Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black (Native Agents)

Rating:
Summary: Part Nin, Hunter S. Thompson, Billie Holiday, Dr. Seuss
Review: Cookie Mueller was a goddess inflamed. Her stories are hysterical, beautiful, outrageous, and heartwrenching. It's true what they say above; we're lucky she took notes.

Rating:
Summary: Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Review: Cookie Mueller was an actress, an artist, and a writer before she died from AIDS in 1988. Mueller's collection of 15 autobiographical essays, "Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black" cover several decades and recall a range of experiences. Cookie was born in Baltimore in 1949, and as a young woman in the sixties, many of her essays recreate the flavour of that era.

In the essay "Haight Ashbury-San Francisco-1967," Mueller describes a day in which she bumps into a bus full of rather odd people--who turn out to be the Manson family. Then this chance meeting is followed by a Satanic ritual, a pervert in a confessional box, an LSD capsule stuffing party, a Jim Morrison concert, and the evening is rounded-off by rape. By the end of the essay, I realized that Cookie Mueller was not exactly your average female. She was a tough unflappable survivor, and she took all of her mis-adventures in stride.

In "The Pig Farm-Baltimore & York, Pennsylvania-1969," Cookie went for a complete change of pace after she is introduced by Bob, the Psychedelic Pig (a drug dealer famous for his extensive pig collection) to Herb, the pig farmer from Pennsylvania.

"Abduction & Rape-Highway 31-1969" describes Cookie's attempts to hitchhike from Cape Cod to Baltimore to visit director, John Waters. Cookie and her two female companions meet trouble on the road in the form of two drunken louts who turn violent once the girls are in their car. Everyone gets more than they bargained for.

Cookie Mueller starred in "Pink Flamingos"--the cult classic directed by renegade director, John Waters, and one essay outlines life on the set and friction Cookie experienced when her parents discovered and read the screenplay for the film. Cookie escapes from Suburbia--along with baby Max (who had a part in the film too), and John Waters drives the getaway car.

My favourite essays, however, are "Go-Going-New York and New Jersey-1978-79" and "The Berlin Film Festival-Berlin, West Germany-1981." The first of these two amazing essays describe Cookie's career as a topless go-go dancer. She weighs the pros and cons of working in New Jersey vs. Manhattan (she preferred the former for a variety of reasons). However, she turns her back on go-go dancing forever after a particularly ugly experience at the "Pretty Purple Pussy Cat" club. She picks up some handy dandy hints from fellow go-go girl, Taffy, and while the hints do bring much better tips, a rather undesirable fan also latches onto Cookie. The descriptions of Cookie's feelings about the "ludicrous" "bumping and grinding" movements "convulsing there on a dirty dynel shag pad" contrast with the "stone-faced loners...watching intently this twitching female flesh parcel."

In "The Berlin Film Festival," Cookie travels to Germany--complete with her own narcotics supply stuffed in her bra. Things immediately go wrong, and soon she is surrounded by "Dobermans in S&M gear" and strip-searched. Cookie's impressions of Germany are acid-laced, original, and extremely funny. Cookie ends up creating her own brand of trouble which necessitates a quick exit over a pseudo Berlin Wall.

Cookie Mueller had style. After reading this collection of essays, I really felt as though I had some idea of the sort of person she was. She died young, but it seems amazing that she lived to age 39. She was unique--a risk-taker, an adventurer and quite fearless. Her sardonic humour shines brilliantly through every line. I'm very glad I stumbled upon this collection--displacedhuman--Amazon Reviewer--

Rating:
Summary: On the Road- Girlstyle!
Review: I found out about this book & jumped at the chance to read it. Cookie tells some of her experiences being an underground Film star & Adventuress. I always loved Cookie in John Water's films, but I never got that chance to read her work, But Now I am a big Fan. She never whitewashes her experiences with Drugs, Sex, hippies, farming, whatever. I hope her other collections are reprinted and well distributed very soon. Meet back up with an old friend, you might not have really known, through this great collective memoir.

Rating:
Summary: Like a Lost Friend
Review: I really identified with Cookie Mueller, the author of "Walking Through Clear Water." We were born a few months apart, lived our lives travelling back and forth between coasts, probably attended events together in 60s era San Francisco, East Village, NY, etc. One thing for sure, after reading this book, I wish I had known her and feel like I did. She comes across as so alive and vibrant on the printed page, that when I learned in the "about the author" page at the end of the book that she had died of AIDS in 1989, I felt as though I had personally lost a friend.

Do not let that depressing bit of information in any way dissuade you from reading her story, or to get the impression that this book is at all morbid or maudlin. This is one of the funniest accounts of life on the fringes of American culture I've read in many a moon. She has such an enagingly humorous conversational style, that even when she is describing truly horrifying scenes such as an attempted rape in the backwoods of Maryland, the effect owes more to Rabelais, than to Peckinpah.

Mueller reminds me a lot of a female version of Ken Kesey. Her prose moves along with the same sort of wild energy and the incidents she describes never get bogged down in needless detail. She has great writers' instincts. She sees life in the same tragi-comic vein as does Kesey, as well. Perhaps they both had run-ins with the same Cosmic Joker, at one time or other. Whatever the personal histories, they were certainly kindred souls, who had a look at the full spectrum of humanity and were able to get their impressions down on paper in thoroughly memorable ways.

This is as easy and enjoyable a read as you are likely to come across. I'm by no means a fast reader, but was able to breeze through it in just a few hours. I can unreservedly say that I couldn't put it down, and I find that rare these days. Spend a few hours with Cookie Mueller. She'll probably make friends with you, too.

BEK