A Year on Earth with Mr. Hell

This début memoire explores a liberated woman's erotic experience in an affair unencumbered by the clichéd political and cultural stereotypes of modern gender roles. This book is a completely truthful and explicit account about the first ten months of a romance Young Kim conducted with legendary punk rocker and writer, Richard Hell, starting in the winter of 2016. It is unique in that while it is a diary, in its cinematic sweep, it reads like a novel. Because it was written as the unpredictable affair unfolded, there was always great uncertainty to the realization of this "daybook-cum-docudrama." Known for his own erotic writing, Hell instigated the book inadvertently by asking Kim to write something sexually provocative about their first night together. What resulted was an erotic relationship fueled not only by carnal chemistry, but also literary synergy. Unusually, in this instance, Hell, a man, a generation older than Kim, acted as her muse; equally unusual is for a woman to write so explicitly and honestly about sex. Set in a Warholian swirl in the worlds of art, music, and fashion and spanning continents, the narrative is as much about Kim's processing her grief for Malcolm McLaren (most famous for his role as the conceptualizer, organizer and manager of the Sex Pistols, as well as designing and commercializing punk style with his then-partner, Vivienne Westwood), her romantic and business partner for the last 12 years of his life until his untimely death in 2010. Published as a limited edition of 2000 numbered copies by Ubu Gallery, New York in collaboration with Fashionbeast, it will be launched in December 2020 internationally through private distribution at select bookstores and Ubu Gallery's website. The design of the book, by Studio Marie Lusa, is an homage to Olympia Press, the notorious Parisian publisher of erotic and banned books like Lolita, The Story of O, Naked Lunch and Alexander Trocchi's Helen and Desire, which was the inspiration behind one of McLaren's iconic punk designs for his Kings Road, London boutique SEX: the "I Groaned With Pain" T-shirt.