[.ca] Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Close Up (ISBN 0815410085)

an excellent source of information on warhol:
if you're looking to read up on andy warhol and get a better idea as to what everyone was like at the factory, then definitely read bob colacello's book. he sheds light on areas of warhol's life that other biographers gloss over and exposes how warhol really functioned without including useless, irrelevant invasive information. all this aside, colacello is an excellent writer which makes this book even more enjoyable. i went in a huge warhol fan and came out an even bigger one. i definitely recommend this book.

Sour grapes!:
Bob Colacello, and probably most of Andy Warhol's devoted slaves, were probably not people with real well-defined senses of themselves, hence they were able to be used to serve the master, who was a master manipulator. He blames Andy for almost everything that might have went wrong during his association with him in business and life. It is good background though for the period of the early seventies to the mid-eighties and some of the book was enjoyable. It's a good introduction to any of the other books on Warhol.

Royal Crown Cola:
Bob Colacello put all his unpublished Warhol writing projects into a cocktail shaker and added some ice. The result is this frothy, gossip ridden, whiskey sour. A 504 page, tall drink that doesn't get any sweeter as you suck it down. The anecdotes about Imelda Marcos, Truman Capote, Farah Diba make it seem like the 70's took place on another planet. It's a fun read and I laughed out loud quite a few times. But one get's the feeling that this book was written as revenge on Warhol for the social abuse that Colacello "suffered" during the years they worked together.

Informative with juicy details:
Bob Colacello's book is not only very informative on Warhol's (and those around him) life and career, but it is also full of juicy gossip and luscious details that makes Andy Warhol who he is. This book is special too because Colacello was so close with Warhol that he paints him in a totally different picture than other biographer could. Other biographers tend to talk of Andy as a supreme god that can hardly do any wrong. Don't get me wrong, Warhol was very special, but Colacello's book tells you about Andy, as if he was your goofy friend too. That makes this book much more relatable than any other Warhol book and my choice as the best Warhol biography.

Bad Rap.:
This book is one long whine. While I always enjoyed Bob Colacello's column in "Interview", this book, completed after Andys death (naturally), is a case of someone who, while they've outgrown their job, resents the fact that they're still there. Colacello started out worshipping Warhol, then, as often happens, began to feel he wasn't getting quite the recognition he deserved, at the same time forgetting why anyone knew who he was in the first place. Maybe the label "disgruntled employee" is too pat. But, for all his acknowledged ability to manipulate people to do things for him, it was Andy who retained the fame that many around him coveted. Bob C. sounds like any employee of any company who complains incessently about how his boss doesn't appreciate him. The little man who feels he'll make a better big man than the big man himself, but, remains in the shadows, un-acknowledged. Wanna-be's can get ugly, but his remarks against Warhol, while hardly slanderous, are more of the nit-picking variety, revealing fairly transparent resentments right below the surface. While there are certainly two sides to every story, I always find it fairly loathsome when someone decides to cry of the injustices against them by one who can no longer reply to the accusations. Especially when said injustices are so trivial, but manage to make up a book the size of Gone With The Wind , with money, OF COURSE, just being an afterthought to the cathartic process. I also found the title, "Holy Terror", a trifle exaggerated, but I guess the alternative title of maybe "Complex Famous Artist With Contradictory Personality Flaws Just Like Everyone Else" would have been too long, not to mention that it probably would have sold less books. I certainly would'nt want my eulogy to be an exposed inventory of all the products I have in my bathroom (or BEDROOM!!), yet, the only thing Colacello can conclude his memoir with is a list of the contents of Warhols bathroom beauty products,(if he detested Andy so much, what was he doing in his bathroom, after his death??) patronizingly suggesting that these were the props that poor, shallow Andy needed daily to face the world. (Imagine image-obsessed America WITHOUT all our props...YIKES!!!)This book says more about Colacello (if anyone cared) than it ever could about Andy. If you want a perhaps more balanced view of that time period and its events, read "The Andy Warhol Diaries." ANDYS honesty might surprise you.