Porcelain

A Memoir

By: Moby

Narrated by: Moby

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of the most interesting and iconic musicians of our time, a piercingly tender, funny, and harrowing account of the path from suburban poverty and alienation to a life of beauty, squalor, and unlikely success out of the NYC club scene of the late '80s and '90s.

There were many reasons Moby was never going to make it as a DJ and musician in the New York club scene. This was the New York of Palladium; of Mars, Limelight, and Twilo; of unchecked, drug-fueled hedonism in pumping clubs where dance music was still largely underground, popular chiefly among working-class African Americans and Latinos. And then there was Moby - not just a poor, skinny white kid from Connecticut but a devout Christian, a vegan, and a teetotaler. He would learn what it was to be spat on, to live on almost nothing. But it was perhaps the last good time for an artist to live on nothing in New York City: the age of AIDS and crack but also of a defiantly festive cultural underworld.

Not without drama, he found his way. But success was not uncomplicated; it led to wretched, if in hindsight sometimes hilarious, excess and proved all too fleeting. And so by the end of the decade, Moby contemplated an end in his career and elsewhere in his life and put that emotion into what he assumed would be his swan song, his good-bye to all that, the album that would in fact be the beginning of an astonishing new phase: the multimillion-selling Play.

At once bighearted and remorseless in its excavation of a lost world, Porcelain is both a chronicle of a city and a time and a deeply intimate exploration of finding one's place during the most gloriously anxious period in life, when you're on your own, betting on yourself, but have no idea how the story ends, and so you live with the honest dread that you're one false step from being thrown out on your face. Moby's voice resonates with honesty, wit, and above all an unshakable passion for his music that steered him through some very rough seas.

Porcelain is about making it, losing it, loving it, and hating it. It's about finding your people, your place, thinking you've lost them both, and then somehow, when you think it's over, from a place of well-earned despair, creating a masterpiece.

As a portrait of the young artist, Porcelain is a masterpiece in its own right, fit for the short list of musicians' memoirs that capture not just a scene but an age and something timeless about the human condition. Push "play".

©2016 Moby (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A lovingly composed new memoir that tracks his journey from living in an abandoned factory in Connecticut to playing the hottest clubs in New York and Europe.... Porcelain reads like an intimate meditation on the various contradictions Moby has resolved over the course of his 50 years: his Christian faith vs. his hedonistic streak; his hunger for stardom vs. his retiring nature; his respect for ambition vs. his deep belief in luck. The book is also a tender ode to a vanished New York City.” (Los Angeles Times)

“As much a portrait of downtown Manhattan in the late ‘80s and ‘90s as it is an iconoclastic artist’s coming-of-age story, this raucous, candid memoir will fascinate the electronic musician’s many fans.” (People)

“Porcelain vividly evokes a certain place and time - specifically, New York in the ’90s. It simultaneously presents a portrait of its author that’s withering in the extreme. At the same time, it offers a perfect freeze-frame of downtown New York in the Dinkins to early Giuliani years, when far more of the cherished stench of ’70s and ’80s city lingered than some may remember.” (New York Observer)

Why did it have to end!?

I am a lover of music which made this book all the more fascinating to listen to. It would have been a good book even if you aren’t into his music.

Hearing more about the musician and the state of mind he was in as he created music was a treat. This book was really about moby first and music second. But music is what moby cares about so the whole thing fed on itself. He did a good job maintaining a mostly linear timeline but weaving things from his past at certain moments where they would have more impact.

It was fun hearing about all his adventures on tours and in clubs. He came across deeply honest with his failures and insecurities which always makes a book more personable.

I could imagine listening to this book a second time maybe in a year or so.

As he told his story I would stop the book and listen to whatever song he had just created and then go back to the story. To be honest this is my only disappointment, I wish his songs where in there to listen to with his stories. I assume lawyers and music contracts would not allow that but it’d be neat if it were possible or if there’s a sequel.

Loved it!

I was a big fan of Moby as a teen in the early 90s. i loved the accounts of his life growing up and through that time. Very well written. Some of his analogies had me cracking up.

ended too soon

Great telling of his early years, but I'm really curious to hear the rest. when does volume 2 come out?

Awaiting the Next Volume

What did you love best about Porcelain?

Being of an age unfamiliar with pre-Porcelain Moby and his world, this was a great history lesson in the evolution of the music of that era.

What did you like best about this story?

If he has an ego, Moby sounds like he checked it at the door.

Which character – as performed by Moby – was your favorite?

Moby!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The events surrounding his mother's death and their close, if prickly, relationship.

Any additional comments?

Moby is still in his post-Porcelaln life. I hope he picks up the pen again. Hearing the author/subject read his or her own work help in interpreting the book as an honest story or self-serving pablum. "Porcelain" struck me as the former.

Best read in years!

This was a fascinating and personal look into the music culture of my generation and the life of a DJ. Moby's honest, funny, gentle and charismatic personality translates beautifully in this book. The icing on the cake is having him deliver his story as the narrator. Nicely done Moby, I'm proud of you and grateful. ✨🙏🏽✨❤️🔊

Brilliant

I really enjoyed this book filled with great stories and a ruch of honest emotions.

Fantastic!

Having known nothing about Moby before getting this book I must say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even got my wife to listen to it on a long trip and we were laughing as we drove.

A Raw and Honest Memoir

It's not easy to be so open about your worries and shortcoming specially you are writing them down as a memoir and the book will stay around for a long time. Porcelain is strong, raw, honest, sometimes impressive, sometimes ugly, much like the life itself. Moby fan or not you may still appreciate the story of a not-so-fortunate kid and his struggles, while becoming one of the best musicians of his genre.

I took one star away from it because most of the book is about his social interactions and fears. There is very little space for inspiration and creativity.

Overall it's a good listen and Moby does a great job narrating it himself.

Bleak

I was enthralled with the book, a bleak stark narrative with little mention of Plays success

Good read

If you enjoy autobiographies this book maybe for you. Hearing Moby, the author read and tell his story gave a personalized touch, his voice was calm and easy to listen to. The stories were at times funny, insightful and also a bit eye opening. I’m glad to have read the book, it touched my life.