I Used to Be Charming: The Rest of Eve Babitz

Written by Eve Babitz and Molly Lambert

Narrated by Brittany Pressley

Previously uncollected nonfiction pieces by Hollywood's ultimate It Girl about everything from fashion to tango to Jim Morrison and Nicholas Cage.

Eve Babitz knew everyone, tried everything (at least once), and was never shy about sharing her thoughts on any subject, be it sex, weight loss, drug use, or her ambivalence toward New York City. From the 1970s through the 1990s, Babitz wrote on a wild variety of topics for some of the biggest publications around, from Esquire to Vogue to The New York Times Book Review. I Used to Be Charming brings together this nonfiction work. All previously uncollected, these pieces range from sharp personal essays on body image and the male gaze to playful meditations on everything from ballroom dancing to kissing to perfume. There are breathtaking celebrity profiles, too. In one, Nicholas Cage takes her for a ride in his ’67 Stingray and in another she dishes about dragging Jim Morrison to bed before the Doors had even settled on a band name (“Jim was embarrassing because he wasn’t cool, but I still loved him,” she writes). In another essay, the author ponders her earliest days in the spotlight, posing nude with Marcel Duchamp, and in another, the never-before-published title essay, she writes about the tragic accident that compelled her to leave that spotlight behind forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781799750895

Eve Babitz

Eve Babitz was born and grew up in Hollywood. She began to write in 1972 after designing album covers for such artists as Linda Ronstadt, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, and Lord Buckley. Her articles and short stories have appeared in Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The New York Times Book Review. Her books include Eve’s Hollywood, Slow Days, Fast Company, Two by Two, and Sex and Rage. She died in 2021. 

Reviews for I Used to Be Charming

[encephalical · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most of the pieces are similar to what's in her other two NYRB books - observations on LA people, culture, and events. Those are the most enjoyable. The rest didn't appeal to me, especially the concluding piece about Fiorucci which was forty odd pages of hagiography.