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Jubilee City: A Memoir at Full Speed – A Rocket Ride from Self-Destruction to Hope and Genius
A life story told in discrete, arresting snapshots of despair, resilience, creativity, and hope, Joe Andoe's literary portrait of his time to date on earth is as powerful as a heavyweight's hook and as spellbinding as a major crack-up on the opposite side of the highway. It is a testament to a young man's fortitude and genius and luck that enabled him to survive a life lived wildly out of control; a rocket ride from the sordid depths of self-destruction to the glorious pinnacles of . . . Jubilee City .
- GenresMemoirNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 15, 2023
My college friend's mom gave me this because I'm from Tulsa, and it's lingered on my shelves for eons but lo! I read it at last. Joe Andoe is an artist and these are his memoirs, written in titled little bursts of anecdotes that did resonate with me. On the Road but Tulsan, painters instead of writers, and (purportedly) true.
"We lived out on the east side of Tulsa, where the edge of the town starts again before it stops. The high school I went to sat on old Route 66, which was bypassed years before. Along that road, mixed in with defunct highway businesses, were little farms with horses, and further out were fields where as teenagers we would go and hang out in our cars and get high, talk shit, or have sex, under three really tall radio towers that twinkled red lights at night. Sometimes horses would come in and stand next to the cars and sometimes they looked in." Out on the Perimeter
"I could've painted the Mona Lisa in Oklahoma and no one would have cared." For the Asking
"(Sometimes I felt like I came from an island with no predator. Like a bird who thinks it can just walk around.)" Appreciation At the Door
"We lived out on the east side of Tulsa, where the edge of the town starts again before it stops. The high school I went to sat on old Route 66, which was bypassed years before. Along that road, mixed in with defunct highway businesses, were little farms with horses, and further out were fields where as teenagers we would go and hang out in our cars and get high, talk shit, or have sex, under three really tall radio towers that twinkled red lights at night. Sometimes horses would come in and stand next to the cars and sometimes they looked in." Out on the Perimeter
"I could've painted the Mona Lisa in Oklahoma and no one would have cared." For the Asking
"(Sometimes I felt like I came from an island with no predator. Like a bird who thinks it can just walk around.)" Appreciation At the Door
March 28, 2019
Interesting memoir....I read it years ago when it first was published now doing a reread.
August 7, 2009
Joe Andoe's paintings hang in the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. So when I travel to Boston in the fall I'd like to browse his artwork. You wouldn't want to live his life, though the book flap touts his literary portrait of his time on earth, "as powerful as a heavyweight's hook and as spellbinding as a major crack-up on the opposite side of the highway."
The title of the book, Jubilee City, printed in screaming colors on the spine, caught my eye as I was browsing the biography section of the library. An arresting book you won't put down unless the subject matter- sex and drugs and rock-n-roll-turns you off so that you wouldn't read it in the first place.
Martha McPhee, author of L'America, writes, "With its dazzling splashes of life like paint thrown on a canvas, Jubilee City is deeply imagined in structure and style."
This is a really good memoir.
Stretch yourself if you dare.
The title of the book, Jubilee City, printed in screaming colors on the spine, caught my eye as I was browsing the biography section of the library. An arresting book you won't put down unless the subject matter- sex and drugs and rock-n-roll-turns you off so that you wouldn't read it in the first place.
Martha McPhee, author of L'America, writes, "With its dazzling splashes of life like paint thrown on a canvas, Jubilee City is deeply imagined in structure and style."
This is a really good memoir.
Stretch yourself if you dare.
June 14, 2021
Nonstop, first-rate memoir--[admired Joe's horses since photo of Chelsea lobby years ago, therefore 5 stars for my favorite horse painter]
As for me and my house, we'll take rough-and-tumble painter over art world phony, refreshing read, great editor [4-star memoir].
pp. 146-154, bingo
Hey, Joe, hope you are A-OK.
