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"Diarist, novelist, satirist, lyricist beyond peer."* In Niche: A Memoir in Pastiche, Nick Currie, a.k.a. Momus, presents the story of his life, career, and conquests on the margins of multiple music and art scenes.
Momus―named for the ancient Greek god of mockery, and described by The Guardian as "the David Bowie of the art-pop underground"―has recorded over thirty albums for labels like 4AD and Creation, published half a dozen works of speculative fiction, and written articles for The New York Times, Wired, ArtForum, Frieze, and The Wire. An unknown band called Pulp once asked him to produce their next album. (He said no.) An unknown band called Of Montreal once invited him to go on tour with them. (He said no.) He's collaborated with fans Vampire Weekend and with the Magnetic Fields' Stephin Merrit. He's had an impression of his penis preserved by the notorious Cynthia Plaster Caster. Maybe you've heard of him. Probably you haven't. This is his story. Or, rather, stories.
Rather than one avuncular tell-all relayed in his own voice, Momus has structured the narrative of his life as a typically atypical mockery of the rock-bio oral history. Instead of using living witnesses, Momus assumes the voices of 217 dead authors and artists and forces them to speak for and about him. From these dramatic monologues―sometimes unreliable, often comical―there gradually emerges a picture of one eccentric star's life across three continents and in his own, remarkable, niche.
"A pop semistar reminisces in the voices of great writers in this dazzlingly off-beat memoir...This is that rare show-biz memoir that's both entertaining and a literary triumph." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Some of the 'pastiches' are less effective than others...the appearance by David Bowie...is lovely, and it will make those who share the author's love for him miss Bowie all the more...Altogether a grand entertainment, effortlessly blending pop culture and high culture." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Showing a prodigious awareness of the sweep of centuries of culture, this is an admirable conceit finely executed. It will have great appeal to anyone interested in new modes of autobiography as well as Anglophiles and devotees of Momus's musical, literary, and artistic talents." - Library Journal
"Here then we have, at long last, the story of Momus, i.e. the Phylogeny of Nick Currie, as chronicled through the eyes of the Greats, a curious artifact securing its rightful place within the Canon—as if Orson Welles had directed Spinal Tap...in other words, essential Momus." - Ariel Pink, musician
"Niche is the first book I have seen in five years which begins to merit the accolade of masterpiece." - Christian Kracht, author of The Dead and Imperium
"Momus's Niche is just an extraordinary thing, wicked, hilarious, sinuously deep, thought through like a circuit, with prose that made mine attack me out of envy. The most exciting life story I've read in possibly forever." - Dennis Cooper, author of The Marbled Swarm
This information about Niche was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Momus, born Nick Currie, is a Scot who makes songs, books, and art. He is the author of The Book of Jokes and The Book of Scotlands. In 2018, Cherry Red Records reissued his classic '80s and '90s albums for Creation Records in definitive and expanded editions. Momus lives between Berlin and Paris.
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