Adrianne Geffel was a genius. Praised as the "Geyser of Grand Street"
and the "Queen of Bleak Chic," she was a one-of-a-kind artist, a pianist
and composer with a rare neurological condition that enabled her to make
music that was nothing less than pure, unmediated emotional expression.
She and her sensibility are now fully integrated into the cultural
lexicon; her music has been portrayed, represented, and appropriated
endlessly in popular culture. But what do we really know about her?
Despite her renown, Adrianne Geffel vanished from public life, and her
whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.
David Hajdu cuts through the noise to tell, for the first time, the full
story of Geffel's life and work, piecing it together through the
memories of those who knew her, inspired her, and exploited her--her
parents, teachers, best friend, manager, critics, and lovers. Adrianne
Geffel made music so strange, so compelling, so utterly unique that it
is simply not to be believed. Hajdu has us believing every note of it in
this slyly entertaining work of fiction.
A brilliantly funny satire, with characters that leap off the page,
Adrianne Geffel is a vividly twisted evocation of the New York City
avant-garde of the 1970s and '80s, and a strangely moving portrait of a
world both utterly familiar and like none we've ever encountered.
