Walking Through Clear Water In a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller

A new edition of the cult classic, with over two dozen additional stories, from the godmother of autofiction. With an introduction by Olivia Laing.
 
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black is the only story collection from the legendary writer, actress, ex-biker and columnist Cookie Mueller, published in the UK for the first time.

Mueller chronicles her high-risk, high-reward life in glorious technicolour, from becoming a part of John Waters’ legendary acting troupe to becoming a mother, from describing the hedonism of 1980s New York to critiquing the government’s dire response to the AIDS epidemic. Cookie’s voice is fresh, wise, freewheeling and unafraid of darkness. Like a lysergic Nora Ephron, she is the candid flipside to the idealistic hippie dream. Whether good, bad or ugly, her stories are fiercely entertaining and reliably honest.

Featuring a new introduction by Olivia Laing, this edition collects Mueller’s stories, columns and writings, and presents a testament to a life lived courageously and well.
 
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“A how-to manual for a life ricocheting joyously off the rails … a live corrective to conformity, conservatism and cruelty.” - Olivia Laing
 
“Cookie Mueller wrote like a lunatic Uncle Remus – spinning little stories from Hell that will make any reader laugh out loud. She was a writer, a mother, an outlaw, an actress, a fashion designer, a go-go dancer, a witch doctor, an art-hag and, above all, a goddess. Boy, do I miss that girl.” - John Waters
 
“People fall in love with Cookie when they read her … She was a matchless beautician of the word.” - Richard Hell 
 
“Utterly fearless and stunning.” -Steven Long, The Crack Magazine