Reviews

"Lipstick Traces" has the energy of its obsessions, and it snares you in the manner of those intense, questing and often stoned sessions of intellectual debate you may have experienced in your college years. It was destined, in other words, to achieve cult status.--Ben Brantley"New York Times" (05/11/2001)

"Lipstick Traces"...is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.--Katherine Dieckmann "Voice Literary Supplement "

[A] seminal work...The impact of Marcus' work is undeniable...Though his imagination may overreach, his sentences may befuddle, his aims may elude his means (but not often), Marcus as a critic, historian and essayist continues to be at the vanguard of his field precisely because of his ability to find the balance between these approaches, between mystery and proposition, between a yarn and an epic, between yearning and compromise--an equilibrium which gives voice to the present moment of our looking back.--Robert Loss"popmatters.com" (02/03/2010)

A book about the twilight zone of art and revolution...[that] displays an intellectual confidence, or nerve, that more than convinces the reader to follow its unmarked trails.--Gail Caldwell "Boston Globe "

Greil Marcus's absorbing new study...dips in and out of the history of the Great Refusal, all the way from the medieval Lollards and Brethren of the Free Spirit to the Dadaists, the French Situationists, the Children of the May 1968 uprising in France and British punk rockers. "Lipstick Traces", however, is no sedate academic record of libertarian revolt but a bold blending of anecdote, personal confession and cultural analysis, cutting backward and forward from Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols to the Surrealists, from Alexander Trocchi of the 1950's avant-garde group know as Lettrist International to George Grosz, from the Anabaptists in the 16th century to Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Danny the Red of the French student rebellion...[Marcus's] book is impressively adept at bringing alive some of the dramatic moments of the history it charts...A coruscatingly original piece of work, vibrant with the energy of the bizarre happenings it maps out.--Terry Eagleton "New York Times Book Review "

"Lipstick Traces,.".is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter. -- Katherine Dieckmann "Voice Literary Supplement"

Lipstick Traces ...is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.

Lipstick Traces has the energy of its obsessions, and it snares you in the manner of those intense, questing and often stoned sessions of intellectual debate you may have experienced in your college years. It was destined, in other words, to achieve cult status.

experienced in your college years. It was destined, in other words, to achieve cult status.

off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.

work, vibrant with the energy of the bizarre happenings it maps out.

"Lipstick Traces..".is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter. -- Katherine Dieckmann "Voice Literary Supplement"

A cultural history of society's anarchic fringe.

"Lipstick Traces."..is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.

"Lipstick Traces" has the energy of its obsessions, and it snares you in the manner of those intense, questing and often stoned sessions of intellectual debate you may have experienced in your college years. It was destined, in other words, to achieve cult status.--Ben Brantley"New York Times" (05/11/2001)
"Lipstick Traces"...is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.--Katherine Dieckmann "Voice Literary Supplement "
[A] seminal work...The impact of Marcus' work is undeniable...Though his imagination may overreach, his sentences may befuddle, his aims may elude his means (but not often), Marcus as a critic, historian and essayist continues to be at the vanguard of his field precisely because of his ability to find the balance between these approaches, between mystery and proposition, between a yarn and an epic, between yearning and compromise--an equilibrium which gives voice to the present moment of our looking back.--Robert Loss"popmatters.com" (02/03/2010)
A book about the twilight zone of art and revolution...[that] displays an intellectual confidence, or nerve, that more than convinces the reader to follow its unmarked trails.--Gail Caldwell "Boston Globe "
Greil Marcus's absorbing new study...dips in and out of the history of the Great Refusal, all the way from the medieval Lollards and Brethren of the Free Spirit to the Dadaists, the French Situationists, the Children of the May 1968 uprising in France and British punk rockers. "Lipstick Traces", however, is no sedate academic record of libertarian revolt but a bold blending of anecdote, personal confession and cultural analysis, cutting backward and forward from Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols to the Surrealists, from Alexander Trocchi of the 1950's avant-garde group know as Lettrist International to George Grosz, from the Anabaptists in the 16th century to Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Danny the Red of the French student rebellion...[Marcus's] book is impressively adept at bringing alive some of the dramatic moments of the history it charts...A coruscatingly original piece of work, vibrant with the energy of the bizarre happenings it maps out.--Terry Eagleton "New York Times Book Review "
"Lipstick Traces,.".is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter. -- Katherine Dieckmann "Voice Literary Supplement"
Lipstick Traces ...is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.
Lipstick Traces has the energy of its obsessions, and it snares you in the manner of those intense, questing and often stoned sessions of intellectual debate you may have experienced in your college years. It was destined, in other words, to achieve cult status.
experienced in your college years. It was destined, in other words, to achieve cult status.
off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.
work, vibrant with the energy of the bizarre happenings it maps out.
"Lipstick Traces..".is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter. -- Katherine Dieckmann "Voice Literary Supplement"
A cultural history of society's anarchic fringe.
"Lipstick Traces."..is a highly subjective account of rebellious gestures that recur from decade to decade, often in remarkably similar incarnations. Marcus doesn't belabor the division between high and low--he just ignores it, fluidly shifting from (sometimes obscure) source to source. Dada leads to punk leads to Police Academy, and Elvis movies prompt analyses of the Left Bank. Natch! That Marcus can kick off and end his exhaustive, but always clear-headed, cross-epochal trek with the Sex Pistols--and make it all cohere--is but one indication of how fully he meshes the academy and the gutter.

Acclaimed rock reviewer/author Marcus ( Mystery Train , LJ 4/1/75) offers up a fascinating thesis: that modern consciousness is to a great extent shaped by events or documents ``insignificant'' of themselves but collectively very important indeed, perhaps even definitive. While spending much of its time on the impact of the Sex Pistols, this is not purely a ``rock-music'' book--along the way one encounters various ranters, Dadaists, nihilists, whatever--even Theodore Dreiser. If it lacks the rigor demanded of academic historiography, Marcus's book is still great popular culture, and academic historians would do well to be interested. Meanwhile, the cross-referential treatment gives a seeming (at least) validity that sheer facts wouldn't to the idea of a ``secret history'' that permeates unobtrusively and yields more meaning than many would like to believe.-- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y.