Painter Larry Rivers describes himself as "ballsy" and that's an understatement. His conversational autobiography, whipped into shape by longtime friend and playwright Weinstein, is audacious, frenetic, explicit, hilarious, and touchingly generous in its self-exposure. Bronx born, Larry Rivers, originally Irving Grossman, found the arts via the moan of a baritone saxophone. A bebopper, Rivers doped and gigged and drove his first wife crazy with neglect. Jazz led to painting while all avenues led to sex. As Rivers irreverently recounts the gossip and goings-on of the postwar New York art scene, dropping names like Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol, William De Kooning, Clement Greenberg, John Ashberry, Robert Rauschenberg, and John Cage, he simultaneously maintains a Henry Miller-like litany of sexual escapades from boyish onanism to homosexual encounters to a lifelong obsession with voluptuous women in their 20s. Coyly and pointedly addressing his reader as "dear voyeur," Rivers confesses to insecurities and fears, loves lost, suicidal moments, and drug addiction. He also illuminates his complex relationship with poet Frank O'Hara, the details of his second marriage, and his love for his children. His blatancy modulates into reflectiveness as he confronts his past, rekindles old affections, and remembers seminal inspirations. An artist's autobiography like no other, this is a pyrotechnic performance--initially explosive then dazzling, arcing, finally and gracefully, back to earth. This may well be the most talked about art book of the year. ~--Donna Seaman

Rivers's exuberantly hip, sexually freewheeling autobiography displays his relentless, almost exhibitionistic candor, as some of his paintings do. Born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg in 1923, he was raised in the Bronx by a hypercritical mother and a father reportedly guilty of bizarre sexual improprieties with children. A bebop jazz saxophonist with a heroin habit, Rivers abandoned his first wife and their sons in 1947. He later married his Welsh housekeeper, a ``deliciously unique female''; they separated in 1968. Written with playwright-director Weinstein, this gossipy collage dissects the incestuous social world of a New York avant-garde that included John Ashbery, Helen Frankenthaler, Kenneth Koch, Andy Warhol, LeRoi Jones and Delmore Schwartz. Rivers is most emotive when discussing his ``romantic fling'' with poet Frank O'Hara. Somewhere inside this messy self-portrait is the intriguing story of how Rivers found his path as a brash, innovative artist. Illustrated. 25,000 first printing; author tour. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved