Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side
Rayya Elias
Apr 2013 · Sold by Penguin
4.7star
3 reviews
Ebook
320
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
About this ebook
“Terrific . . . Rayya’s stories blew mine away.” —Elizabeth Gilbert
“A classic, blood-stained love letter to bohemian NYC.” —Craig Marks
“Much more than a recovery memoir, this big-hearted, funny book is a truthful American story.” —Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black
When she was seven, Rayya Elias and her family fled the political conflict in their native Syria, settling in Detroit. Bullied in school and caught between the world of her traditional family and her tough American classmates, she rebelled early.
Elias moved to New York City to become a musician and kept herself afloat with an uncommon talent for cutting hair. At the height of the punk movement, life on the Lower East Side was full of adventure, creative inspiration, and temptation. Eventually, Elias’s passionate affairs with lovers of both sexes went awry, her (more than) occasional drug use turned to addiction, and she found herself living on the streets—between her visits to jail.
This debut memoir charts four decades of a life lived in the moment, a path from harrowing loss and darkness to a place of peace and redemption. Elias’s wit and lack of self-pity in the face of her extreme highs and lows make Harley Loco a powerful read that’s sure to appeal to fans of Patti Smith, Augusten Burroughs, and Eleanor Henderson.
“A classic, blood-stained love letter to bohemian NYC.” —Craig Marks
“Much more than a recovery memoir, this big-hearted, funny book is a truthful American story.” —Piper Kerman, author of Orange Is the New Black
When she was seven, Rayya Elias and her family fled the political conflict in their native Syria, settling in Detroit. Bullied in school and caught between the world of her traditional family and her tough American classmates, she rebelled early.
Elias moved to New York City to become a musician and kept herself afloat with an uncommon talent for cutting hair. At the height of the punk movement, life on the Lower East Side was full of adventure, creative inspiration, and temptation. Eventually, Elias’s passionate affairs with lovers of both sexes went awry, her (more than) occasional drug use turned to addiction, and she found herself living on the streets—between her visits to jail.
This debut memoir charts four decades of a life lived in the moment, a path from harrowing loss and darkness to a place of peace and redemption. Elias’s wit and lack of self-pity in the face of her extreme highs and lows make Harley Loco a powerful read that’s sure to appeal to fans of Patti Smith, Augusten Burroughs, and Eleanor Henderson.
Ratings and reviews
4.7
3 reviews
About the author
Rayya Elias was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1960 and moved to Detroit in 1967. She is a musician, hairdresser, filmmaker, and also sells real estate to make some extra scratch. She lives in New York City and Little York, New Jersey.
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