Niche – A Memoir in Pastiche – Momus
Niche: A Memoir in Pastiche by Momus / ISBN 9780374144081 / 315-page hardcover from FSG / discontinued & discounted / the copies I’m selling have a remainder dot on the bottom page block, but are otherwise nice first editions / the library marks are part of the cover design
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Nick Currie, otherwise known as 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 more than 30 albums, published half a dozen works of speculative fiction, and written articles for The New York Times, Wired, Artforum, Frieze, and The Wire.
Because Niche isn’t any old showbiz memoir. Rather than writing a single sincere, avuncular tell-all in his own voice, Momus has structured the narrative of his life as a typically atypical mockery of the rock-biography 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 – a picture gradually emerges of one eccentric star’s life across three continents and in his own remarkable niche.
