Synopsis
"Face It: A Memoir" by Debbie Harry, published in 2019, is an engaging and candid autobiography that chronicles the life and career of the iconic Blondie frontwoman. Written with the assistance of journalist Sylvie Simmons, the book offers an intimate look at Harry’s journey from her early years to her rise as a punk rock legend, weaving together personal anecdotes, reflections, and insights into the music and art scenes that shaped her. Harry begins with her childhood in New Jersey, where she was adopted as an infant and grew up with a sense of curiosity about her origins, a theme that subtly recurs throughout her narrative. Her storytelling is straightforward yet evocative, painting a picture of a young woman drawn to the creative chaos of New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.
The memoir delves deeply into Harry’s formative years in New York, where she navigated a gritty, vibrant underworld of music, drugs, and avant-garde culture. She recounts her pre-Blondie days, including stints as a Playboy Bunny and a member of the folk-rock group The Wind in the Willows, before meeting guitarist Chris Stein, her longtime collaborator and partner. Together, they formed Blondie, and Harry details the band’s evolution from its scrappy beginnings in the punk scene at CBGB to its crossover into mainstream success with hits like "Heart of Glass" and "Call Me." She doesn’t shy away from the darker moments, such as the band’s struggles with fame, addiction, and internal tensions, nor does she gloss over personal traumas, including a harrowing assault she survived in the early days of her career. These experiences are relayed with a matter-of-fact resilience that underscores her strength and complexity.
Beyond the music, "Face It" explores Harry’s identity as a cultural icon, particularly her role as a style and sex symbol—an image she both embraced and resisted. She reflects on the sexism she encountered in the industry and the ways she subverted expectations, using her striking looks and enigmatic persona to her advantage while refusing to be fully defined by them. The book also touches on her creative pursuits outside of Blondie, such as acting in films like "Videodrome" and her collaborations with artists across genres. Harry’s voice shines through as dryly witty and unpretentious, offering a mix of nostalgia and detachment as she assesses her legacy. The memoir is enriched with rare photographs and fan art, adding a visual dimension to her story that complements her words.
In its later chapters, "Face It" covers the dissolution and reformation of Blondie, as well as Harry’s life after the band’s initial breakup in the 1980s, including Stein’s battle with a rare illness and her own reckoning with aging in the public eye. The narrative doesn’t follow a strictly linear path, instead meandering through memories and musings in a way that mirrors Harry’s free-spirited nature. While some critics have noted that the book occasionally leaves gaps—offering tantalizing glimpses rather than exhaustive detail—it succeeds as a portrait of an artist who defied categorization. Ultimately, "Face It" is less a conventional tell-all and more a mosaic of a life lived boldly, revealing Debbie Harry as a survivor, a trailblazer, and a still-enigmatic figure whose influence endures.