Jennifer Clement

The beautifully written, deeply affecting story of Jean-Michel Basquiat's partner, her past, and their life together New York City in the 1980s was a mesmerizing, wild place. A hotbed for hip hop, underground culture, and unmatched creative energy, it spawned some of the most significant art of the 20th century. It was where Jean-Michel Basquiat became an avant-garde street artist and painter, swiftly achieving worldwide fame. During the years before his death at the age of 27, he shared his life with his lover and muse, Suzanne Mallouk. A runaway from an unhappy home in Canada, Suzanne first met Jean-Michel in a bar on the Lower East Side in 1980. Thus began a tumultuous and passionate relationship that deeply influenced one of the most exceptional artists of our time. In emotionally resonant prose, award-winning author Jennifer Clement tells the story of the passion that swept Suzanne and Jean-Michel into a short-lived, unforgettable affair. A poetic interpretation like no other, Widow Basquiat is an expression of the unrelenting power of addiction, obsession and love.

A Love Story

Widow Basquiat

Sarah Christine Gill

THE GIRL REtURNS to NEW YORK Dressed with a glamorous Audrey Hepburn scarf on her head and large sunglasses, Suzanne arrives at the Pyramid Club straight from the airport, carrying her suitcase. She hopes she can find someone to take her in for the night. Jean-Michel is there with Shenge. He walks up to Suzanne and says in a fast, desperate kind of way, I am very rich now and I have a big loft in SoHo-please come and live with me.' Shenge and Jean-Michel clean up the loft and place flow- ers everywhere. The refrigerator is filled with pastries. Every morning Jean-Michel leaves the loft to go and paint in the basement of Annina Nosei's gallery. He returns every two hours to see Suzanne and bring her some cakes. Then he comes home every evening at six. Jean-Michel lets Suzanne wash his dreadlocks when he sits in the bathtub. They take a long time to dry like sponges. Suzanne pats them and squeezes them in a towel for an hour.

LUCKY STRIKE Suzanne sees Michael at a club on 9th Street called Lucky Strike, where Madonna is a bartender. They have a few drinks. Suzanne tells him that she is sorry that she is always going back to Jean-Michel, but that she can't help it. Michael is very Sweet and gentle and just strokes her arm and says, Yes, yes?

GOING to THE FISH MARKET After cubbing, at four in the morning, Suzanne and Jennifer take a taxi down to the fish market. Dressed in their black nightclub dresses they walk among the barrels filled with fish. Their feet get caught in the wet nets on the ground. They listen to the fishermen boast and brag about their biggest catch and look into the dull, large eyes of dead fish. Suzanne and Jennifer like to watch the sun rise. They like to examine the strange things that come out of the sea, accidentally caught in the nets: squid, crabs, a small shark, a yellow blouse, a turtle, an orange, oyster shells. They don't talk about the clubs or the boys they met or did not meet. They don't talk about where they might be in ten years. They ooh and ahh over the shimmer of fish scales and talk and giggle with the fishermen. One night after clubbing Jennifer andI went down to the docks to talk to the fishermen. This was something we did quite often. I renmember one time someone had caught an enormous red and purple octopus. It lay inside a net. When we got up close to look, it suddenly let out a great stream of black ink that spattered all over our shoes. 167

Ivana Varesko

I realized that a book can reach out and embrace you like an arm and make you walk away from everything you thought you understood.

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