Super Fast Punk Horse Poem for Joe Andoe by G.K.: Now I know why H is called horse.
Fast Horse Poem by G.K.: There is nothing like a horse. An ocean wave will give you a push, but it's too harsh, too wet. A horse will give you a push, but it's just right, not hard, strong but gentle. A horse has kind eyes and a soft nose and let's you know that he likes you, very directly.
As for me and my house, we'll take rough-and-tumble painter over art world phony, refreshing read, great editor [4-star memoir].
pp. 146-154, bingo
Hey, Joe, hope you are A-OK.
Super Fast Punk Horse Poem for Joe Andoe by G.K.: Now I know why H is called horse.
Fast Horse Poem by G.K.: There is nothing like a horse. An ocean wave will give you a push, but it's too harsh, too wet. A horse will give you a push, but it's just right, not hard, strong but gentle. A horse has kind eyes and a soft nose and let's you know that he likes you, very directly.
May 2, 2009
I didn't think that this was a particularly good book. Endless accounts of drinking and driving and senseless wasted lives. Here's a recap to save you the time.
Chapter 1: my childhood sucked
Chapter 2: so I drank a lot
Chapter 3: I got drunk
Chapter 4: I got stoned
Chapter 5: I got drunk and stoned
Chapters 6-20: All my drunk and stoned friends died horrible deaths but it's ok because I got laid sometimes but it sucked because my dad died
Chapter 21-30: more drinking, driving and getting stoned
Chapter 30: I got into art.
Now you can start the book halfway through and not feel like you missed anything and wasted so much time reading this.
Chapter 1: my childhood sucked
Chapter 2: so I drank a lot
Chapter 3: I got drunk
Chapter 4: I got stoned
Chapter 5: I got drunk and stoned
Chapters 6-20: All my drunk and stoned friends died horrible deaths but it's ok because I got laid sometimes but it sucked because my dad died
Chapter 21-30: more drinking, driving and getting stoned
Chapter 30: I got into art.
Now you can start the book halfway through and not feel like you missed anything and wasted so much time reading this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2008
Memoir of the painter Joe Andoe that I picked up after going to a reading of his a month or so ago. I'm not a big fan of memoirs--don't trust the writer of "their" truth. More debauched tales of drink, drugs, dysfunction than I was expecting. Andoe left a lot of that out at the reading. Andoe is a Tulsan who went to OU before heading to NY so I enjoyed all the Tulsa, OU and Oklahoma mentionings. He's got kind of a simple writing style which works for the memoir.
November 16, 2007
Artist are weird and they are weird writers. I bet Joe Andoe tells a pretty good story, but there is a big difference from being a good story teller to being a good writer. This is a good book as far as learning about the artist but I find it a bit painful sometimes reading all of Andoe's little "thoughtlets".
February 23, 2008
This book is as unique and unusual as its author. It is funny, sad, tragic, poignant, bitter, and enjoyable. It is as much a contradiction as life itself is. The author's describes his white-trash hard-partying Tulsa beginnings and manages to weave it together seamlessly with his later New York fancy-pants artist lifestyle. I think this is a book you'll either love or hate.
October 5, 2007
really enjoyed this one... while i'm pretty sure this is andoe's first stab at writing (at least in the published long-form) you wouldn't know it! it's full of so many off-beat, humorous moments...and also features his artwork throughout. entertaining read!
May 2, 2008
i liked this dude...never heard of him before, but i really dug his paintings. not the best writer though. every once in a while he'd say something really poetic, but it was mostly just a quick, entertaining read. didn't leave me with much.
June 2, 2008
Joe Andoe sure seems to hate women. But this book is about growing up in Tulsa in the 60's, so I still liked it.
January 2, 2010
great bathtub read! Not too involved to make your toes prune, but interesting enough to keep me soaking :)
March 21, 2009
Wonderful, off-beat memoir.
March 15, 2014
His life not as appealing as I thought it would be, couldn't place myself in enough situations to grant five stars.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews