the worlds of art, music, and fashion, spanning continents, the narrative is as much about Kim''s processing her grief for Malcolm McLaren (most famous for his role as the conceptualizer, art director, and manager of the Sex Pistols, as well as designing the punk style with his then-partner Vivienne Westwood), her romantic and business partner for the last 12 years of his life until his untimely death in 2010..

I found the book so engrossing; I really did read it in one sitting. That''s kind of unheard of from me. It all takes place in a beautiful bubble of privilege and thank god. It''s glorious to be allowed to enter into it because fuck the rest of our rotten, barren world in this moment.

 - Bret Easton Ellis

A Year On Earth With Mr. Hell is a forensic dissection of the author''s intense sexual relationship with a charismatic, frustrating, talented man, and you won''t have read anything quite like it. It''s breathtakingly frank, clear-eyed and gripping. We should all be grateful that Young Kim is able to write about the risks and delights of desire without fear or shame - and in cool prose that avoids the color purple and all shades of grey.

-Nick Hornby

Sex, fashion, celebrities, travel-in the midst of all this swirling glamour and erotic experimentation is the attentive eye of a discerning young woman.

--Edmund White

A fabulous escapist fantasy involving two cool people in amazing clothes having a fine time taking them off in glamorous hotel rooms.

--Helen Rumbelow, The Times

The most graphically effective sex writing I''ve read in a long time. The same material as fiction wouldn''t have such an immediate and even threatening effect: when someone is making something up, that gives the reader an out, and this doesn''t.

-- Greil Marcus