Massive Pissed Love

An incisive, snarky, and brilliant collection of arts, music, and literary criticism by a post-punk legend.

Richard Hell may best be known as a punk icon, a founding member of seminal bands Television, the Heartbreakers, and The Voidoids, but for decades he's been a prominent voice in American letters. Through his novels Go Now and Godlike , and his critically acclaimed autobiography, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp , Hell has proven himself as a talented and insightful writer across many genres, in many forms. But one might argue that Richard's true genius lies in shorter form as a writer on culture. Love comes in spurts, Hell once sang, and that could well describe the intensity of his penetrating and wickedly droll criticism.

Massive Pissed Love is a collection of Hell's ruminations on art, literature, and music, among other things, that's like a candy box of reading treats, a bag of shiny marbles, a cabinet of mementos and uncanny fetishes. However one thinks of it, it's a joy to read from start to finish and a deeply necessary addition to the oeuvre of one of the sharpest minds and sensibilities at work today.

"[A]fter his musical career quieted down, Hell would work steadily as a critic and novelist, publishing articles about film, art, books, and culture in places like the New York Times , Esquire , and Bookforum ; the best of these pieces were culled, in 2015, for a collection titled Massive Pissed Love." -- Oxford American

"Hell is funny and abrasive and blunt, across a wide array of interests." -- Literary Hub

"He's a sharp and masterful writer, the kind of scribe who can take any subject and wax at equal turns poetic and profane on it . . . There's snark a-plenty here, but there's much more than that, too. Call it a celebration of the meanderings of an uber-keen mind." -- Buffalo News

"Fuel for Hell's minions, a fan's notes for fans." -- Kirkus

"For fans of Hell's personal mythos and/or musings on others, Massive Pissed Love is the must-read." -- The Village Voice