Unflinching in its honesty, Wohl’s memoir provides a disquieting glimpse into one family in America’s privileged class, a family made worthy of examination because one of its members — whose presence lives on luminously in her films — remains a source of fascination more than 50 years after her death ... sensitive, elegantly written.
Beautiful, if not exactly joyful ... Wohl adds sensitive shading and texture to the group portrait of the Sedgwicks that emerged in Edie — and a spray of light ... As It Turns Out affords opportunity for Wohl, with the perspective of decades, to walk back some of the comments she made to Stein about [Warhol], to acknowledge his creative and emotional breadth and his prescience ... Wohl has maintained what seems a cool remove from this difficult sister, learning her precise birth date from a 2015 Vogue article and expressing surprise that the magazine was still celebrating Edie. A few of her passages land as stubbornly, perhaps self-protectively, naïve.
Wohl’s book is not a recollection or a mere revision but rather an attempt to understand the intense attention, even obsession, with Edie and Andy, and how their pairing anticipated the age of the influencer ... A phenomenon is unknowable, perhaps.
Mostly told in the chronological narrative of memoir, As It Turns Out travels through several abrupt changes in style and tone that suggest it may have begun as parts of two or three different texts: a personal memoir, an account of Edie’s life in the central year of 1965, and a meditation on its significance, addressed to their brother, Bobby, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1965, only months after another brother had committed suicide ... Wohl eventually admits she never actually knew her sister. She apprehends her life (like almost everyone else) through her many media images. That doesn’t prevent her publisher from framing this memoir as an insider’s view of Edie and Andy’s world. This is a bit of a bait and switch ... despite all the books, including this one, there is much more about Andy and Edie that could be said.
Wohl’s hyper-focus on Edie’s time in New York with Warhol seems a little tedious but does offer a perspective on how groundbreaking Warhol was and how Sedgwick was involved in his art making ... This is a good recommendation for those who like to read about family dynasties, the mid-century modern New York art world, or people who have a lasting fifteen minutes of fame.
In this sensitive, deeply considered chronicle, Wohl offers a fresh and incisive look at Edie’s headline-grabbing adventures with Warhol, her superstar power, and their symbiotic relationship while also musing on Warhol’s prescient anticipation of our obsession with images.
Wohl is not just interested in examining Edie as a cultural icon; she also seeks to expose their family’s dark side ... An absorbing portrait of troubled lives.
... perceptive ... Striking photos help tell the story, and Wohl’s exhaustive examination of her sister’s vulnerability and star appeal give this a unique position among the many books on the Warhol scene. The result is a thoughtful exploration of a tumultuous life.
