Adrianne Geffel

A poignant and hilarious oral history of a (fictitious) musical phenomenon.

Celebrated music critic and cultural historian David Hajdu unravels the mystery of a one-of-a-kind artist, a pianist with a rare neurological condition that enables her to make music that is nothing less than pure, unmediated emotional expression. Her name is Adrianne Geffel, praised as the “Geyser of Grand Street” and the “Queen of Bleak Chic.” Yet despite her renown, she curiously vanished from public life, and her whereabouts remain a mystery to this day.

Hajdu pieces together her story through the memories of those who knew her, inspired her, and exploited her—her mother, father, best friend, producer, critics, teachers—in this slyly entertaining work of fiction.

Adrianne Geffel is at once a piercing satire, a vividly twisted evocation of New York in the 1970s and 80s, and a strangely moving portrait of a group of characters both utterly familiar and like none we’ve ever encountered.

About the Author: David Hajdu, author of five acclaimed books of cultural history, biography, and criticism, including Lush Life, is the music critic for the Nation, a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University, and a songwriter and librettist. He lives in New York City.