Richard Hell may best be known as a punk icon, a founding member of
seminal bands Television, the Heartbreakers, and The Voidoids, but for
decades he's been a prominent voice in American letters. Through his
novels Go Now and Godlike, and his critically acclaimed
autobiography, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp, Hell has proven
himself as a talented and insightful writer across many genres, in many
forms. But one might argue that Richard's true genius lies in shorter
form as a writer on culture. Love comes in spurts, Hell once sang, and
that could well describe the intensity of his penetrating and wickedly
droll criticism.
Massive Pissed Love is a collection of Hell's ruminations on art,
literature, and music, among other things, that's like a candy box of
reading treats, a bag of shiny marbles, a cabinet of mementos and
uncanny fetishes. However one thinks of it, it's a joy to read from
start to finish and a deeply necessary addition to the oeuvre of one of
the sharpest minds and sensibilities at work today.