Negative Space
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A heartbreaking memoir of art, addiction, and a daughter's search for her father.
Lilly Dancyger delves into the life of her father, Joe Schactman, a 1980s East Village artist whose creative passion was intertwined with a heroin addiction. After his sudden death, Lilly pieces together fragmented memories and confronts the instability that shaped her childhood.
Through his provocative sculptures and the stories of those who knew him, Lilly confronts her grief and anger, seeking to understand her father's artistic legacy and her own identity. Negative Space explores the complexities of family, addiction, and the enduring power of art, offering a poignant journey of self-discovery. For readers of complex family stories and the New York art scene.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this heartfelt and sometimes shocking memoir, a woman sets out to learn about her parents and instead discovers herself. Lilly Dancyger grew up in New York’s bohemian ’90s East Village as the daughter of acclaimed sculptor Joe Schactman; she remembers loving it. Dancyger knew that her folks were both heroin addicts, and that the drug was the reason she lost her beloved dad when she was just 12 years old. But only upon looking back at the chaos of her parents’ world does Dancyger start to accept just how less-than-perfect her childhood really was. It’s tricky for a writer to truthfully present two selves—carefree child and wounded adult—but every line of this wise memoir hits hard. Dancyger pulls no punches about the dirty secrets of the arts community her father called home. But despite all the darkness in Negative Space, it reads like a testament to the power of family love.
