Art Pepper told his sexy, sordid, and exciting true adventure
stories to his lover, Laurie, who put them in a book. She quizzed
him (and those who knew him) unrelentingly over seven years,
editing and structuring a narrative to which she dedicated all her
energy. "Straight Life" by Art and Laurie Pepper (Da Capo) was
published in 1979. It was critical success and remains a classic of
its kind, the subject of college literary and music studies. Laurie
went on to marry Art and manage his resurgent career, touring the
world with his band.
"Why I Stuck with a Junkie Jazzman" was the headline some editor
gave a newspaper interview Laurie did while the band was in
Australia in 1981, and she's now stolen that "that perfect title"
for her memoir. "ART: Why I Stuck with a Junkie Jazzman "
(APMCorp), describes her marriage to the deeply troubled,
drug-addicted, madly gifted artist. "That marriage was the making
of me," says Laurie. "Some people go to grad school or join the
Marines. I married a genius who valued and inspired me and
challenged me to use MY gifts. We had a difficult, powerful
partnership. I had to tell that story." She says she also needs to
set the record straight and clarify her role: "People think I was
some kind of little wifey-saint who rescued him. And Art encouraged
them in that. But he knew how truly crazy I could be. We rescued
each other."
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR "ART"
Forged at the collision point of true art and real life, this
brutally honest book is an engrossing journey across the hard
countries of love and loss and redemption. It inspires the belief
that love can overcome all obstacles and that creative talent knows
no bounds. It was impossible for me to put it down.
-Michael Connelly, Author of the Harry Bosch series of novels
"I was no angel," Laurie Pepper advises at the start of this
stingingly candid memoir, and in truth she is a wonderfully
devilish writer, her pen a razor dipped in sulfur, her memory a
lead-lined cave from which nothing escapes or goes unexamined.
Everyone who knows the skillful craftsmanship she brought to
"Straight Life," the masterpiece she made of Art Pepper's life,
will find it here again, in service to her own story, which would
be reason enough to celebrate this gripping book. But there is
another: a wittingly different perspective on Art's tale-this good
wife was every inch his match.
-Gary Giddins, Author of Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams and
Celebrating Bird
Music, love, gossip-along with mania and addiction, pain and
calamity: Laurie Pepper writes with grace and candor about all of
it. Joining "Straight Life" as one of the best jazz lives, and
telling the story behind that great story, her new book deserves
all the meanings of "Art" in its title.
-Robert Pinsky, Poet"
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