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The Book of the Week is “Face It” by Debbie Harry, published in 2019.
Born in July 1945, Harry had terrible separation-anxiety because she was adopted after having spent a bunch of months with her birth-mother. She grew up in New Jersey, but lived in the New York City area in adulthood. She didn’t inherit major money, connections or mentors. This made her learning curve necessarily longer than other celebrities’.
Coming-of-age half a generation later, Cindy Lauper evolved largely similarly. Probably not coincidentally, the lyrics contained in Harry’s and Lauper’s biggest hits in the United States set the Women’s Movement back decades!
Here are the factors that allowed Harry to become famous as a singer in a rock-music band. She made herself memorable in that she:
- was extremely persistent over years and years;
- got friendly with Andy Warhol’s social group, and others who had show-business connections;
- developed a unique sound;
- found a partner in work and home-life whose creativity complemented her own;
- sought out mentors;
- experimented with fashion and hair colors; and
- was a female lead-singer of a group, all of whose other members were male.
Read the book to learn numerous additional details about Harry’s life and social groups, and her band, “Blondie.”