Fascinating review of the book, by Odie Lindsey, in The Southwest Review. I won’t try to summarize, but here’s the very cool opening paragraph:
Daniel Oppenheimer’s Far From Respectable: Dave Hickey and His Art is definitive. You should read it, and you will enjoy it at a level that may depend upon your familiarity with the deified and demonized essayist, who you will either: a) know, and thus already be in dialog with Oppenheimer’s impressive work; or b) not know or know much, in which case you will be compelled to go and read Dave Hickey and maybe watch him on YouTube. The book delivers insightful, detailed overviews of Hickey’s biography—from boyhood in post-war Texas, to NYC gallerist, to premiere art critic and cultural provocateur—and his career highlights: written, lauded, vilified. Notable here are the included snatches of Hickey’s writing—from his books The Invisible Dragon and the canonical Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy—as well as an unflinching essay and interview Oppenheimer completed last year, with Hickey staring at life while half-enfeebled in New Mexico. Still bladed, still relevant, still contentious, a beast: Dave Hickey.