Ratings15
Average rating3.9
"Julia Fox is famous for many things: her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut Gems; her trendsetting style, including bleached eyebrows, exaggerated eyeshadow, and cutout dresses; her mastery of social media, where she entertains and educates her millions of followers. But all these share the trait for which she is most famous: unabashedly and unapologetically being herself. This commitment to authenticity has never been more on display than in Down the Drain. With writing that is both eloquent and accessible, Fox recounts her turbulent path to cultural supremacy: her parents' volatile relationship that divided her childhood between Italy and New York City and left her largely raising herself; a possessive and abusive drug-dealing boyfriend whose torment continued even from within Rikers Island; her own trips to jail as well as to a psychiatric hospital; her work as a dominatrix that led to a complicated entanglement with a sugar daddy; a heroin habit that led to New Orleans trap houses and that she would kick only after the fatal overdose of her best friend; her own near-lethal overdoses and the deaths of still more friends from drugs and suicide; an emotionally explosive, tabloid-dominating romance with a figure she dubs "The Artist"; a whirlwind, short-lived marriage and her trials as a single parent striving to support her young son. Yet as extraordinary as her story is, its universality is what makes it so powerful. Fox doesn't just capture her improbable evolution from grade-school outcast to fashion-world icon, she captures her transition from girlhood to womanhood to motherhood. Family and friendship, sex and death, violence and love, money and power, innocence and experience--it's all here, in raw, remarkable and riveting detail" --
Reviews with the most likes.
Miss Fox... this book was indeed a masterpiece! It was interesting, well written, and probably one of my favourite celebrity memoirs.
I’ve read a few celeb memoirs and I like this one a lot as for a lot of her life she was a real person with a real messy life.
I think some bits were too long and others felt rushed though.
A ballsy and emotional memoir, messy and traumatic and deeply engaging. Count me a Julia Fox fan from now on.
I picked this up after a late-night wiki dive into Julia Fox. She is fascinating. Halfway through the first chapter it began to feel like an homage to Junky by William S Burroughs (one of my favorite books). Shortly after she wrote that it was one of her favorite books, confirming that it's unclear where the line is between fact and what Julia believes is fact. What actually happened versus what are memories altered slowly over time by years of misremembering the fine details (plus the alcohol and drug abuse).
Down the Drain is entertaining and hard to read. Julia's life was hard, but her hedonistic attitude to life and relentless pursuit of fame and money left me reeling in despair not inspiration.
Julia's hubris meant she felt destined to be a star. The kind of person to say she ‘single handedly created every trend in 2022' is probably the exact kind of person to become that star. Despite my enjoying of the book page to page, my personal feelings on the relentless (and reprehensible) hunt for stardom mean I can't in good conscience give this book a better rating.