Face It: A Memoir

Anticipating FACE IT has been a long-awaited culmination of possibilities that felt like gorgeous confections we may have never experienced before in the world of Debbie Harry and Blondie. So, being the "lifer" I am, I immediately purchased all media forms of this book. Hell yea, I mean, you gotta support your home team, right?! I've always done that. In fact, I've spent nearly forty years collecting, supporting and promoting Blondie. I even gave my entire personal collection - a lifetime, massive culmination of mint-condition Blondie memorabilia - to Debbie - for her personal archives. When she saw the collection, she stated, "This is probably more than Chris and mine combined." It was impossibly tedious to accomplish after mowing yards and cleaning gutters for years as a youngster to earn that kind of money, but I consider it one of the greatest honors of my life. So, when it comes to Debbie Harry possibly blowing our minds with stories, photographs and facts we've never heard or seen before, FACE IT was to be the epicenter of the who, what, how and why of an absolute American treasure. The unveiling of the Wizard behind the curtain. The running gears of a remarkable rock and roll life finally exposed before our very eyes. And, many aspects of the book certainly fulfill that curiosity all fans have about Debbie's personal life. For example, for the past few years in the press, we read that Debbie's original last name was "Tremble", when, in fact, we learn that it is "Trimble". I know a lot of Trimbles where I live and it jolted me when I read that! They all have those arched eyebrows and bright eyes. The possibility that my friends are related to Debbie was quite the mind-blowing thought. As you venture into FACE IT, Debbie paints the picture of what it felt like to grow up in a society that one would assume no female would dare to aim to be what the Blondie character would become. She went from painfully shy child to fearless warrior in one fell swoop, it seems, while taking-on gritty city life like a champ. Where she got her moxie is a mystery. Of all subjects discussed, Debbie's childhood life unfolds almost politely - carefully - in such detail, it felt like watching a movie of someone none of us knew, but felt like we did. For painful reasons which she discusses concerning her search for her natural parents, I hurt for that little girl at the end of the book. How very, very sad. It brought tears feeling her heart-stopping pain. That door-slamming angst; a lifelong mission resulting in a massive shut-down of her dreams of a happy ending. There is passion in this book: A truly primal love story between Debbie and Chris Stein that defies logic and reason. You can't imagine a more beautiful and astonishing rock and roll love story. They both view their relationship as if neither had anything to do with it. As if it was all fate from the start. It makes one yearn for such a soulmate. There is real substance... and shocking substance abuse... in this book as well. However, even in those moments, Debbie still doesn't delve too deep emotionally. She steers close to the cutting edge, but pulls you back, leaving you to get yourself together as she breezes into another chapter as if to say, "Get over it...". You can really feel Debbie's hand and mind at work in those moments. Admittedly, Debbie has repeated many times over the years that she did not want to engage in the past, let alone share it with anybody. So, there's that side of FACE IT. This autobiography reads much like a diary with curious editing/grammatical mishaps which keep you on your toes if you are a completist about Debbie's career. She includes such personal thoughts as one in-particular that creates an entire chapter about - thumbs. It is a markedly odd and stifling - but curious subject to include when so many other aspects of her life might have been highlighted in such a long-awaited book. One particularly painful moment in FACE IT wasn't a story. It was that, in editing, the art director drew on Debbie Harry's baby picture and distorted her face. That photo was the only truly unseen image of Debbie in this book besides another of her childhood years. It wasn't just rude, it was, perhaps, inexcusable. Being as this was Debbie Harry's one and only autobiography, plus the fact that she is such an intensely bright icon in the music industry/pop culture, one would assume FACE IT would be released as a large, heavy, glossy-paged photo expose' from start to finish. It wasn't. FACE IT, just like Blondie, remains humble in presentation. It made it all the sweeter and more dear. Many times, it feels as if she is almost dismissing the Blondie persona/character as if it were a burden; a constant and heavy mask to wear. One can only imagine that it certainly was. There was so much to live up to since Blondie's incarnation. The few photos included here of Debbie's life revealed little new to the world visually, however, we find that it is a cavalcade of fan drawings that were included with great importance in reference to what her fans mean to her. For all these reasons, this book was unexpected and surprising. Then again, Debbie Harry has continually surprised us. She's always been one to counter the tried and true recipe of what fans expect her to be. Long live the Queen ~

That is my motto in life and a great lyric from her solo song Get Your Way and how I have always seen Debbie Harry as a person. I am not going to lie I think of her higher as a person that most people I know because her music has been in my life daily for the past 40 years. That is how highly I think of her. To me she is The Lord and we just are lucky to have seen her in our lifetimes.Now did this book change my way of thinking of her- yes. If you have the Making Tracks book from 1982 or the Cathy Che books on her you know the majority of her story and still you never quite get a grasp of who she really is as a person Person. You get the child, the teen , the wandering woman of her 20s trying to find purpose and the woman in her 30s that became the greatest female rock star ever. The groundbreaker, the trend setter, the rock diva, the disco glam girl , the rap star and the movie starlet. A character - a friend to many famous people, a drug user and part time pot seller (that did not get as much of attention as you'd think) and a abuse survivor. And even that doesn't begin to explain her. But yes you see her not being wanted as a baby and how that crept into her lifelong wish for love/family. That is all of us and yet she is still so much more she doesn't go into.I bought the physical book from Powells and it was the signed version and that was quite the challenge to get and the Audio book on cd. I wanted to read her story. When I was a kid I would read the lyrics to Blondie's song like Dragonfly or Victor and think what? But hearing her in action solved all that for me and the reason I bought the audio cd version. She talks to the reader or listener as if she is in conversation. Friend to friend. That part where she explained her reasons for doing the book and trying NOT to do this book was for me the best part. It's her sense of humor that comes out and she hates to do interviews or at least in the States she does. So it took me some time to read and listen to her both times. You feel her quirkiness (thumbs!!!!) and humor (her reason for doing the thumbs chapter) and her being serious all during this book. My hope is that she is financially set for her work that is way more important that most newer acts that get paid off the backs of older acts that actually break ground. Does she own her publishing? God I truly hope so.You get most of her story because she even says she kept stuff to herself and why not. And no we don't think you are being sad or depressing. I cannot say enough of how sad and yet happy it was reading and hearing her tell her story- there were times she added stuff on the audio that was not in the book. And the Fan Art- now which other big star keeps fan art. Now Fan Mail is something else.If as she said in interviews she wants to do more books that I would buy too. And a hearty thank you for Edgar Winter for making her remember her past while seeing in concert. That humorous story of how is she started her way to this book is totally her.Punk - New Wave- Disco- Rap- Reggae- Jazz and yet so much more in store for her music.Read or listen to her life's story and go out and listen to her solo albums which are amazing as well. I just cannot imagine what it would be like to be her for one moment let alone 74 years.K

This book was in pristine condition! Better than described. Thank you!

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.